Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'A government is a government is a government. Governments have their own foreign policies. This is the break-up of the United Kingdom.' Tam Dalyell on Henry McLeish's description of the Scottish Exectutive as the Scottish government, 9 th January 2001.

Glasgow North East

Candidates

	Speaker of the House of Commons	Rt Hon Michael Martin MP
	Scottish National Party	John McLaughlin
	Scottish Socialist Party	Graham Campbell
	Scottish Unionist Party	Daniel Houston
	Socialist Labour Party	Doris Kelly
	British National Party	Scott McLean
	Independent	Joe Chambers

The Speaker of the House of Commons

Glasgow North East will be contested by the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Rt Hon Michael Martin. The Speaker is meant to be impartial and therefore, when elected, he or she resigns membership of any political party to which he or she belongs. However, political impartiality has sometimes been confused with a Divine Right to unopposed re-election. In 2005, as in 2001, the Tories and Liberal Democrats will not be opposing the Speaker, but the SNP and SSP will be contesting the seat. In 2001, Michael Martin condemned the SNP and SSP for not allowing him an unopposed election:

'The Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Labour, of course, have said they will not be standing against the speaker. Any other party that decides to stand, then they are perfectly entitled to do so. But there has always been a convention. The convention is such that the speaker is above politics and the major parties would not stand against him.'

Candidates

Glasgow Springburn is the seat of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin. He became MP for Springburn in 1979, while his son was elected for the Scottish parliamentary constituency of Glasgow Springburn in 1999. In 1999, Martin senior was apponted Deputy Charman of Ways & Means (a Deputy Speaker). On the 23 rd October 2000 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons after the retiral of Betty Boothroyd and resigned from the Labour Party. He was the first Scot to become Speaker in the 20 th Century and the first Catholic to hold the post.

The SNP candidate is John McLaughlin. John joined the SNP in the mid sixties and has held offices in the party at constituency and regional level. He was one of the first SNP Councillors in Glasgow and served on Housing, Finance, Transport and Parks Committees. He also served on the Executive Council of the National Health Service for Glasgow. This, together with his voluntary work assisting a Member of the Scottish Parliament, has given John a wealth of experience dealing with people and their problems at many levels. John's interests outside politics are public speaking and voluntary work He is currently the Speaker of the Glasgow Parliamentary Debating Association and was recently elected Secretary of the Glasgow North and East Multiple Sclerosis Society. For relaxation John is an avid reader, particularly of history and political memoirs and biographies. He also enjoys good food, good wine and good conversation.

The SSP candidate Graham Campbell is ready to challenge New Labour in ScotlandŐs most ethnically diverse community, with united opposition to poverty and lack of facilities. A committed anti-war campaigner, Graham is also Secretary of Sighthill SCOSS community centre, Chair of the healthy eating, multi-ethnic initiative Food For Thought and is the SSP's Black & Asian Network convenor. A GHA tenant, he is leading Sighthill Save Our HomesŐ campaign against high-rise demolition and stock transfer.

The Scottish Unionist Party candidate is Daniel Houston.

The Socialist Labour Party candidate is Doris Kelly.

The British National Party candidate is Scott McLean.

Joe Chambers is standing as an Independent.

Notional 2001 result

Logo	Party	Denver			Baxter
		Votes	%		Votes	%
	Speaker of the House of Commons	16,053	51.63 %		0 1	0 %
	Scottish National Party	5,648	18.17 %		5,654	18.38 %
	Labour	4,798	15.43 %		20,623 1	67.04 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	2,503	8.05 %		2,329	7.57 %
	Conservative & Unionist	335	1.08 %		1,638	5.32 %
	Liberal Democrat	258	0.83 %		311	1.01 %
	Others	1,497	4.81 %		208	0.68 %
Notional Speaker win	Notional Speaker majority	10,405	33.47 %
Notional Labour win	Notional Labour majority				14,969	48.66 %

¹ Martin Baxter counts votes for the Speaker as Labour votes.

Local Government wards in the constituency

This consists of the whole of the old Glasgow Springburn seat with the addition of three wards from the old Glasgow Maryhill seat.