Dear All
Today is the Inverclyde by-election.
It is as everyone knows a straight two horse race between the SNP’s Anne McLaughlin and Labour’s Iain McKenzie.
The other three contenders are Lib Dem Sophie Bridger, Tory David Wilson, and UKIP’s Mitch Sorbie.
Last month saw a landslide victory by the SNP so Labour leaders are worried their massive majority will be wiped out in the by-election.
The Labour Party is sitting on a massive a majority of 14,416.
Massive pool of voters and David Cairns was a much liked MP.
A senior Labour source said
“It’s close, too close for comfort, but we still think we can win it. There has been a huge effort in the past few days.”
Labour is right to be nervous because they have been exposed as poor representatives of the community.
A Labour backbench MP said:
“It looks tight. Salmond has been virtually camped in Inverclyde all week but we believe we will win it, we should win it.”
The SNP have been very much pro active in Inverclyde with a well oiled slick campaign machine with many MSPs flooding the community canvassing on the door steps.
But at the Holyrood election, Greenock and Inverclyde Labour MSP Duncan McNeil held on to the seat by just 511 votes.
Everything is up for grabs in a by-election, in 2008, John Mason grabbed Glasgow East, but there were special circumstances there.
A lazy Labour MP who didn’t open a constituency office coupled with paying his family substantial amounts money from the public purse.
And the expenses scandal was raging like wild fire.
Labour have the jitters as it emerged as the SNP leader Alex Salmond has spent a sixth day campaigning in the constituency.
The First Minister has been knocking doors with candidate Anne McLaughlin, a former Glasgow list MSP.
I don’t think this campaign will go down in history as jolly.
Alex Salmond said Anne McLaughlin had exposed Labour candidate Iain McKenzie’s “secret plan” to cut council jobs.
Ms McLaughlin claimed that during the course of the campaign, she had “held the Labour candidate and his Tory coalition to account over their plans to sack workers and together we have forced them to back down”.
A retort from local Labour MSP Duncan McNeil accused the SNP leader of scaremongering and said he should apologise.
He said:
“Sometimes in the heat of an election politicians get a bit carried away, but Alex Salmond knows full well there are no plans to sack workers here, there were no plans to sack workers, and there will be no plans to sack workers. I know the SNP candidate in this seat has lurched from gaffe to gaffe, but this is the worst type of negative, gutter politics. The desperate irony of him making these false claims on the day of the final CalMac car ferry sailing here is clearly lost on him. The workers on that ferry now face life on the dole because of his decision to withdraw funding for the route.”
Politics is a rough and tumble business with accusation and counter accusation flying about the place.
The Labour Candidate is Iain McKenzie, he is in my opinion a weak candidate; he has no personality and sounds depressing.
But to show it’s not all doom and gloom LibDem MEP George Lyon provided a funny when he claimed only LibDem candidate Sophie Bridger had the “drive and vision” voters deserved.
Which is quite funny when you consider that in interviews she will be remember for having to say that she didn’t know the answers to questions.
Drive and vision my ass.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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