There wouldn't be an election in Scotland without Tommy Sheridan entering the contest at the eleventh hour and so it has proved for the upcoming General Election as the Solidarity leader will stand in Glasgow South West.
Tommy's candidature is part of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition group (full list of candidates below) and sees eight fairly prominent union and Solidarity figures standing across the Central belt. Without being mean, I'd be surprised if any of them, Tommy included, finished higher than 5th but given that it would largely be Labour votes they would be taking, one can't fully rule out this contribution being a decisove factor in seats like Edinburgh East, Edinburgh North & Leith and Glasgow South.
Glasgow South West
Tommy Sheridan
Former MSP and co-convenor of Solidarity
Glasgow South
Brian Smith
Branch secretary of Glasgow City Unison (the largest Unison branch in Scotland).
Glasgow North
Angela McCormack
EIS convenor, Coatbridge College. A Socialist Workers Party member.
Glasgow North East
Graham Campbell
Anti-racist campaigner. Solidarity member.
Edinburgh East
Gary Clark
Assistant branch secretary, Scotland No.2 CWU.
Edinburgh North & Leith
Willie Black
Unite senior steward and regional committee member. A Socialist Workers Party member.
Dundee West
Jim McFarlane
Chair of Dundee City Unison branch.
Motherwell & Wishaw
Ray Gunnion
Lanarkshire Socialist Alliance.
Salmond vs Trump
19 minutes ago
11 comments:
He takes votes away from Labour. Go Tommy!
Why is everyone saying he takes votes from Labour? The exact opposite was shown to be true in 2007.
Off-topic I know, but I was just watching last week's QT on iPlayer, and the Labour stooge and tory wench were repeating the same phrase about the "Prime Minister's" debates being for Party's that contest the UK election in every part of the UK. I think the tory bit repeated it about a dozen times.
I think I can thoroughly agree with that, although that'll make for a pretty small debate, since apart from the Tories, no other party (at least, none with any MPs) seek election in all 4 UK countries.
The SNP & Plaid obviously only contest Scotland and Wales respectively, and the NI parties only in NI.
Labour and the Lib-Dems only contest England, Scotland and Wales. Not Northern Ireland.
It's pretty much obvious at this point therefore that they wish to exclude only parties that do not contest England, since they are refusing input from the NI, Scottish and Welsh parties.
Pretty racist that, don't you think?
Have to agree the more candidates that split the Labour vote the better it is for the SNP.
If a vote for Tommy is a vote for the SNP, then I'm voting for Tommy.
Not really, but I'd just like to point out that the SNP is a coalition of political interests with the ultimate goal of independence.
Pro-Socialist nats might drop a vote or two their way.
I doubt it will have much of an effect, and there will be a larger pull from labour than from anywhere else, but still, don't count them out of the race when they've just entered.
The biggest help is that Tommy is completely insane, and their antics in parliament proved that fact.
Conway
True, but if the "Tartan Tories" tag sticks (and by the way the SNP should... SHOULD... be flagging up New Labour's own Thatcherite tendancies) then votes might swing Tommy's (and maybe Solidarity's way) from the SNP
Tommy didn't seem to split any votes in Glasgow NE, am I missing something here other than SNP kite flying?
these parties don't take votes from labour. look at john mccallion in dundee east when the ssp stepped aside and the nats won the seat.
poor article i'm afraid
I'm unconvinced that the SSP/Solidarity take votes away fro Labour Jeff as I before the North East by election
Fair enough, we're free to disagree.
I personally think if there are two supposedly lefty, socialist parties linked to Trade Unions then they'll take votes off each other. If two independence-supporting parties contested the same FPTP seat, they're hardly going to help each other.
And let's look at 2003 to 2007 Scottish Parliament.
Glasgow Pollock
Labour's share of vote went from 43.4% (in 2003 when Tommy Sheridan was challenging) to 53.8% (in 2007 when he wasn't)
Other Labour share of the vote 2003 to 2007 in Glasgow (where the Socialist input was negligible)
Bailieston: 2003 - 52.9%, 2007 - 52.9%
Rutherglen: 2003 - 45.8%, 2007 - 42.2%
Springburn: 2003 - 59.0%, 2007 - 56.9%
Kelvin: 2003 - 35.7%, 2007 - 33.5%
So, yeah, it looks like Tommy split Labour's 2003 vote to me but we're all free to disagree.
Colin,
I think the exact opposite was shown to be true due to the vagaries of the d'hondt formula.
In First Past the Post, I reckon it's a different kettle of fish and chips.
Post a Comment