 | 'The new First Minister Jack McConnell did not quite have it all his own way this week. He may have been powerful enough to get rid of five of his cabinet and replace them with his own 'Jacobites' but as soon as parliament heard that his favoured candidate for deputy presiding officer was the folk singing MSP Cathy Peattie, they voted for somebody else.' BBC Scotland News 30 th November 2001. |  |
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Cllr Keith Brown |  |
Cathy Peattie MSP |
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Tom Calvert |  |
Karen Utting |
 | Mhairi McAlpine |
Falkirk East was created in 1983 with 44 % of its voters coming from Stirling, Falkirk & Grangemouth, 36% from Clackmannan & East Stirlingshire and 20% from West Lothian. In 1997, the town of Falkirk itself, which was split between Falkirk East and West in 1983, is now entirely in Falkirk West while Falkirk East gained Stenhousemuir and Carron from Clackmannan.
The three seats which contributed to Falkirk East in 1983 were Labour constituencies with strong Scottish National Party traditions: Clackmannan & East Stirlingshire constituency was once the stronghold of Labour's Arthur Woodburn, Secretary of State for Scotland between 1947 and 1950. In February 1974 the SNP's George Reid overturned a Labour majority of 10,551 to win by 3,610 votes increasing the SNP vote from 15.5 % to 43.5 % in the biggest swing in the >UK and ousting Dick Douglas in the process. Meanwhile, the enormous West Lothian constituency, which had 85,645 voters by 1979, was the scene of no less than seven parliamentary contests between Labour MP Tam Dalyell and SNP chairman William Wolfe between the 1962 by-election and 1979. The SNP came closest to winning in October 1974 when they reduced Tam Dalyell's majority to 2,690 votes, taking 40.9 % compared to Labour's 45.3 %.
Stirling, Falkirk & Grangemouth was another constituency where the SNP polled strongly in the 1970s. The constituency was composed of two distinct parts - the town of Stirling to the west, and the Falkirk and Grangemouth area to the east. The SNP first contested the Stirling & Falkirk Burghs by-election in 1948 when Labour's M. MacPherson was elected with 49.0 % of the vote, with the Tories taking 42.8 % and the SNP coming third with 8.2%. The SNP have contested each election since then, with the exception of 1951, when they only put up two candidates. Mr MacPherson represented the seat until 1971, having increased his majority from 1,554 in 1950 to 7,230 in 1970, with a high of 9,420 in 1966.
The 1971 by-election was won by Labour's Harry Ewing, now Lord Ewing of Kirkford with 46.5 % of the vote and a majority of 4,488. In second place was Dr Robert MacIntyre, onetime SNP MP for Motherwell, who increased the SNP vote from 14.5 % in 1970 to 34.6 % in the by-election. In the February 1974 election, the SNP vote held steady at 34.5 % while Labour's vote slipped to 41.9 %, giving harry Ewing a 3,799 majority over the SNP.
In the October 1974 election, the SNP vote rose to 39.8 %, but Labour's also increased, to 43.3 %, returning Harry Ewing to Westminster for the fourth time in just over four years with a reduced majority of 1,766 over Dr McIntyre.
In 1979, the SNP vote collapsed and they fell to third place with 17.0 %. Harry Ewing took 56.5 % of the vote and obtained a 15,618 majority, more than the 13,881 votes his nearest rivals, the Conservatives had polled.
In the major boundary changes of 1983, the town of Stirling became part of the large, rural and marginal Stirling seat which would have been more appropriately named Stirlingshire. Meanwhile Grangemouth and the East of Falkirk were added to parts of Clackmannan & East Stirlingshire and West Lothian to form Falkirk East. Mr Ewing was adopted as the candidate for Falkirk East in the 1983 election he took 47.7 % of the vote and secured a majority of 10,061 over the Tories with 21.0 %. The Scottish National Party with 11.9 % were pushed into fourth place by the SDP who polled 18.5 %.
1987 was Labour's watershed year and Harry Ewing secured 54.2 % of the vote and a 14,023 (35.5 %) majority over the Conservatives who polled 18.7 %. The SNP's Ron Halliday regained third place with 15.4 % ahead of the SDP's Elizabeth Dick with 11.7 %.
Harry Ewing retired in 1992 and was created Lord Ewing of Kirkford. He became Labour's co-chairman of the Constitutional Convention but resigned in July 1996 in protest at Labour's first devolution U-turn which came close to destroying 8 years of the Convention's work as Labour's London leadership abandoned Scotland in order to win Conservative votes in Middle England.
Harry Ewing was replaced as Labour candidate in 1992 by Michael Connarty, a left-winger who was previously leader of Stirling District Council. There was a 9.5 % swing from Labour who polled 46.1 % to the SNP's Ron Halliday with 26.2 % thus reducing Michael Connarty's majority to 7,969.
In the Labour Landslide of 1997, their vote increased to 56.1 % and Michael Connarty was elected with a 13,385 majority over the SNP's Cllr Keith Brown with 23.9 %. The Tories slipped to 14.0 % and the Lib Dems almost lost their deposit with 5.2 %.
By the time of the 1999 Scottish election, Labour in Falkirk were in near revolt after being savaged by the Blairites Loyalists. Network Elle Supremo, Rosemary McKenna obviously did not think much of the local MPs. Although both Michael Connarty and Dennis Canavan wished to stand for the Scottish Parliament, they were both rejected from McKenna's approved list (which just happened to include her own daughter). Michael Connarty withdraw his candidature when it was leaked to the press that he had failed his interview. Dennis Canavan, however, went on to fight against those who he called 'Stalinist Labour' and humiliated them when he obtained the biggest majority in Scotland as the Labour vote fell by over 40 %.
In Falkirk East, the Labour candidate was Cathy Peattie , a member of the Campaign for Socialism which included the Mid Scotland & Fife MP Alex Falconer. His career had been effectively sabotaged by Glynis Kinnock for when he took a principled stand against the Blairite Though Police.
The SNP candidate was again Councillor Keith Brown, an elected member of the SNP's National Council and Assistant Spokesperson on Industry, Technology and Employment. He was veteran of several national election campaigns having contested Dundee West in 1992, the Lothians in the 1994 European elections, and Falkirk East in the 1997 general election. He is currently the leader of the SNP controlled Clackmannan Council.
In the Scottish general elections, there was a 10.2 % swing from labour to the SNP in Falkirk East and Cathy Peattie was elected with a majority of 4,139 over Keith Brown. Labour took 44.7 %, down by 11.5 % on 1997, while the SNP were up by 9.0 % to 32.9 %. The Tories and the Lib Dems were both in single figure on 9.7 and 7.1 % respectively with the Socialist Labour Party polling 4.7 %.
In addition to the loss of Falkirk West, the Blairite Thought Police's attempted cull of socialists in Falkirk also cost Labour the control of the local council. In 1995, Labour had 23 seats on the council and a ten seat majority over the other parties. In 1999, they were reduced to 15 seats, and became a minority administration. The SNP won Kinneil & Whitecross from Labour in a by-election in January 2001, giving them 10 seats and allowing them to form an SNP / Independent / Non- aligned Alliance. This ousted Labour from power for the first time since 1977.
Cathy Peattie was born in 1952 and educated at Beancross Primary School and Moray Secondary in Grangemouth. Before her election she worked in the voluntary sector and was a member of Labour's Scottish executive. Ms Peattie sang at Donald Dewar's funeral at the request of his family. A low point of her career was when Jack McConnell chose her to replace Patricia Ferguson as one of the two Deputy Presiding Officers. MSPs had other ideas and elected Tory Murray Tosh in her place.
Cathy Peattie is one of the few Labour MSPs who backed Dundee East MSP John McAllion's amendment on the 14 th March 2003 stating that 'no case for military action against Iraq has been made'. The amendment won the support of the SNP, the Lib Dems, the three minority MSPs and the Labour MSPs Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland), Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin), Elaine Smith (Coatbridge & Chryston) and Susan Deacon (Edinburgh East & Musselburgh). Other Labour and Tory MSPs backed the onslaught despite the fact that it did not have the approval of the United Nations Security Council.
The SNP candidate is once again Councillor Keith Brown, an elected member of the SNP's National Council and Assistant Spokesperson on Industry, Technology and Employment. Employed by A Unison official and local government officer in Stirling, Keith Brown was elected as councillor for the Clackmannan ward Alva in a dramatic by-election contest in 1996. Keith Brown became the leader of Clackmannan council in May 1999 when the SNP replaced Labour as the major party, obtaining an overall majority in April 2000 when they won Delph & Cambus from labour in a by-election.
Keith Brown is veteran of several national election campaigns having contested Dundee West in the 1992 general election, Lothians in the 1994 European elections, and Falkirk East in the 1997 general election and 1999 Scottish election.
The Tory candidate was initially Alexander Watt, but changed to Tom Calvert. The Lib Dems are fielding Karen Utting. The SSP candidate is Mhairi McAlpine who contested Falkirk East in the 2001 Westminster election, coming fifth with 2.3 % of the vote.
Assessment:
Rank on Scottish National Party hit list: 15
Swing required for Scottish National Party gain: 5.88 % from Labour to Scottish National Party
| Logo | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Labour | Cathy Peattie | 15,721 | 44.65 % | - 11.47 % |
|
Scottish National Party | Cllr Keith Brown | 11,582 | 32.89 % | + 8.95 % |
|
Conservative | Alastair Orr | 3,399 | 9.65 % | - 4.33 % |
|
Liberal Democrat | Gordon Macdonald | 2,509 | 7.13 % | + 1.95 % |
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Socialist Labour | Raymond Stead | 1,643 | 4.67 % | + 4.67 % |
| Scottish Families & Pensioners Party | Victor MacGrain | 358 | 1.02 % | + 1.02 % | |
| Lab win | Lab majority | 4,139 | 11.76 % | - 20.42 % |
| Logo | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Labour | 11,189 | 31.78 % |
|
Scottish National Party | 9,783 | 27.79 % |
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Member of Parliament for Falkirk West | 7,129 | 20.25 % |
|
Conservative & Unionist Party | 2,820 | 8.01 % |
|
Liberal Democrats | 1,556 | 4.42 % |
|
Socialist Labour Party | 1,292 | 3.67 % |
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Scottish Green Party | 609 | 2.84 % |
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Scottish Unionist Party | 234 | 0.66 % |
|
Scottish Socialist Party | 209 | 0.59 % |
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Natural Law Party | 76 | 0.22 % |
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ProLife Alliance | 55 | 0.16 % |
| Others: Scottish Families & Pensioners Party Independent Progressive (Breakdown not available) |
251 | 0.71 % | |
|
Lab maj | 1,406 | 3.99 % |
| Logo | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Labour | Michael Connarty | 23,344 | 56.12% |
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Scottish National Party | Cllr Keith Brown | 9,959 | 23.94% |
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Conservative | Malcolm Nicol | 5,813 | 13.98% |
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Liberal Democrat | Roger Spillane | 2,153 | 5.18% |
 |
Referendum | Sebastian Mowbray | 326 | 0.78% |
|
Lab hold | Lab majority | 13,385 | 32.18% |
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