 | 'I think this is rather clumsy and distinctly unsatisfactory to have different levels in Scotland and in England. However, I think it will do the trick for us.' From a memo on student loans and graduate endowment repayments by Robert Brown, Lib Dem MSP for Glasgow. |  |
 | Richard Thomson |  | Keith Geddes |
 | Andrew Brocklehurst |  | Michael Moore MP |
 | Norman Lockhart | | John Hein |
'The Black Adder' Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh was also 'Laird of Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles'. This was in fact the name of the single Borders seat from 1955 to 1983 and the only one in the UK to cover three counties..
Scotland was once practically a one-party state dominated by the Liberals, and as late as the election of December 1910, the Liberals won 59 seats in Scotland compared to eight for the Tories, four for the Liberal Unionists and three for Labour. Howver, the decline of the Liberals was rapid and by 1945 they, like the Tories in 1997, had lost all their seats in Scotland.
In 1950 the Liberals made a comback and won three seats, with Jo Grimond winning Orkney & Shetland, and an Independent Liberal, J. McLeod winning Ross & Cromarty.
In 1950, Liberal A.J.F. MacDonald won Roxburgh & Berwickshire taking 39.4 % of the vote giving him a 1,156 majority over Tory, Lord William Scott with 36.4 %, while Labour's L.P. Thomas took 24.2 %.
1951 saw more reverses for the Liberals. Although Jo Grimond held on in Orkney & Shetland, J McLeod in Ross & Cromarty seemed to be more independent than Liberal as he stood and won as a National Liberal & Conservative in 1951. Meanwhile, in Roxburgh & Selkirkshire, the Labour vote fell by 3.4 % to 20.8 %. The new Conservative candidate C.E.M. Donaldson increased the Tory vote by 4.2 % to 40.7 % while the Liberal vote for A.J.F. Macdonald fell by 0.8 % to 38.6 %. This allowed the Tories to win Roxburgh & Berwickshire with a majority of 829.
In 1955 there were boundary changes with Peebleshire being transferred from Midlothian & Peebleshire to form a new borders seat of Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles. The addition of Peebleshire, favoured the Tories and in 1955 C.E.M. Donaldson took 47.7 % of the vote in the new seat, increasing his majority to 7,170 over Liberal S.E. Graham. The Liberals took 32.1 % with Labour third on 20.2 %.
In 1959 there was a further swing to the Tories and C.E.M Donaldson took 50.2 % of the vote, increasing his majority to 9,513. The Liberal candidate, who took 28.8 % was Dr John MacCormick, a founder member of the SNP who had left the party for the Liberals. His son Iain was SNP for Argyll between 1974and 1979 while another son, Professor Neil MacCormick was elected as an SNP Euro MP in 1999. The Labour candidate, who took 21.0 %, was Sir Thomas (Tam) Dalyell of the Binns, who became Labour MP for West Lothian in the 1962 by-election and, if he is re-elected in Linlithgow, will becaome Father of the House of Commons in the next parliament.
In 1964, the Tory establishment were shaken by an 8.8 % swing to the Liberals in Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles. A number of now well known people contested the seat in that election. C.E.M Donaldson saw his vote fall by 7.4 % to 42.8 % and his majority cut to 1,739 over the Liberals. Increasing the Liberal vote by 10.1 % was the 26 year-old 'Boy David' Steel. Labour's candidate, who polled 15.9 % was Ronald King Murray, who was MP for Edinburgh Leith between 1970 and 1979, while the SNP's A.J.C. Kerr, an inveterate write of letters to the newspapers, polled 2.5 % for the SNP.
The 1965 by-election in Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles gave David Steel the perfect chance. There was a further swing of 7.2 % from the Tories to the Liberals and David Steel won Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles with a majority of 4,607. The Liberal vote was up by 10.3 % to 49.2 % with the Tory vote down by 4.2 % to 38.7 %. Ronald King Murray took 11.3 % for Labour, down by 4.6 % on 1964, with Anthony J.C. Kerr, standing this time as an Indendent Nationalist, polling 0.9 %.
At the general election of 1966, there was a swing of 2.8 % back to the Tories, but David Steel held on with a reduced majority of 2,211. The Liberals took 45.7 %, the Tories 40.8 % and Labour 13.6 %.
In 1970, no less than five candidates contested the seat and with a further swing of 1.9 % to the Tories, David Steel saw his majority reduced to just 550. The Liberals polled 42.3 %, the Tories 41.1 %, Labour 9.6 %, the SNP 6.8 % and an Independent 0.2 %.
In February 1974 David Steel saw his majority rocket to 9,104 as there was a swing of 8.6 % from the Tories to the Liberals. David Steel took 52.1 %, up 9.8 % on 1970, with Tory S. Thom down 7.4 % to 33.6 %; The SNP's Dr David Purves moved into third place with 8.0 % pushing Labour, with 6.3 % into last place.
In October 1974, the Liberal vote fell as rapidly as it had risen and was back down by 8.4 % to 43.7 %. Howver the Tory vote had also dropped, by 6.3 % to 27.4 % and David Steel's was returned with a majority of 7,475. A.Edmonds increased the SNP vote by 12.0 % to 20.0 % with Labour taking 8.9 %.
The 1979 result resembled that of February 1974, and David Steel took 53.1 % of the vote, obtaining his largest majority yet, of 10,690 over Gerry Malone. The Tories took 31.3 %, Labour 8.5 % and the SNP 7.2 %. Tory Gerry Malone went on to contest and lose Glasgow Hillhead in the 1982 by-election before suceeding Iain Sproat in Aberdeen South between 1983 and 1987. In 1997 he was defeated as Tory MP for Winchester by just two votes.
In 1983, the Borders saw major boundary changes. The Selkirk and Peebles part of the seat was renamed Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale while Berwickshire was separated from East Lothian and added to Roxburgh to form Roxburgh and Berwickshire.
In 1983, Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale accorded David Steel no less than 58.5 % of the vote giving him a 8,539 majority over Tory sheep farmer Alistair Ballantyne who had contsted Midlothian in 1974. The Tories took 28.9 %, Labour's Dr Michael Saren took 7.6 % with the SNP's Dr Allan Macartney taking 5.0 %. Dr Macartney reduced the Labour majority in the North East Euro constituency to 2.1 % in 1994 then won the seat with a majority of 14.4 % in 1994.
In 1987, the Alliance bubble had burst and Sir David vote fell by 8.5 % to 49.9% giving him a still healthy 5,942 majority over Conservative Shirley Finlay-Maxwell. Labour took 11.4 % with the SNP on 9.1 %.
In 1992, despite a drop in their national vote by 6.3 % to 12.9 %, the Lib Dems held all their seats with the exception of Kincardine & Deeside, their by-election gain, which reverted to the Tories. However some of their majorities were severely reduced and even Sir David Steel's fell to 2,520 over the Conservatives. The Lib Dem vote was down by 10.1 % to 39.9 % with the Tory vote up 2.1 % to 31.7 %. Christine Creech of the SNP was the main beneficiary of the decline in the Liberal vote, polling 17.0 %, up 7.9 % on 1987, with Labour's Alan Dundon taking 10.8 % and Liberal John Hein on 0.6 %.
In 1997, David Steel decided to retire after 22 years at Westminster. In 1976, he had succeeded Jeremy Thorpe as leader of the Liberal party and in 1977 he agreed to support the minority Labour Government in an agreement which became known as the "Lib-Lab" pact. It is ironic that Jeremy Thorpe had refused Ted Heath's offer of a Ministry in exchange to keeping the Tories in power in February 1974 while his successor kept Labour in government for little reward apart from the occasional consultation.
The formation of the SDP-Liberal Alliance in response of Labour's lurch to the left was to break the mould of British Politics - for a short time at least. During the SDP-Liberal summits in 1983, the small Borders town of Ettrickbridge had the eyes of the whole UK upon it. But despite David Steel's rallying cry of 'Go home to your constituencies and prepare for Government.' power eluded the Alliance at the 1983 general election. He resigned as Liberal leader after the 1987 general election and became a Co-chairman of the Constitutional Convention.
The boundary changes for the 1997 election involved the addition of 13,000 voters from Penicuik in Midlothian and the transfer of the Scott's View ward to Roxburgh and Berwickshire. Sir David Steel's retiral and the collapse of the Scottish Conservative vote left this Borders seat up for grabs with the result extremely difficult to predict. The Liberal Democrat candidate was Michael Moore, an accountant. Tory Alistair Jack seemed best placed to make a gain here, however, the slump in the Tory poll rating since 1992 hardly increased Mr Jack's chances of winning this seat. Indeed, although David Steel's majority over the Conservatives was down by 21.4% since 1983, this was due to a collapse in the Lib Dem vote and the Conservative vote had only increased by 2.1% in that period.
The SNP had the most experienced parliamentary candidate with Ian Goldie, who contested Ayr in 1983, Falkirk West in 1987 and the South of Scotland Euro seat in 1984. Labour also had an extremely strong and well known candidate in Edinburgh Cllr Keith Geddes who could take comfort from the addition of Penicuik, in a constituency where there was little previous tradition for voting Labour.
The 1995 unitary council elections gave little clue to the result as Independents took 40% in the Borders, compared to 23% for the Liberals, 19% for the Scottish National Party, 15% for the Conservatives and 3.3% for Labour.
On election night, Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale turned out to be the most marginal in the country with a majority of only 1,489. The winner was the Liberal Democrat, Michael Moore, who took 12,178 votes (31.2 %) compared to 10,689 (27.4 %) for Labour's Keith Geddes. Third was Conservative Alistair Jack with 8,623 votes (22.1 %) while the Scottish National Party's Ian Goldie came fourth with 6,671 (17.1 %).
Such was the starting position for the Scottish elections, a position which is not unlike Inverness, Nairn & Lochaber in 1987 and that constituency ended as a four way marginal in 1992. We wrote 'Here, the Tories appear to be out of the race and they will be lucky if their candidate John Campbell can obtain over 20 % of the vote.' Indeed, he came fourth with 19.3 %.
We also wrote 'Whatever happens nationally, the Labour vote here is likely to be badly hit by the credibility problems of their new candidate George MacGregor who has been loud in his praise for the Public Finance Initiative since he was adopted as a Labour candidate. But as recently as October 1998, George MacGregor was denouncing PFI, claiming 'Unison regards this as one of the biggest challenges and biggest threats to the National Health Service in Scotland.' McGregor also stated 'We're told this is the only game in town. That this is the only way that the Government can raise finance to invest in infrastructure projects within our public services. We completely reject that thinking and we would urge the SNP to do the same.' Unison fighter or Blairite clone? Will the real George McGregor please stand up!' On the night, George McGregor's vote fell by 5.0 % and Labour fell back to third place with 22.4 %.
The Scottish National Party chose Mrs Christine Creech, a solicitor, who increased the SNP by 7.9 % here in 1992. Mrs Creech was also the SNP candidate for South of Scotland in the 1994 European elections when she came third with 45,032 votes, a mere 563 votes behind Alasdair Hutton, the previous Conservative MEP. When the votes were counted in Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale in 1999, Christine Creech had increased the SNP vote by 5.4 % and moved into second place, 54 votes ahead of Labour. Christine Creech (now Christine Grahame) was elected as a South of Scotland MSP and is presently SNP Shadow Minister with responsibility for Social Security.
The winner in Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale was Liberal Democrat Ian Jenkins, the head of English at Peebles High School and chairman of the local Liberal Democrats. He managed to increased the Lib Dem vote by 4.6 % to 35.8 % and obtained a 4,478 majority over the SNP. This was the first increase in the Lib Dem vote in the constituency since back in 1983 when David Steel polled 58.5 %.
The general election in Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale promised to be interesting with Lib Dem Michael Moore defending the most marginal seat in Scotland. The Tories have selcetd Andrew Brocklehurst.
Originally, Labour selected UNISON's George McGregor who had contested the seat in the 1999 Scottish election. Howver Mr McGregor's candidature had be fraught with difficulty as he had stoutly defended PFI when selected as a New Labour candidate. Yet while an Unison official, he had attacked it. Robbie Dinwoodie reported in the Herald that Mr McGregor had 'endorsed the BMA's call for a review of existing signedcontracts in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and in Law and Hairmyres hospitals, and a moratorium on future PFI projects in Scotland. He argued that PFI cost more, citing the Public Accounts Committee's condemnation of the Skye bridge deal. The ERI would cost the taxpayer, who would pay £1500m for a hospital worth £190m. 'For us, we say that PFI is about getting a mortgage with a loan shark,' he said. 'That's perhaps Unison rhetoric, but that is the reality of the situation.'.
Mr McGregor's forked tongue was obviously going to cause more problems for Labour in Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale and it came as no surprise when, with a general lection looming, he was appointed in January 2001 as a special adviser to Helen Liddell and had to 'resign' as a candidate. In his place, Labour selected former Edinburgh and Lothian Council leader Keith Geddes. Originally from Galashiels, Keith Geddes had increased the Labour vote by 11.4 % in 1999 and taken Labour from fourth to second place. In 1999 Mr Geddes was unlucky when he renounced from standing for Edinburgh Council in order to become a candidate for the Scottish parliament. He failed to be selected for a constituency, losing out to Angus McKay in Edinburgh South. Although Keith Geddes made the top of the South of Scotland list, no Labour list MSPs were elected in the South of Scotland. The biggest irony of all, is that had Ian Welsh, who won Ayr by 25 votes, actually lost to Phil Gallie, then the composition of the parliament would have been unchanged as Keith Geddes would have been elected from the regional list and Labour would have been spared the humiliating by-election in Ayr where they were pushed into third place by the SNP.
Will Keith Geddes be able to throw off his run of bad luck at the general election or will Labour's perception as an urban-based party which does not care about the countryside and seems more interested in elections than dealing with the foot and mouth crisis count against him?
The SNP candidate is Richard Thomson, Director of External Communications for the Young Scots for Independence Organisation, and a member of the SNP Youth Committee. With the SNP's rise in the opinion polls since the 1997 general election, Richard Thompson will be hoping to come from fourth place to win this seat. It is the SNP who have profited most from the decline in Sir David Steel's vote. It has been noted, especially in Conservative marginal seats in the 1987 election, that voters change most easily from the Liberals to the SNP and vice versa. Indeed, from 1983 to 1997 there was a 15 % swing from the Liberals to the SNP.
The SSP candidate is Norman Lockhart, from Innerleithen. A former nurse who worked with the Sandanistas in Nicaragua in the 1980s. He has also worked offsdhore in North sea. Former OILC activist. John Hein is standing as a candidate for the old Liberal Party.
Recent elections here have merely confirmed the totally unpredictable nature of the seat. While Labour were second to the Lib Dems in 1997, in 1999 it was the SNP who moved into second place. Meanwhile, in the regional list vote for the Scottish parliament, the Lib Dems 'won' the seat with a majority of 228 over the SNP. The Lib Dems took 24.6 %, compared to 23.9 % for the SNP, 21.1 % for Labour and 19.2 % for the Tories. In the 1999 European elections, it was the Tories who came out top in Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale with a majority of 91 over the Scottish National party. The Tories took 23.7 %, the SNP 23.1 %, the Lib Dems 20.9 % and Labour 16.9 %.
This is indeed the most marginal seat in Scotland will certainly be one to watch on the night. Shades of Inverness, Nairn & Lochaber?
| Date | MP | Party |
|---|---|---|
| 1945 - 1950 | Lt Col Lord William Scott | Conservative |
| 1950 - 1951 | A.J.F. Macdonald | Liberal |
| 1951 - 1955 | C.E.M. Donaldson | Conservative |
| Date | MP | Party |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 - 1965 | C.E.M. Donaldson | Conservative |
| Mar 1965 (by) - 1983 | David Steel | Liberal |
| 1983 - 1997 | Sir David Steel | Liberal/Liberal Democrat |
| 1997 - | Michael Moore | Liberal Democrat |
Rank on Tory hit list: 5
Swing required for Tory gain: 4.56 % from Liberal Democrat to Conservative
Rank on SNP hit list: 5
Swing required for SNP gain: 7.06 % from Liberal Democrat to Scottish National Party
| Logo | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrat | Michael Moore | 12,178 | 31.22% |
| Labour | Keith Geddes | 10,689 | 27.41% |
| Conservative | Alister Jack | 8,623 | 22.11% |
| Scottish National Party | Ian Goldie | 6,671 | 17.10% |
 | Referendum | Christopher Mowbray | 406 | 1.04% |
 | Liberal | John Hein | 387 | 0.99% |
 | Natural Law | Duncan Paterson | 47 | 0.12% |
| Lib Dem hold | Lib Dem majority | 1,489 | 3.81% |
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