Local By-elections

Dominic Grieve (Conservative, Beaconsfield):Most of our country's institutions have an English origin; indeed, that is one of the reasons for some of our complaints during this debate. The concept even of parliamentary sovereignty, so rubbished by the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. McAllion), although it is adhered to by the Secretary of State, has its origins in English parliamentary practice. Our pluralistic democracy derives ultimately from English precedent. People may go into a public library and find much about English parliamentary history, but they will have to go deep into the recesses of the history section to find much about the history of the Scottish Parliament before 1707. Alex. Salmond : What does that tell the hon. Gentleman? Mr. Grieve: That indicates to me that, unless the arrangements that are brought about for devolved government in Edinburgh are acceptable within the parliamentary context to people who live in England, they will not work.' Hansard, 6 th May 1998.

Highland (Stirling) 13 th April 2000

Highland was one of two SNP wards in the 22 seat Stirling Council. The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting councillor, Duncan Campbell who had failed to attend meetings of the council.

In 1988, Stirling Council was such a hotly contested area that Labour and the Conservatives tied with 10 councillors each. So, in the best democratic traditions, the control of Stirling Council was decided upon the cut of a pack of cards. Labour turned up a seven of clubs, while the Conservatives drew a two of spades and Jack McConnell, number one fan of these pages and the current Scottish Finance Minister became the leader of Stirling district council.

In 1992 Labour and the Conservatives again tied with 10 wards each. However, the Conservatives had obtained 42.98 % of the vote compared to only 34.13 % for Labour. Again the control of Stirling Council was decided by a cut of the cards, this time won by the Conservatives.

In 1995 the deadlock was broken when Labour won an overall majority on the new Stirling Unitary council, winning 13 seats compared to 7 for the Tories. The SNP won two wards, Queensland North and South where Kenneth Campbell and Ian Lambie had majorities of 50 and 196 respectively over the Tories.

Although the number of wards remained unchanged in Stirling, there were major boundary changes for the 1999 election. Stirling returned 11 Labour, 9 Tories and 2 Scottish National Party councillors. The two SNP wards were Logie, where Susan Love, a former student of Stirling University became Scotland's youngest councillor, aged 21 when she was elected, and the new ward of Highland where Duncan Campbell obtained a majority of 16 over Conservative Anthony Ffinch.

The Tories undoubtedly saw this by-election as one of their best chances of gaining a seat in Scotland. Such a victory was an essential boost for their shattered morale in Stirling. On the national level, the Tories have suffered severe reverses in here in recent times. In the 1997 general election, the Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth, was defeated in Stirling. In the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May, not only did the Tories fail to win the seat, but they were beaten into third place by the SNP's Annabelle Ewing who went on to give Labour a severe fright in the Hamilton South by-election in September.

The Conservatives can be justified in celebrating their victory as an increase of over 20 % in their vote and the phrase 'Conservative gain from Scottish National Party' have not been seen and heard at all frequently in the past twenty years. They will undoubtedly see this result as a springboard for retaking control of Stirling council from Labour and for re-establishing themselves in Scotland after their win in the Ayr by-election.

This by-election win, their second since the Council elections less than a year ago, is excellent propaganda for the Tories. However, they should not count their chickens before they are hatched. In the Ayr by-election, the Conservatives only managed to increase their vote by 1.4 %. This was compared to a 9.5 % increase for the SNP in what had previously been a razor-sharp Tory-Labour marginal. And in the Woodhead/Meikle Earnock by election, held on the same day as this contest, despite a drop of 18.5 % in the Labour vote, the benefactors were the Scottish Socialist Party rather than the Tories, who saw their share of the vote fall to 6.2 %. In Highland ward, there were exception local circumstances - the abysmal attendance record of the previous SNP councillor. Add to that the fact that the Tories were only 16 votes behind last May, and this ward looked very likely to fall to the Tories.

For the SNP, their performance in local government by-elections in 2000 has been disappointing. In addition to losing Highland to the Conservatives, they failed to stand in Tayport & Motray and have seen their percentage of the vote fall slightly in Woodhead/Meikle Earnock. However, as far as national politics are concerned, the SNP are on a high, having overtaken Labour in both questions in the latest System Three opinion polls for the Herald. Their next goal must be to win the Delph & Cambus ward in Clackmannanshire Council from Labour in order to take overall control of the council where they presently form the minority administration.

The turnout was drastically different in the three by-elections held today. In Manor Park in the Western Isles, it was 67 %, up from 60.4 % in May 1999; here in Highland, it was 43 %, down from 67 %; while in Woodhead/Meikle Earnock it was just 28.7 %, down from 52.7 %.

Following the Conservative by-election victory here, the political composition of Stirling Council is 11 Labour, 10 Conservatives and 1 Scottish National Party.

Highland - ward 17

13 th April 2000				6 th May 1999
Anthony Ffinch		635	51.0 %	Duncan Campbell		618	30.9 %
Fergus Wood		314	25.2 %	Anthony Ffinch		602	30.1 %
Alexander Vernon		117	9.4 %	James McCabe		325	16.3 %
Galen Milne		92	7.4 %	Duncan Scott	Independent	289	14.5 %
Iain MacLennan	Independent	88	7.1 %
Con gain from SNP	Con maj.	321	25.8 %	SNP win	SNP maj.	16	0.8 %