 | 'This is the seat (then known as Moray and Nairn) which Winnie Ewing won from Gordon Campbell in February 1974. Mr Campbell had defended the constituency as the Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland, making Mrs Ewing's victory all the more remarkable.' Brian Taylor BBC Scotland political editor, 4 th April 2006. |  |
History matters in Moray. How could it not?
Think Macbeth, think Elgin Cathedral, think ancient conflict, religious and secular.
Think the sundry Earls of Moray, king makers, regent.
However, it is political history of a more recent vintage which will suffuse this by-election with added interest and intrigue.
Firstly, the reason for the contest itself: the death of Margaret Ewing, widely respected across political lines as a dedicated, thoughtful advocate of her constituency and her chosen cause of Nationalism.
It is a custom in by-elections for would-be successors to hint or state that they are following the path laid down by the late incumbent, while equally, and insincerely, disavowing their worth for such a task.
In my view, it is a custom better observed in the breach.
The people of Moray, of Scotland, know the value of Margaret Ewing.
They know what she achieved. They do not need reminders from those seeking to gain elected office.
Being entirely sensible, they understand that a vacancy, created in sadness, must be filled by the electoral process.
Hopefully, the unction of the early days will decline, as it did in Dunfermline.
However, head back a little further into the past and there are other lessons which make Moray worth watching.
This is the seat (then known as Moray and Nairn) which Winnie Ewing won from Gordon Campbell in February 1974.
Mr Campbell had defended the constituency as the Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland, making Mrs Ewing's victory all the more remarkable.
She lost out to the Tories in 1979, only for Margaret Ewing to regain the constituency in 1987, holding it from then, both at Westminster and Holyrood.
But, regardless of the subsequent ebb and flow of politics, that 1974 victory by the SNP is still totemic.
Taking the long view, Moray is, simultaneously, an eikon of historic Conservative decline and SNP advance in Scotland.
Proving ground
That makes the Conservative particularly determined to prove that their days of decline are behind them, that they can regain ground in areas of Scotland which they once dominated.
Equally, it makes the Nationalists determined to prove that their strength remains undimmed in constituencies like Moray, that they have not slipped and, indeed, can rediscover the potency of the 1970s.
For Labour, this by-election is an opportunity to demonstrate, once again, that the party's reach goes well beyond the central belt.
For the Liberal Democrats, a chance to show that the stunning victory in Dunfermline wasn't a fluke, but a trend.
Margaret Ewing held the seat for the SNP in 2003 with a majority of 5,312.
She had 42.2% of the vote, the Tories were second with 22.5%, Labour slipped back into third with 19.1%, the LibDems were fourth with 12.2% and the SSP fifth with 4%. Two of the candidates this time around are making a particular sacrifice.
Both Richard Lochhead of the SNP and Mary Scanlon for the Conservatives are giving up existing list seats at Holyrood in order to fight for this constituency place.
By definition, one or both will be leaving Holyrood, at least temporarily.
In itself, that is an intriguing, if minor, footnote in political history.
But then Moray is used to making history.
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