Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'Helen Liddell may be standing down from parliament, but her Raj lifestyle will continue. Ms Liddell and her family are greatly taken with the wonderful country that is Australia and, by great and good luck, Labour were looking for someone to be high commissioner to this sunny land. Only cynics would point out that Helen's departure was in any way connected to leaving a clear electoral run in North Lanarkshire to Dr John Reid.' Tom Shields in the Sunday Herald, 10 th April 2005.

Airdrie & Shotts

Candidates

	Labour	Rt Hon John Reid MP
	Scottish National Party	Malcolm Balfour
	Conservative & Unionist	Stuart Cottis
	Liberal Democrat	Helen Watt
	Scottish Socialist Party	Fraser Coats
	Scottish Independence Party	Joseph Rowan

Candidates

The Labour candidate is the the Rt Hon John Reid. He has held more offices than any other minister in the Labour government having been successively Minister of State for Defence, Minister of State for the Environment, Secretary of State for Scotland, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chairman of the Labour Party, Leader of the House of Commons, then Secretary of State for Health. Reid's current position, which he has held since June 2003, is somewhat delicate: Reid represents a Scottish constituency but with the Scottish Parlaiment legislating on health matters in Scotland, his responsibility is soley for England & Wales. reid has made many enemies, especially in his own party, an at the last general election Reid was descibed by the then First Minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish MSP, as 'a patronising bastard'. Reid found himself in trouble due to the current boundary changes with his current seat of Hamilton North & Bellshill being dismembered and split between Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill (36 %), Lanark & Hamilton East (29 %), Motherwell & Wishaw (22 %) and Airdrie & Shotts (14 %). Helen Liddle, who had been sacked as Secretary of State for Scotland in 2003, was tempted to stand down with an offer of the post of British High Commissioner to Australia, and Reid was shoe-horned into her seat.

The SNP candidate is Malcolm Balfour who joined the SNP in 1975 as a member of the recently formed Drumchapel Branch. From 1975 to 1980, he was a member of the Knightswood Branch where he worked closely with the 16 strong SNP Council group in Glasgow. During this time he held a number of posts locally within the SNP. He then moved to another area and joined the local branch where in 1993 he became convener a post he held for 9 years. Over the past 2 years Malcolm, a leading member of the SNP's Trade Union Group, has been working to bring the SNP & The Trade UNIONS closer together and has recently set up a series of successful meetings between both parties. He himself is a former shop steward in the TGWU and remains on his local committee.

The Tory candidate is Stuart Cottis.

The Lib Dem candidate is Helen Watt. who was born in 1950 and educated at Napiershall Primary, Woodside Secondary and the University of Glasgow where she studied computing. She worked at the University of Glasgow as a Research Assistant, Tutor, Lecturer, Staff Development Officer, and IT Officer. Her interests include cooking, gardening, reading and walking. She is a member of the executive of the Scottish Lib Dems.

The SSP candidate is Fraser Coats who is a 42 year old father of two from Airdrie. For 20 years, he worked in the post office, where he was a union rep. Fraser has campaigned against closure of the childrenās ward at Monklands Hospital, against landfill sites in Greengairs, and against PPP plans for local schools. He has also backed striking workers, including firefighters, nursery nurses and low paid civil servants.

The Scottish Independence Party candidate is Joseph Rowan

Notional 2001 result

Logo	Party	Denver			Baxter
		Votes	%		Votes	%
	Labour	20,125	58.63 %		20,083	62.46 %
	Scottish National Party	6,580	19.17 %		5,897	18.25 %
	Liberal Democrat	2,697	7.86 %		2,679	8.33 %
	Conservative & Unionist	2,100	6.12 %		2,030	6.31 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	1,278	3.72 %		1,304	4.08 %
	Others	1,548	4.51 %		186	0.58 %
Notional Labour win	Notional Labour majority	13,545	39.46 %		14,214	44.21 %

Local Government wards in the constituency

This consists of the old Airdrie & Shotts constituency plus two wards from the old Hamilton North & Bellshill constituency.