 | 'My list of previous convictions includes voting for dangerous revolutionary measures such as benefits for the children of single parents and grants for students from low-income families. If that disqualifies me from being a Labour candidate for the Scottish Parliament, then I honestly wonder where the Labour Party is going.' Falkirk West Labour MP, Dennis Canavan, 18 th June 1998. |  |
Falkirk has a tradition of being a battlefield. In 1298, the English army led by Edward I, Hammer of the Scots, crushed the schiltroms of Guardian Sir William Wallace, who had been betrayed and abandoned by many of the Scottish nobles (Some things never change!). In 1746, there was a Government defeat when General Hawley's dragoons were routed by the retreating Royalist army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
Carronshore lies along the river Carron where Carron Ironworks was founded in 1759. This gave its name to the famous Carronade naval guns. In 1820 government troops crushed an uprising including a band of radicals supposedly on their way to seize the munitions at the Carron ironworks.
Today, the battles continue. These days however, the conflict is between the Scottish National Party and Labour, between those whose model of sovereignty is the Scottish people, and those whose loyalty lies with the Crown and Westminster.
In 1977, the SNP won a crushing victory over Labour in Falkirk District, but the socialists regained control in 1980. In the 1992 District Council elections, Labour and the Scottish National Party were almost neck and neck in Falkirk. Labour took 16 wards and 43.0 % of the vote while the SNP obtained 14 wards and 39.3 %. The balance of power was held by the 3 Conservative and 3 Independent Councillors. In the 1995 Unitary Council elections, however, Labour made big advances and won outright control of the new Council. It won 23 wards with its vote up by 9.0 % to 52.0 %. The SNP representation was reduced to 8 councillors, although their vote only fell by 2.7 % to 36.6%.
In 1995, Carronshore was won by Labour's Iain Archibald, who had unsuccessfully contested neighbouring Crownest/Carronvale in 1992, with a waver-thin majority of nine over the SNP's Cecil Meiklejohn.
Falkirk is one of the councils which the SNP will undoubtedly be hoping to control after the elections in next May and a good win for them in Carronshore would have been a first step towards this. With the current SNP surge in the opinion polls it looked as though nothing short of divine intervention would allow Labour to hold Carronshore.
However, despite Labour's slump in the opinion polls they managed, not only to hold on, but also to more than double their majority over the Scottish National Party from nine to 19. Labour took 580 votes, with the Scottish National Party taking 561. The Liberal Democrats took 63 votes and the Scottish Socialist Alliance 19.
Labour will be extremely pleased to have held this ward in such a difficult political climate. However, the 0.4% swing from the Scottish National Party to Labour here was overshadowed by the loss of Condorrat North in the plumbers' paradise of North Lanarkshire where there was a massive swing of over 36 % to the SNP with Labour's vote crashing from 70.3 % to 25.6 %.
Following the by-election, the political composition of Falkirk Council is unchanged at 23 Labour, 8 Scottish National Party, 3 Independents and 2 Conservatives.
| 8 th June 1998 | 6 th April 1995 | ||||||
| Craig Martin |  | 580 | 47.4 % | Iain Archibald | | 615 | 50.4 % |
| Tom Coleman |  | 561 | 45.8 % | Cecil Meiklejohn | | 606 | 49.6 % |
| Bob Hunter |  | 63 | 5.2 % | ||||
 | 19 | 1.6 % | |||||
| Lab hold | Lab maj. | 19 | 1.6 % | Lab gain | Lab maj. | 9 | 0.7 % |
Return to home page