Dear All
One small footnote of interest so small that you might have overlooked it without really noticing is that there is a good chance that Labour’s Ken Macintosh may be beaten at the ballot box.
When the boundary changes took place, it wasn’t in his favour, redrawing Eastwood, has turned his 2007 majority of 891 into a notional Tory lead of almost 3500.
So, hopefully he will out, in this case the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
But still my enemy!
Scotland hates Tories.
Gone is Labour’s stronghold of Barrhead leaving him to try and sell his Red Tory Labour message in the affluent suburbs of Clarkston, Giffnock, Newton Mearns, Whitecraigs and Eaglesham.
And I don’t see the public buying into Labour or Macintosh.
At present he is searching for SNP and LibDem supporters to vote tactically against the Conservatives.
No one in the SNP will vote for him and it is doubtful that anyone else will; Labour polarises opinion.
He says:
“It’s actually for the Tories to lose. But I have every chance of winning if I can persuade not just Labour voters to vote, but SNP and Liberals to vote for me. There’s only one anti-Tory candidate who can win, and that’s me.”
He is the only anti Tory candidate, self delusion on his part.
Tory candidate Jackson Carlaw says he’s picking up tactical support from votes from other parties to help defeat Macintosh.
This tactic could be to the advantage of the SNP since Macintosh was a first past the post winner.
However last year, the Tories put a lot of time and resources into trying to take the equivalent Westminster seat only for Labour’s Jim Murphy to win and increase his majority.
Murphy used a late scare campaign using race issues.
His stop the BNP Campaign was nothing more than trying to secure vote caches at the expense of the Jewish and Muslims communities.
It was a good ploy.
So, come MAY 5th and if the wind is blowing in the right direction we could see a spectacular Labour loss.
A mini Portillo moment.
Ken Macintosh losing Eastwood and out of politics!
Tactical voting is all that is required.
Hopefully the people of Eastwood will send Macintosh packing and wise up that a vote is also weapon of mass destruction used against Labour.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Losing Ken MacIntosh from Holyrood would be to lose one of the hardest working MSPs we have. Anyone in his constituency with a problem knows that an email to Ken at anything up to 1am will get an almost instant response or at least withing an hoour! He has a sharp retentive memory which makes him brilliant at listening and summing up. I had the great pleasure of having him support our call for curbs on sunbed salons and we have been so glad of his help in bringing about the legislation which provides rights for under 18s not to be harmed by sun beds. We have several members in their 20s and 30s with life threatening melanoma as a result of using sun beds. When we exhibited in Parliament the one leader who walked past every one of the three days was Annabel Goldie - she did not want to know - despite melanoma being labelled the White Collar Cancer. The main reason that Eastwood should return Ken is that he is a hard working MSP who will stand up for his constituents first and foremost. Wise up and vote MacIntosh.
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