Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'The prime minister's reputation has never been more fragile. Peter Mandelson was always his Achilles heel. He needed the man he called 'Bobby' like an addict needs drugs.' Tim Luckhurt in the Herald, 25 th January 2001.

Central Ayrshire

Candidates

	Labour	Brian Donohoe MP
	Scottish National Party	Jahangir Hanif
	Conservative & Unionist	Gary Clark
	Liberal Democrat	Iain Kennedy
	Scottish Socialist Party	Denise Morton
	UK Independence Party	Jim Groves
	Socialist Labour Party	Bobby Cochrane

Candidates

The Labour candidate is Brian Donohoe, currently MP for Cunninghame South. Perhaps best known as a devoted fan of the soap Coronation Street, Donahoe is also seen as crank who appears to spend the majority of his time whining about the Scottish Parliament and concocting crackpot schemes to attempt to sabotage its workings: Donahoe has been dubbed 'The Roarer and Greeter' due to his resemblance to a (female) character in Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Scots Quair. Born in Kilmarnock in 1948, Donahoe was educated at Irvine Royal Academy and Kilmarnock Technical College. He worked as a shipbuilder, at Hunterston nuclear power station, at ICI, and then as a NALGO official. He was rejected as Labour candidate for Ayr at the 1987 election but was selected and for Cunninghame South upon the retirement of David Lambie in 1992, holding the seat despite a 10.6 % swing from Labour to the SNP and a fall of almost 6,000 in the Labour majority.

The SNP candidate is Jahangir Hanif. Jahangir has been a supporter of the SNP since the 1980s and joined the Party in 1997 becoming Vice Convener of Pollokshields Branch in 2000 and then Convener in 2004. He is committed to seeing Scotland taking its place in the world as an independent nation , prospering and controlling its own destiny. One of the founder members of Asian Scots for Independence, Jahangir is an elected member of the SNP's National Council and a former member of the National Executive Committee. He has been intimately involved in local community committees since he was a teenager. Jahangir is a business consultant and lives in Glasgow. Married, with six children, he enjoys family life.

Tory candidate, Gary Clark, is currently a Parliamentary Assistant to an MSP and has been a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party since 1986. Over the years Garry has served as Chairman of the Young Conservatives, Secretary of Alloway and Doonfoot Branch, and as a member of the Ayr Branch and Constituency Council Committees.

The Lib Dem candidate is Iain Kennedy who was born in 1982 and educated at Abbery Primary in Kilwinning, Glasgow Academy, and the University of Glasgow. He is engaged and lives in Edinburgh. He is a former chair of the Scottish Young Lib Dems and a former president of Glasgow university Lib Dems.

The SSP candidate is Denise Morton who is the branch secretary of the SSPŐs Irvine and District branch. She tirelessly campaigned against nuclear weapons throughout the 1980s when she was a CND activist before becoming involved in the voluntary sector as a pre- and after-school childcare worker. As an SSP activist, Denise campaigns against the war in Iraq and ScotlandŐs weapons of mass destruction, which can be found at the Faslane naval base on the River Clyde.

The UK Independence Party candidate is Jim Groves. He has lived in Scotland for over 12 years and his wife and family are from Ayr. He currently works as a property developer, having lost a business that he built up from scratch as a direct result of Black Wednesday. He has over 28 years experience in local government and 13 years in private enterprise.

The Socialist Labour Party candidate is Bobby Cochrane

Notional 2001 result

Logo	Party	Denver			Baxter
		Votes	%		Votes	%
	Labour	20,939	49.20 %		21,300	51.12 %
	Conservative & Unionist	11,167	26.24 %		10,571	24.86 %
	Scottish National Party	6,198	14.56 %		6,153	14.47 %
	Liberal Democrat	2,706	6.36 %		2,773	6.52 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	1,225	2.88 %		1,391	3.28 %
	Others	332	0.78 %		327	0.77 %
Notional Labour win	Notional Labour majority	9,772	22.96 %		10,729	25.24 %

Local Government wards in the constituency

This consists of nine of the 14 wards from the old Cunninghame South constituency plus eleven wards from the old Ayr constituency and Annbank Mossblown St Quivox from the old Carrick, Cumnock &Doon Valley constituency.