 | 'Alex Salmond is the only leader with obvious Scottish connections, and it is accepted without question that he understands the Scottish psyche.' Confidential System 3 survey for the Scottish Labour Party. |  |
| 'Alex Salmond is the only leader with obvious Scottish connections, and it is accepted without question that he understands the Scottish psyche.' Confidential System 3 survey for the Scottish Labour Party. | |
In 1983 the boundary commission succeeded in making something of a mess of north east Scotland. The three seats of Aberdeenshire East, Banffshire and Moray & Nairn were amalgamated into two seats, with Nairn being hived off to Inverness. Although the Banff name was retained in the new Banff & Buchan seat, in fact only one fifth of its voters came from Banffshire and the other four fifths from Aberdeenshire East. The rest of Banffshire was anonymously grafted on to Moray - to the fury of the inhabitants. There were also major boundary changes for the 1997 Westminster election, with the area to the south of Turiff being lost to the new Gordon seat.
At one time, the north east corner of Scotland appeared to be an indestructible Tory fortress and for 34 years the controversial Bob Boothby represented Aberdeenshire East. All this changed in February 1974 when Douglas Henderson took Aberdeenshire East for the SNP with 18,333 votes (50.8 %). Neighbouring Banffshire was won by the SNP's Hamish Watt while Winnie Ewing caused a sensation in Moray & Nairn when she defeated the Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland, the first Cabinet Minister to defeated in Scotland in the 20 th Century.
In October 1974, the turnout dropped and Mr Henderson's vote fell to 16,304 (48.5 %) giving him a still healthy 4,371 majority over the Tory candidate Dr Keith Raffan. Dr Raffan went on to represent Delyn in Wales from 1983 before cutting and running in 1992 when the seat was won by Labour. Dr Raffan, who has resurfaced in Scotland leading the Mid Scotland & Fife for the Liberal Democrats and was their candidate in the North east Scotland by-election. While a MP, Raffan publicly supported both the Meyer and Heseltine bids to unseat Mrs Thatcher. However, Dr Raffan was not the jolly old chum of Scotland that the Libs would like to pretend - House of Commons voting records reveal that the good doctor was a fervent supporter of the Poll Tax!
Mr Henderson, who was a management consultant before being elected, was considered to be on the right wing of the SNP. He was SNP chief whip for two years and spokesman on employment. He was also an extremely active constituency MP dealing with almost 5,000 individual problems between 1974 and 1979.
In 1979 the Aberdeenshire East electorate had changed considerably with some 7,000 voters out of a total of 55,000 having moved into the area since the previous election. In addition, the decision of the Liberals not to stand left another 2,232 votes to be redistributed. Aberdeenshire East was one of the last seats to be declared and despite predictions that Douglas Henderson might just hold on, this was one of the nine SNP seats to fall and Tory Albert McQuarrie scraped in with an excruciatingly small majority of 558.
The 1983 election saw a new seat, Banff & Buchan being created in north east Scotland, taking three quarters of its voters from Aberdeenshire East and a quarter from Banffshire. The notional 1979 majority in the new seat was 916 for the Conservatives and despite the arrival of the SDP in the constituency, the Tories ended up with a majority of 973 over the SNP. The 'Buchan Bulldog', as McQuarrie was known, took 16,072 votes compared to 15,135 for Douglas Henderson.
In 1987, a rising young SNP star named Alex Salmond from Linlithgow, who had been suspended from the party a few years before, was surprised to be offered the nomination for Banff & Buchan. Alex Salmond took 19,462 votes compared to 17,021 for Mr McQuarrie giving the SNP a 2,441 majority here. In 1990 SNP chairman Gordon Wilson retired and Alex Salmond was elected as the new party leader.
Despite the Tory revival in Scotland in 1992, Alex Salmond took 21,954 votes to 17,846 for Conservative Sandy Manson, allowing him to increase the SNP majority to 4,108.
The boundary changes for the 1997 election were in the SNP's favour with some predominantly Tory areas around Turriff being transferred to Gordon, much to the (unnecessary) alarm of local Liberal Democrats. The 1992 notional result on the new boundaries gave Alex Salmond over 50% of the vote and a 6,568 (16.1 %) lead over the Tories. In fact, Alex Salmond took 55.8 % of the vote and obtained a majority of 12,845 (32.0 %) with Tory William Frain-Bell's vote crashing to only 23.8 %.
Alex Salmond was educated in Linlithgow and at St. Andrew's University. He worked as an economist in the Civil Service then as Oil Economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was suspended from the SNP, along with Stephen Maxwell and others, in 1981 for being a leading member of the left wing '79 group. The suspension was opposed by SNP President Dr Robert McIntyre and Salmond and the other were reinstated after a few months. After being elected to Westminster, Salmond was soon in trouble gain, being suspended from the house of commons for interrupting Nigel Lawson's budget in a protest against the poll tax. After his suspension Alex Salmond's office was flooded with letters of support from all parts of the UK - not everybody approved of Tory tax cuts for the rich while the poverty gap was increasing and the poll tax was being imposed in Scotland one year before England.
Alex Salmond has been a member of the SNP National Executive Committee, and was elected Vice Convenor for Publicity in 1985, Senior Vice Convenor (Deputy Leader) in 1987 National Convenor (Leader) in 1990. He resigned after 10 years in the top job and at the SNP conference in September 2000, John Swinney, the Deputy leader, was elected as his successor.
Alex Salmond is a formidable debater and his command of figures and statistics often leaves opponents flustered and stumbling. He brought the SNP into the joint Yes for Scotland campaign and helped secure the Yes Yes victory in the referendum. The collaboration with Labour and the Liberal Democrats was popular with the public, but the cease fire was soon broken by Labour as soon as the Yes Yes victory was clear, with Brian Wilson and Calum MacDonald leading the assault on the SNP before the final results were in.
With an pro-Labour or rather anti-SNP Scottish press, Salmond was always going to have a rough ride in this election campaign. However, the SNP's 'Penny for Scotland' and condemnation of the NATO bombing of Kosovo, opened clear tartan water between the SNP and Labour. Although the result of the election may be disappointing, it was only so in comparison with the SNP opinion poll leads of the summer of 98. In the even, Alex Salmond headed for Holyrood with 34 SNP MSPs behind him. This was a historic achievement as more SNP MSP were elected in a single day than the total number of SNP MPs elected since the party was formed in 1934. With more full time professional politicians than ever and the benefit of office and research staff, the SNP is in a unique position to help defend the people of Scotland against the Thatcherite policies of Tony Blair and London Labour and further the cause of Independence. The SNP may have lost the first battle for Holyrood, but it looks set to win the war for Scotland.
This by-election is caused by the decision of Alex Salmond, acting upon a request by new SNP leader John Swinney to remain at the Westminster parliament to lead the SNP group there. This was approved unanimously by the Banff & Buchan constituency and Alex Salmond was re-adopted as Westminster parliamentary candidate. Although Alex Salmond could in theory carry on as MSP until the 2003 elections, the view is that dual mandates are undesirable and to last for the minimal possible time. It is therefore expected that a Scottish parliamentary by-election will be held on the same day as the next Westminster general election (expected for the 3 rd May 2001) and that Stewart Stevenson, who was originally selected to contest the Westminster seat, will be the SNP candidate.
Stewart Stevenson is a former Head of Technology Planning with a Scottish Bank and has acted as Alex Salmond's driver. In the May 1999 Scottish parliamentary elections, Stewart Stevenson contested Linlithgow where Tam Dalyell had obtained a 10,838 majority in 1997. Mr Stevenson achieved a swing of 9.3 % from Labour to the SNP, taking 12,319 votes (36.5 %) and reducing Mary Mulligan's majority to 2,928. With an 11,262 majority to defend, it would be a major political upset if Mr Stevenson did not succeed Alex Salmond to the Scottish Parliament
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