Local By-elections

'There was more painful news for Scottish council taxpayers yesterday as local authorities announced tax increases averaging 4.4%, taking the average bill from £849 to £886.' John MacCalman and Brain Donnelly in the Herald, 10 th March 2000.

Woodhead/Meikle Earnock (South Lanarkshire) 13 th April 2000

The Woodhead ward was in Hamilton District Council. In the 1992 elections there were a number of changes on the 20 seat council - Labour gained Blantyre from an Independent but lost High Blantyre to an Independent Labour councillor. Labour also lost Low Waters to the Conservatives, by 14 votes, but gained Cadzow, from the Scottish National Party, by 43 votes. Labour easily held Woodhead. The ward was won by Labour's J. Lowe with 854 votes, while the Scottish National Party's A. Rae took 297 and Independent Labour candidate J. Bain took 172 votes. The percentage poll, at 30.53 %, was the second lowest in Hamilton.

In 1995, Hamilton District Council formed part of the new South Lanarkshire Unitary Council along with Clydesdale, East Kilbride and 13 new wards made up from existing Glasgow wards. There were major boundary changes and the new Laighstonehall/Woodhead ward was won by Labour's Isabel Stewart with 912 votes while the SNP's David Keatings took 219.

South Lanarkshire Council underwent a further major reorganisation for the 1999 election and the number of wards was reduced from 74 to 67. The boundaries of the Woodhead/Meikle Earnock ward might have changed, but Isabel Stewart was re-elected as Councillor. However, although the turnout increased from 30.5 % in 1992, to 35.2 % in 1995 and leapt to 53.4 % in 1999, Labour's majority over the SNP did not increase accordingly. From 560 in 1992, it rose to 693 in 1995 then fell to 662 in 1999.

The Woodhead/Meikle Earnock ward is in the Hamilton South parliamentary seat which Doddie Robertson held for Labour at the May 1997 general election with 65.6 % of the vote and a majority of 15,878 over the Scottish National Party. In the Scottish Parliamentary elections of May 1999, Councillor Tom McCabe, leader of South Lanarkshire Council, held Hamilton South with just 54.4 % and a 7,176 majority over the SNP. Disaster almost struck Labour in the Hamilton South by-election following the elevation of Wee Doddie to Lord Robertson of Port Ellen when he was ditched from Tony Blair's cabinet and sent off to play at being Secretary General of NATO. In the by-election, the SNP's Annabelle Ewing, daughter of 1967 by-election victor Winnie Ewing, achieved a 22.6 % swing to slash Labour's majority to just 556. In a seat that the pundits had written off as hopeless for the SNP, Labour's percentage of the vote slumped to just 36.9 %.

In an extraordinary frank admission of despondency, First Minister Donald Dewar was seen to sit holding his head in his hand during the parliamentary debate on the Holyrood scandal on the 6 th of April. The building project is totally out of control and has been dubbed 'Donald's Dome' after the confused and dithering creature who made all the wrong choices concerning its location for all the wrong reasons.

Dewar has every right to be worried. Labour are under extreme pressure in Scotland and the smell of fear is in the air. They are under attack from three sides simulataneously. The SNP have overtaken them in both the constituencies and regional lists in the latest System 3 poll. Last month they lost Ayr to the Tories while here in South Lanarkshire they have suffered a 19 % swing to the Scottish Socialist Party.

Following their humiliation and near loss of Hamilton South, and a disastrous third place in Ayr, Labour pulling out all the stops to ensure that they do not lose Woodhead/Meikle Earnock, one of their heartland wards.

Although Labour managed to hold this ward, the confirmation that their vote is under threat by the Scottish National Party, the Tories and now the Scottish Socilaist Party suggests that New Labour's designer policies for Middle England are not going down well in Mainstream Scotland. Woodside/Meikle Earnock is yet another nail in the coffin of the moribund organisation that is the Labour Party in Scotland.

The result is a major morale booster for Tommy Sherridan's Scottish Socialist party, following the prediction in the latest System Three poll for the Herald that they would win three seats in the Scottish parliament.

The SNP will be disappointed at not being the recipient of the anti-Labour vote here, especially as they lost the knife edge marginal ward of Highland in Stirling to the Tories on the same day. Despite their win in Highland, which was due to local circumstances, there is no evidence for a Tory revival here in Lanarkshire where their vote fell to futher to just 6.2 %. The Liberal Democrats, standing here for the first time, came last with 13 votes.

The turnout here was a dismal 28.7 %, down from 52.7 % last May. This can be compared to the Manor Park by-election in the Western Isles, which was held on the same day, where the turnout was a massive 67.0 %, up from 60.4 % in May.

Following the by-election, the composition of South Lanarkshire Council remians unchanged at 54 Labour, 10 Scottish National Party, 2 Conservatives and 1 Liberal Democrat.

Woodhead/Meikle/Earnock - ward 46

13 th April 2000				6 th May 1999
		463	46.0 %	Isabel Stewart		1,186	64.5 %
		271	26.9 %	Helen McManus		524	28.5 %
		197	19.6 %	Janet Brown		129	7.0 %
		62	6.2 %
		13	1.3 %
Lab hold	Lab maj.	192	19.1 %	Lab win	Lab maj.	662	36.0 %