Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'I really hoped for more from a Labour Government and from Sam Galbraith, who ought to know what the situation is really like. I fear that Mr Galbraith has become institutionalised. I speak to doctors every week who now feel there is no point in their saying what they think and complaining about the situation because no-one in power cares about what is going on - the staff don't feel part of the NHS enterprise and the situation is unbelievably awful.' Dr Brian Potter, Scottish Secretary of the British Medical Association, 5 th January 1999.

Strathkelvin & Bearsden

	Calum Smith		John Lyons
	Murray Roxburgh		Gordon Macdonald
	Willie Telfer

This area was one of dynamic population growth in the 1970s. The core of the constituency was the old Dunbartonshire East seat which increased in size to almost 100,000 voters in 1970 resulting in Milngavie and Clydebank being moved to Central Dunbartonshire. Strathkelvin & Bearsden was created in 1983 with 66% of its voters from Dunbartonshire East, 27% from North Lanarkshire and 8% from Stirlingshire West. In the 1997 boundary changes, the northern Milton/Gartshore area from the old Monklands West were added while the north part of Bearsden was hived off to Clydebank & Milngavie.

This area is extremely dynamic and not only in terms of its rapid population growth. Between 1977 and 1982, Strathkelvin District Council was controlled by the SNP, the Conservatives and then by Labour. In the successive parliamentary seats of Dunbartonshire East and Strathkelvin and Bearsden, the fortunes of the four main parties have ebbed and flowed in a totally unpredictable manner. The area was represented by Labour from 1970 to February 1974, from 1979 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1997. The Conservatives were top dogs from February to October 1974 and from 1983 to 1987, while the SNP held the seat from October 1974 to 1979.

Dunbartonshire East was held by MPs of three different parties in 1974. It was won by Labour's Hugh McCartney in 1970, but when the new Dunbartonshire Central seat was created in 1974, Mr McCartney decided to move to that seat which he won with a 6,500 majority over the Tories. His move seemed like a good idea as the Tories won two seats from Labour in the February 1974 election. One was Berwick & East Lothian and the second was Dunbartonshire East where Barry Henderson beat Labour by 400 votes.

Mr Henderson did not represent Dunbartonshire East for long. In October 1974, the SNP's Mrs Margaret Bain increased her share of the vote by 8.9% to 15,551 and slipped past the Conservatives and Labour to win by 22 votes. Only 407 votes behind the defeated Conservative MP was the Labour's E.F. McGarry. Dunbartonshire East went into the record books as the most marginal seat in the UK.

In 1979 it was assumed that Labour would regain the seat which it had lost in February 1974, and indeed Norman Hogg won the seat with a 2,324 majority over Conservative Michael Hirst, with Mrs Bain relegated to third place as in February 1974. Barry Henderson became MP for East and North East Fife from 1979 to 1987 when he was defeated by Labour while Norman Hogg was given a peerage in 1997 for resigning his seat in favour of ultra-Blairite Rosemary McKenna. Margaret Bain outlasted both her rivals. As Mrs Margaret Ewing she won the Moray Westminster seat in 1987 and the Scottish parliamentary seat in 1999.

The boundary and population changes in 1983 did not favour Labour and Norman Hogg preferred to the new Cumbernauld & Kilsyth seat to Strathkelvin & Bearsden. It was another wise move by a sitting Labour MP as Strathkelvin was won by Conservative Michael Hirst with a majority of 3,700 over the Liberal-Alliance's Ron Waddell. Labour's Adam Ingram, who became MP for East Kilbride in 1987, was relegated to third place and the SNP's Mrs Margaret Bain to fourth place. The Tories took 36.4 %, the Liberals 28.7 %, Labour 25.6 % and the SNP 9.2 %.

The tables turned yet again in 1987 with, as in 1997, tactical voting in a determined effect to remove the Tories. A swing of 10% from the Liberals to Labour allowed neurosurgeon Dr Sam Galbraith to come from third place to win the seat from Michael Hirst with a majority of 2,452. Labour took 38.1 %, up by 12.5 % on 1987, the Tories took 33.4 %, down 3.1 %, with Lib Dem John Bannerman taking 21.4 %, down 7.4 %, and the SNP's Gil Patterson, now a MSP for Central Scotland, taking 7.1 %, down 2.1 %.

In 1992 Michael Hirst attempted to regain his seat. Although a collapse in the Liberal vote allowed him to increase his vote by 2.6%, Labour's vote increased by 4.1% and Dr Galbraith was returned with an increased majority of 3,162. Labour took 42.2 %, the Tories 35.9 %, Tom Chalmers increased the SNP vote by 5.3 % to 12.4 %, while Barbara Waterfield saw the Lib Dem vote collapse by 12.3 % to 9.1 %.

In 1997, the addition of part of Monklands West greatly aided Dr Galbraith and his notional majority was more than doubled to 6,948. Sir Michael Hirst was installed by John Major as Scottish Tory Party chairman but came a cropper in a tragic frenzy of Tory self-destruction just before the 1997 general election. Hirst decided to contest Eastwood in the place of Allan Stewart who had resigned following allegations about his personal life. Sir Michael too retired following allegations about his personal life. The new Conservative candidate in Strathkelvin & Bearsden was David Sharpe. His chances of unseating Dr Galbraith were considered to be minimal and indeed Sam Galbraith's vote rose to 26,278 with the Tory vote falling to 9,986, just 1,875 ahead of the SNP's Graeme McCormick. Labour took 52.9 %, the Tories were down 15.8 % to 20.1 %, the SNP were up by 3.9 % to 16.3 % and the Lib Dems were up 0.6 % to 9.7 %.

After the 1997 General election Sam Galbraith was appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Scottish Office with responsibility for Health and was one of the few Labour MPs who decided to stand for the Scottish parliament. The Tory candidate was Charles Ferguson while the SNP selected Fiona McLeod, a librarian who was Deputy Convenor of Bearsden SNP and Convenor of Bearsden West Community Council.

In the Scottish election, Dr Galbraith polled 21,505 votes, the highest total of any candidate in the elections, and won the seat with a majority of 12,121 over the SNP's Fiona McLeod who was elected as a West of Scotland MP through the regional lists. As elsewhere when the sitting Labour MP was defending the seat, a distinct incumbency effect was seen with Sam Galbraith's vote at 50.7 % being down by just 2.2 % on his Westminster result. The SNP took 22.1 %, up by 5.8 %, with the Tories beaten into third place with 16.4 %, down 3.7 %, and the Lib Dems up 0.1 % to 9.8 %.

While the Scotsman had initially described Dr Galbraith as 'one of the most popular new Labour ministers', his popularity did not extend to health service workers with less money being spent on health under Labour than by the Tories. The Public Finance Initiative has become one of the major scandals of this parliament especially where it is being used for hospital funding and Dr Galbraith came under severe criticism from Unison and even the British Medical Association. Upon his election to the Scottish parliament he was given responsibility, not for health, but for Education where he presided over the SQA crisis and repeatedly refused to resign. To be fair to Dr Galbraith, he was responsible, but the crisis was as much the fault of the previous Education Ministers, Brian Wilson and Helen Liddell, who had forced through unnecessary reforms against the advice of teachers. When Henry McLeish became First Minister, he moved Dr Galbraith to Environment.

In March 2001, Dr Galbraith announced that he would be retiring, not only from Westminster, but from the Scottish Parliament due to health reasons. This means that there will be a Scottish Parliamentary by-election in Strathkelvin & Bearsden on the same day as the general election. The first blows were struck by the leadership as they banned Scotland's longest serving Euro MP, David Martin, a Vice President of the European Parliament, from standing in order to clear the way for a less illustrious candidate who could be assured of following London's orders to the letter.

For Westminster, Labour have selected John Lyons of Unison. The SNP candidate is Calum Smith who is the assistant to Roseanna Cunningham, the MP and MSP for Perth. The Tories have selected Murray Roxburgh who stood in Glasgow Springburn in 1999. The Lib Dem candidate is Gordon Macdonald and the SSP have selected Willie Telfer.

1 st May 1997 Westminster Election

Logo	Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Dr Sam Galbraith	26,278	52.86%
	Conservative	David Sharpe	9,986	20.09%
	Scottish National Party	Graeme McCormick	8,111	16.32%
	Liberal Democrat	John Morrison	4,843	9.74%
	Referendum	David Wilson	339	0.68%
	Natural Law	Janice Fisher	155	0.31%
	Lab hold	Lab majority	16,292	32.77%

Links

• Calum Smith (Scottish National Party)

• West of Scotland SNP MSPs

• Strathkelvin & Bearsden Constituency (Conservative)

• Strathkelvin & Bearsden Conservative & Unionist Association

• East Dunbartonshire Lib Dems