Dear All
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont was wildly celebrating last night after an epic fightback against the SNP in the Glasgow Council Elections.
Not only did the SNP massively fail to win Glasgow, they only got 5 extra seats.
The SNP put up 43 candidates and only got 27 seats for their efforts.
I knew Glasgow SNP won’t take the City of Glasgow, because I know Glasgow SNP.
Gordon ‘free dinners’ Matheson so often mocked by the SNP as ‘doing a wonderful job for us’ rose to the challenge and smashed the SNP's Z list candidates, they were outfought, outclassed and rejected by the people.
In the key Govan Ward were I live and stood down as an SNP Activist, the SNP put up 3 candidates in a traditionally strong area for them.
They returned one, the SNP Group leader Allison Hunter.
I never got an election leaflet in the entire 4 months of that disastrous SNP Glasgow campaign.
One person could have leafleted the entire Ward of circa 15,000 houses in that timescale and still have time to spare.
Last year Alex Neil said that a “political tsunami” had hit Scotland, well he was right but as the tide comes in, it goes out.
The moral victory, the key to Scotland, the jewel in the Crown of the Labour Empire is rock solid Labour.
Glasgow, 44 seats, a clear majority!
Taking Glasgow is like taking Stalingrad, the SNP needed its best activists, it needed people with vision, it needed local born and bred candidates.
In the end, the SNP decided that Glaswegians such as me were not good enough as outsiders were seen as more preferable.
Many of the SNP’s top activists sat this election out.
The SNP paid the price for their unfairness, inequality and anti working class stance.
Alex Salmond can’t win Glasgow in the referendum without his best activists.
After a dramatic day:
Labour are on course to head an administration in Edinburgh after emerging as the biggest party in the capital.
They swept aside an SNP-Lib Dem coalition in Renfrewshire and also came out on top in West Dunbartonshire, seizing control from the minority SNP administration.
They emerged as the biggest party in Dumfries and Galloway.
The Labour Party has cut the country in half; strategically this represents a major problem for the Scottish National Party.
The yellow map of Scotland just got very red in the south.
However, the SNP held on as the biggest party of local government across the 32 local authorities.
Labour were rightly celebrating after stopping the SNP juggernaut in its tracks, it’s an excellent result for them.
Unfortunately the SNP couldn’t work out what the Labour Party did to win early on, it was actually quite easy to see, but there is a genuine lack of talent in the Scottish National Party.
Ironically Johann Lamont hit the nail on the head when she said:
“If last year was a tsunami for the SNP, perhaps the tide is now going out on Salmond”.
Adding:
“Last year, Scottish people sent us a clear message – we had to up our game and put their interests before the party’s. We’ve taken a major step forward in rebuilding their faith in us.”
The SNP strengthened their grip on Stirling and East Ayrshire, and overtook Labour to become the largest party in North Ayrshire.
But lets be blunt, who gives a f*ck about the provinces?
This entire council election was about one location and one location only, Glasgow, without taking Glasgow, everything else is meaningless, completely meaningless.
Yes, the SNP got the most councillors, but they never came close to taking the prize!
However, Salmond claimed victory, saying:
“We’ve emerged as the biggest party of local government in Scotland and we’re very pleased with that. We’re entitled to say that, over the piece, we have won the election. If the test of the Labour Party is whether they can hang on to the city of Glasgow that shows the changing nature of politics in Scotland.”
A while ago, I blogged on the SNP 1,2,3 which I predicted would mean.
1/ The SNP weren’t going to win Glasgow.
2/ The SNP are going to lose the independence referendum.
3/ The SNP are going to lose the 2015 Westminster election.
So far George Laird is right again.
In order to change the cycle of three defeats, one already in the bag, the Scottish National Party has to radically change.
For Nicola Sturgeon who saw me at the Glasgow Election count, her face told a story of the day in Glasgow.
She brushed by me without saying hello after looking me in the eye.
I suspect she had plenty on her mind for example how well the Dundee SNP powerhouse did in their city.
Their success and the failure of 'Team Sturgeon' to establish a powerhouse in the city chambers, gives them pole position to bring forward the heir to Alex Salmond which I suspect is John Swinney or another one of their big hitters.
One thing that Nicola Sturgeon knows is that she has to enter the ‘transfer market’ for political ‘star players’.
Because there isn’t any in her team!
Open goal and they can’t even put the ball in the net!
How much easier does it have to get?
There is a geniune lack of talent in Glasgow SNP.
I have blogged and told the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon in particular how to fix Glasgow SNP, and was ignored, the results speak for themselves.
George Laird was right again and ahead of the curve!
The problem at Glasgow SNP is that a lot of not very bright people think they are clever, well, this was their 'coming out' party.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
5 comments:
I feel the reason Glasgow SNP failed was because the leader they had in place was not strong enough to take the party forward and her constant gaff's which were widely publisised didnt go down well at all.
The fact also that not many doors were chapped in my ward, (ward 10) also indicates that the councillors involved werent very interested and hence the reason the councillor for my ward is no longer a councillor.
Glasgow SNP needs a bigger voice than what it already has and a large voice that needs to be.
The present leader has to stand aside and let someone else who is loud & proud and wants to stand for the people of Glasgow and take the city forward. I always siad that after James Dornan giving up his post at the council, the SNP were on a shaky tooth.....these elections just proved it.
George ,George,as someone 'from the provinces' I recently have had to attend various 'do s' in Glasgow.
While I appreciate you know the political scene,far better than me (in Glasgow ) there is something of a missed opportunity for the people of Glasgow or even a hollow victory, for my God the City of Glasgow is tired looking.
I know this guy doesn't represent all cybernats... http://darklochnagar.blogspot.com/2012/05/today-great-scottish-city-glasgow.html
But this attitude is the reason the SNP will never take Glasgow, and as you say, will also lose the inde referendum in 2014.
Dear Anon
I took the time to read darklochagar's piece, people views have to be respected at the ballot box and elsewhere.
They voted as they saw it, for the most credible party to run local government in Glasgow.
The Labour Party.
You have to respect their views; they aren’t thick or stupid by any means.
The fact the cybernats say this only highlights how anti Glaswegian certain sections of the SNP are.
There was no vision, no big idea and no leadership by the SNP.
The SNP deserved to lose and they did lose very badly.
No George Laird radical thinking.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
It is now apparent how labour done better than expected. The report in the herald shows they appealed to members of the community they would not normally have given the time of day to. They compromised their morals and beliefs and have done damage to anti-sectarianism.
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