 | 'Who will Bell the Salmond Cat?' Jim Sillars, a few days before the SNP won the Rosyth West & Dockyard by-election in 1997. |  |
| 'Who will Bell the Salmond Cat?' Jim Sillars, a few days before the SNP won the Rosyth West & Dockyard by-election in 1997. | |
Fife Unitary Council covers the same ground as the old Fife Regional Council and was composed of the of the old Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and North East Fife District Councils. The first two were Labour controlled and the third Lib Dem controlled so there was little surprise in 1995 when Labour gained overall control of the new council with 54 seats, with the Lib Dems taking 25, the SNP 9, Independent 3 and the Communists one seat. The Tories failed to win a single ward in Fife despite having controlled North East Fife District Council until 1984.
In 1999, the council saw major boundary changes and saw the number of wards slashed from 92 to 78. Labour retained control of the council with 43 seats, compared to 21 fro the Lib Dems, 9 for the SNP 9, 2 for Independents, along with one Tory, one Communist and one Democratic Left. In August 1999, the Tories doubled their representation on the council when they won Elie, St Monans & Pittenweem from an Independent.
In 1995, the ward of Rosyth East was won by Labour's Margaret Logan with 648 votes, 470 ahead of the SNP's John Gooder, with the Lib Dems taking 58 votes.
In 1999, Labour's candidate was William McGilvray who won the ward with 1,240 votes compared to 544 votes for the SNP's John Gooder, who increased his vote by 8.0 % since standing in 1995. The Conservative's Alan Trotter came third with 148 votes.
Willie MacGilvray, who resigned recently, is married to Sylvia MacGilvray who was also a councillor in Rosyth until recently. Her mother is Margaret Logan, previously of Rosyth East and now the councillor for Rosyth West.
Rosyth East is a typical safe Labour central belt ward which they should hold whatever happens: Just like neighbouring Rosyth West & Dockyard which they lost to the SNP's Douglas Chapman in 1997. The shock SNP victory there heralded their climb in the opinion polls until they began to challenge Labour as the first party of Scottish politics and culminated in their becoming the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament. Labour wished to avoid a repeat of Rosyth West here in Rosyth East knowing that a fresh SNP surge could herald not just loss of power for Labour, but Independence for Scotland.
Campaigning in the area was brisk, but despite Labour's best efforts there was a swing of 16.2 % from Labour to SNP, almost equalling the 17.9 % in Rosyth West & Dockyard in 1997 when Labour were totally unprepared.
The Labour majority here was reduced from 696 over the SNP to a mere 30 votes, while their percentage share of the vote dropped by over 20%. Although Labour can heave a sigh of relief that they held this ward they will not be happy with this result. If they can almost lose Rosyth East when they are standing at no less than 50 % in the latest System 3 poll for Westminster they may have to prepare themselves to lose a number of by-elections in critical areas where they are already under threat.
The SNP will be happy with the 11.2 % increase in their vote at a time when they have seen their ratings slide over the past two months in the latest Holyrood polls as similar swing would put a large number of Labour wards within their grasp. They may regret that the by-election was not held two months previously when they might well have won the ward. After coming close in Hamilton South and Rosyth East, the SNP will undoubtedly be taking heart and looking for possible victory in places like Falkirk West where Dennis Canavan appears set to stand down as the Westminster MP.
The other parties made little impact here, with the Tories up slightly to 10.4 % of the vote and the Liberal Democrats and Greens, who did not stand last time around, taking 5.6 % and 1.6 % respectively.
The turnout was 23 %, down from 54.2 % in May when the local elections were held on the same day as the Scottish Parliamentary elections. The result here leaves the composition of Fife Council unchanged at 43 Labour, 21 Liberal Democrat, 9 Scottish National Party, 2 Conservative, 1 Democratic Left, 1 Communist and 1 Independent.
I am grateful to Jim Jackson for sending me the result.
SNP candidate Brian Goodall said:
It's a pity it took a by-election to remind Gordon Brown that this ward is in his constituency.
However this result will ensure that 'Rosyth West' will not be forgotten by New Labour for some time.
December 1999
Ward 17 Rosyth East
Reason for by-election:
Labour Councillor William McGilvray resigned.
Friday 10 December 1999
"This was a humiliation for Labour, in the heart of Gordon Brown's constituency. Their majority was virtually wiped out, crashing from 700 in May to just 30.
"The SNP achieved a big swing of 16 per cent - confirming the movement towards us in a by-election in Angus two weeks ago, where the SNP vote soared to over two-thirds, with Labour and the Tories both down.
"All across Scotland, people are moving towards the SNP, because only Scotland's Party stand up for the interests and aspiration of the Scottish people."
| 9 th December 1999 | 6 th May 1999 | ||||||
 |
353 | 43.0 % | William McGilvray | |
1,240 | 64.2 % | |
| Brian Goodall |  |
323 | 39.3 % | John Gooder | |
544 | 28.2 % |
 |
86 | 10.5 % | Alan Trotter | |
148 | 7.7 % | |
 |
46 | 5.6 % | |||||
 |
13 | 1.6 % | |||||
| Lab hold | Lab maj | 30 | 3.6 % | Lab hold | Lab maj | 696 | 36.0 % |
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