 | 'At a hustings meeting on Monday night there is surprise when it is announced that Mr Devine's place will be taken by the local MSP, Bristow Muldoon. Labour insists that this was because the event was rescheduled at short notice, but opponents claim the now traditional incumbents' game of "hide the candidate" is in full swing.' Robbn Dinwodie in the Herald 22 nd September 2005. |  |
By-election Livingston
THE West Lothian question for the 21st century isn't Tam Dalyell's famous rumination about politicians' powers north and south of the border.
It is this: can the SNP finally achieve the breakthrough so long promised hereabouts? For decades, Livingston appeared potentially fertile soil for the independence seed. But Livingston new town is not the same as the constituency of that name, surrounded as it is by the Calders, Addiewell, Blackburn, Broxburn and other small towns and villages where Labour remains as deeply embedded as the many former coalmines.
Blackburn is a case in point. Often all but invisible, a spur off the Kilmarnock road, running up to the M8 and Bathgate beyond, part of it was known as Happy Valley. The town does not seem particularly happy since mining and motor factories have come and gone.
Both the main contenders in this by-election were born in Blackburn, a generation apart, Labour's Jim Devine and the SNP's Angela Constance. Both claim a high local recognition factor and Mr Devine speaks of meeting a woman who remembered him as a nurse in the local health centre. "I'm voting for you," she said. "When my man was aff his heid you used to gie him a jag to make him better."
Shortly after this recollection, accompanied for the television cameras by Gordon Brown, the chancellor, Mr Devine returns to the theme, saying: "When I worked in the NHS in primary care psychiatry I was watching doctors prescribe anti-depressants like Valium when we should have been prescribing jobs. Under this chancellor, that has happened."
Because the late Robin Cook Ð to whom as long-term election agent he became a close friend Ð fought locally to preserve services at the hospital and nationally against war in Iraq, Mr Devine believes he can neutralise these issues as threats to his campaign to succeed him.
However, his only local activism in West Lothian has been as agent at general elections, while he has pursued his career as a health and public sector union official.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that his younger, female opponent is more in touch. A councillor for eight years, most of her publicity material features the single word, "Angela", and on the ground she is a solid political operator.
Working the shoppers and passers-by in Broxburn's Main Street in the north-west of the constituency, the opposite end from her roots in Blackburn and West Calder and her ward in the heart of the new town, she constantly names mutual acquaintances to make connections if the people don't know her already.
She is in no doubt that the paramount local issue is the downgrading of the local hospital. "It is now almost a year since St John's lost emergency surgery and orthopaedics, and for the people here it defies logic that they have to by-pass first-class local facilities to go all the way to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary."
Of her prospects she is cautiously upbeat. While she admits there is more support in the new town area, she detects her party gradually winning over the surrounding Labour strongholds. "A win here is definitely achievable," she says. "A 14% swing is well within what we have managed at other by-elections."
At a hustings meeting on Monday night there is surprise when it is announced that Mr Devine's place will be taken by the local MSP, Bristow Muldoon. Labour insists that this was because the event was rescheduled at short notice, but opponents claim the now traditional incumbents' game of "hide the candidate" is in full swing.
The only other candidate missing is the Scottish Socialist, whose election agent died suddenly earlier that day. The UKIP man succeeds in winding up the Conservative, who blots a quietly impressive performance by rising to the bait.
The Liberal Democrat insists that, having come third in May, he is now in a two-horse race with Labour, prompting a ferocious slap-down from Mr Muldoon. Most of the fringe candidates know they are just along for the ride.
Ms Constance comes out of the debate well.
That morning at a factory visit Labour surrounded their man with four MPs, including two senior cabinet ministers, and the local MSP. Are they hoping to keep him wrapped in cotton wool?
It is hardly in the spirit of democracy to hide him away, but on recent form it will probably work, allowing the SNP to do well, but not quite well enough to achieve the breakthrough in Happy Valley.
The candidates
ALLIANCE FOR CHANGE
John Allman
Yorkshire-based pro-life Christian opposes space age-style "electromagnetic weapons" being used to alter our minds.
CONSERVATIVE
Gordon Lindhurst, 38
An advocate living and working in West Lothian. Previously contested neighbouring Linlithgow.
GREEN
David Robertson, 46
Married with two children in the Falkirk area, works for the anti-smoking group Ash and was a teacher for 15 years. First-time candidate.
LABOUR
Jim Devine, 52
A former psychiatric nurse who became a health union leader. Chaired Scottish Labour a decade ago during its great modernisation debate and was Robin Cook's friend and agent for more than 20 years.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Charles Dundas, 27
Born in Fauldhouse, he studied history at Glasgow University and worked in banking before becoming a researcher at Holyrood. Claimed TV's Baywatch as an area of expertise. Stood in Livingston in May, and previously in Glasgow Baillieston and for council.
INDEPENDENT
Melville Brown
Local candidate campaigning on a mix of policies covering NHS recruitment, legal aid, binge drinking and the use of ethanol to replace oil consumption.
SCOTTISH SOCIALISTS
Steven Nimmo, 27
Now a party organiser, he was a trade union organiser in St John's Hospital and in other jobs in his native West Lothian. Trained as a gamekeeper.
SOCIALIST PARTY of GREAT BRITAIN
Brian Gardner
The fundamentalist, long-standing and purist left-wing party states that "the birthplace, background, work history or face of our candidate" is an irrelevance.
SNP
Angela Constance, 34
Born in Blackburn and educated in West Calder. Has been local councillor for eight years. A social worker trained in mental health, she lives in the constituency with her husband.
UKIP
Peter Adams, 57
Kirkcaldy-born, spent 35 years in Royal Engineers, rising to rank of captain. Married with two children, works for Royal National Institute for the Blind.
GENERAL ELECTION
Labour: 22,657 (51.10%)
SNP: 9560 (21.56%)
LibDem: 6832 (15.41%)
Con: 4499 (10.15%)
SSP: 789 (1.78%)
Labour maj: 13,097 (29.54%)
Turnout: 58.07%
Current electorate: 76,299
Swing from Labour required for SNP win: 14.8%
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