Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'The ditching of Scottish sovereignty and imposition of a referendum have nothing to do with meeting Scottish aspirations, and everything to do with New Labour's scrap with the Tories for the votes of 'Middle England.'
Scottish National Party Vice-Convener Nicola Sturgeon.

Glasgow Kelvin (Glasgow Region)

	Cllr Sandra White		Pauline McNeill
	Assad Ullah Rasul		Moira Craig
	Heather Ritchie

Glasgow Kelvin is really a revamped Hillhead seat taking almost 90 % of its voters from that seat with a further 6,000 from the abolished Central seat. Hillhead itself was created in 1983 taking 66 % of its voters from the old Hillhead seat and 30 % from Glasgow Kelvingrove.

Hillhead was claimed to be the best educated constituency in the whole of the UK where residents were more likely to hold a degree than anywhere else. It is the home of Glasgow University and had been held by the Conservatives since 1922. Between 1948 and 1982, the seat was won no less than eight times by Tam Galbraith, the eldest son of the then Lord Strathclyde and the father of the present Tory Leader of the House of Lords.

Even in 1974, however, there were signs that the Tory stronghold was crumbling as inexorably as many of the houses in the constituency. The majority of Tam Galbraith slumped between the February and October elections from a healthy 6,381 to a much slimmer 2,696 over Labour's D. Welsh with the SNP's Gordon Borthwick almost doubling the SNP's share of the vote and taking them from fourth to second place.

The 1979 election saw a swing to the Tories but in Hillhead Tam Galbraith's majority was further reduced to 2,002 over Labour's Richard Mowbray, who later joined the SDP, with the Liberals regaining third place from the SNP's Gordon Borthwick.

Mr Galbraith's death caused a by-election in March 1982 which made Glasgow Hillhead famous throughout the UK. With Labour turning sharply left, moderates in the party including Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rogers left Labour to form the Social Democratic Party. After a narrow miss in Warrington in 1981, Roy Jenkins won the SDP nomination for Hillhead. This was a seat which Labour should have won with the Thatcher government highly unpopular. However, Labour's David Wiseman ended up in third place with 25.9 % of the vote. The runner up was Tory Gerald Malone, (who later represented Aberdeen South between 1983 and 1987) with 26.6 %. This left Roy Jenkins as the winner with 33.4 % and a 2,038 majority over the Conservatives.

In 1983, there was a major boundary change which added part of the dissolved seat of Kelvingrove whose Labour MP, Neil Carmichael decided to stand against Roy Jenkins in the new Hillhead. With the boundary changes, Hillhead had a notional majority of 2,000, but Roy Jenkins held on with a reduced majority of 1,164.

In 1987, the Tory government was at an all time low in Scotland. 11 Tory seats were lost and there was a major swing to Labour which allowed them to take several non Tory seats including Dundee East and Western Isles from the SNP. In Hillhead the Labour candidate, George Galloway won Hillhead from Roy Jenkins with a 3,251 majority.

In 1992, Roy Jenkins did not stand again and George Galloway increased his majority to 4,826 over the Lib Dem's Chris Mason. The increased majority hides the major change in the vote here with labour falling by 4.4 %, the Lib Dems falling by 8.9%, the Tories increasing by 2.7 % and the SNP increasing by 10.0 %.

In 1997 George Galloway took 16,643 votes in the new Kelvin seat with the SNP's Sandra White, who had contested Hillhead in 1992, gaining second place with 6,978. The Lib Dems, who had held this seat from 1982 to 1987 had fallen to third place with 4,629, while the Tories, who had held Hillhead from 1922 to 1982 were in an even worse state with only 3,539 votes.

When Roy Jenkins became a member of the House of Lords he chose as his title, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead in honour of the seat which had rekindled his political career. He has recently proposed a very watered down system of PR for Westminster elections which could have dramatic effects on the Scottish parliament as under Jenkin's scheme, Tony Blair would reduce the number of Westminster seats and as he wants the Westminster and Holyrood boundaries to remain the same (for reasons which totally escape the majority of Scots including Donald Dewar) the number of seats in the Scottish parliament could be slashed by as many as 20 with more savage cuts to come. Tory Blair's jibes about the Scottish Parliament being a mere Parish Council suddenly do not sound so funny.

The Westminster MP for Kelvin, George Galloway is a bit of a loose cannon. An ex secretary of War on Want, he opposed the purging of militant, identifies with Sinn Fein and has sympathies with the PLO, having twinned Dundee with Nablus in the West bank while leader of Dundee Council. He has criticised the Gulf War and the air strikes on Baghdad, bring back an Iraqi girl to Britain to receive medical treatment. He has also been critical of the selection of Labour clones for the Scottish Parliament and was the subject of a no confidence vote and attempted coup by Patricia Godman who is standing for Renfrewshire West in the Scottish elections. 'Gorgeous George', who did not endear himself to the Labour leader when he shouted 'I don't give a what Tony Blair thinks in a debate in 1994, is somewhat surprisingly not standing for Holyrood. Although Mr Galloway may have wished to stand, he probably realised that there is no way someone with his reputation would have got past Rosemary McKenna's witch finders.

He is replaced by Pauline McNeil, a student at Strathclyde University, who is a former president of the National Union of Students.

The SNP have again selected Cllr Sandra White who has increased the SNP vote from 6.5 % in 1987 to 21.4 % in 1997. She was born in Govan and lives and works in Paisley. Educated at Gartamlock Secondary School, Glasgow College, and Cardonald College, she is a former JP who joined the SNP in 1983. She has been a full-time Councillor since winning a by-election in 1989 and currently represents the Foxbar, Paisley ward on Renfrewshire Council which she holds with a 515 majority over Labour.

The Tory candidate is Assad Ullah Rasul while the Lib Dems have selected Moira Craig.

Political History of Westminster Constituencies:

Glasgow Hillhead

1922 - 1982	Conservative
25 th Mar 1982 (by-election) - 1987	Social Democratic Party
1987 - 1997	Labour

Glasgow Kelvin

1997 -

Labour

1 st May 1997 Westminster Election