Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'In every working day a Scottish teacher achieves more than a New Labour Minister does in a lifetime.'
Alex Salmond at the SNP Conference 1998.

Greenock & Inverclyde (West of Scotland Region)

	Ian Hamilton QC		Duncan McNeill
	Richard Wilkinson		Ross Finnie
	Davy Landels

In 1983, the changes in Greenock & Inverclyde were minor with the seat being slightly reduced in size. 1997 sees major boundary changes with the eastern Port Glasgow being transferred to Renfrewshire West, while Greenock gains the Inverclyde towns of Gourock and Wemyss Bay and a change of name to Greenock & Inverclyde.

Greenock was won by Labour from the Liberals in 1936 and the seat continued to have a strong Liberal tradition for many years. As recently as 1970 the Conservative did not even contest Greenock and the Liberals came within 3,000 votes of taking the seat. The Liberals remained strong contenders in the seat and although their parliamentary vote has collapsed in recent years, they are still strongly represented in the Inverclyde Council, which they controlled as recently as 1980.

Greenock (Greenock & Port Glasgow from 1974) was held for Labour by Dr J. Dickson Mabon from 1955 until the early 1980s when he defected to the Social Democratic Party. Dr Mabon and Robert Maclennan were the only two of the 44 Scottish Labour MPs to defect to the SDP.

Dr Mabon's defection caused a fight between the SDP and the Liberals. With the exception of October 1974 when the SNP came second, they had spent many years as the main opposition to Dr Mabon, taking 16,000 votes in 1970 and reducing Dr Mabon's majority to 3,000. They refused to accept him as Alliance candidate and finally, Dr Mabon was forced to stand for the neighbouring Renfrew West and Inverclyde seat which he narrowly lost to Conservative Mrs Anna McCurley in a close contest with only 1,530 votes between first place Conservatives and third place Labour.

The boundary changes in Greenock and Port Glasgow in 1983 were minor, involving a reduction in the size of the seat. The election was hotly contested between the Liberals and Labour but Labour candidate Dr Norman Godman won with a 4,625 majority over Liberal Councillor Alan Blair, down from Dr Mabon's 11,282 majority for Labour in 1979.

The Liberal vote collapsed in 1987, and although they still came second, Dr Godman's majority more than quadrupled to 20,055, only 600 less than his total vote in 1983.

In 1992, the Liberals were beaten into fourth place while Ian Black doubled the SNP vote to take them into second place. However, despite the swing of over 8% from Labour to the SNP, Norman Godman's majority was still a healthy 15,000.

The boundary changes in 1997 were extensive. In 1992 the new seat of Greenock & Inverclyde would have given Mr Godman a notional 10,238 majority over the Tories. In 1997, the Tory vote was halved and they fell to fourth place with Norman Godman winning a 13,040 majority over the SNP's Brian Goodall.

Inverclyde hit the headlines in October 1996 when the Liberals won a Greenock ward on the council from Labour. The Liberal Democrats romped home with almost 60% of the vote and a 528 majority over Labour. The swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats was a massive 20.0%. The victory took the number of Liberal Democrats to 6 on Inverclyde Council where they form the main opposition to the ruling Labour group which is now reduced to 13 seats.

However, the Liberals parliamentary electoral record in this area has not matched their local election success. The fact that the Holyrood election is being held on the same day as the local election may test some voters loyalty.

Before the 1992 election, Norman Godman stated that he would stand for the Scottish parliament, but he is one of those who, like George Robertson, have since changed their minds. With Norman Godman's decision not to stand, Labour needed to find a new candidate. He is Duncan McNeil, a member of the Scottish executive who is a full time official in the GMB Union.

The Scottish National Party have a legendary candidate here. He is Ian Hamilton QC, one of the four who removed the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey on Christmas eve 1950 and repatriated it to Scotland. Once the Stone was recovered, Hamilton and the others were threatened with prosecution by the Crown which resulted in thousands of Scots taking to the streets to demonstrate in their favour. In the event, no prosecutions were made and for a very good reason - the Stone had been stolen from Scotland by Edward I in 1296 and any case would require ownership of the Stone to be asserted - something which would have proved to be extremely embarrassing for the Crown. In 1996, Michael Forsyth returned the Stone to Edinburgh castle, hoping that this gesture would revive Tory fortunes, while a clearly irritated Duke of York made it quite clear that his mother was only lending her stolen goods to Scotland. Ian Hamilton refused an invitation to the party, although Kay Matheson did accept. Forsyth's gesture was in vain and every single Tory lost their seat in the 1997 general election.

In 1994, Ian Hamilton contested the Strathclyde East Euro constituency for the SNP, coming second with 29.5 % of the vote. In this election, he will be looking to build on the result last time when the SNP moved into second place, while the Conservatives Richard Wilkinson will be fighting to retain third place.

The Lib Dem candidate is Ross Finnie who ran the Lib Dem selection committee. He tops the Lib Dem West of Scotland list and should win a regional seat at Holyrood.

Political History of Westminster Constituencies:

Greenock

- 1935	Liberal
1935 - 1974	Labour

Greenock & Port Glasgow

1974 - 1997

Labour

Greenock & Inverclyde

1997 -