Election Special, Gail Sheridan attempts to climb Olympus in Ward 4, vice-chair of the community council, maybe its time for a second chance!

Dear All

It is a few days to election for people standing to be councillors in Glasgow.

One of the high profile candidates is Gail Sheridan.

She is the wife of Tommy Sheridan, who has politically crashed through the floor along with his party.

But political parties are supposed to be more than just a one man band.

Solidarity, which is a Tommy Sheridan vehicle is an odd little bunny, it has policies and the usual trappings of a political party but not traction.

It is a party in need of overhaul, from top to bottom.

I have blogged of how toxic they have become since the Tommy Sheridan scandal.

They need a new name and someone to come in and reset their entire party, but that is for another day and blog post.

Gail Sheridan is hoping to represent her community in her own right by winning a seat in the local elections, perhaps due to name recognition she may do so, but Team Sheridan has a mountain to climb.

As someone interested in politics, this would be a good campaign to manage and be in because expectations are so low here.

Will Gail Sheridan pull off a win?

This is very much in the lap of the Gods; Craigton is a strong area for the Labour Party, particularly in Cardonald.

Other parts of the Ward are good for the Scottish National Party.

And the campaign for council has generally been low key to the point of not happening, despite trying to whip up there is something in the air, there isn’t.

A low key campaign by the Labour Party has put others to sleep.

On the plus side, the Sheridans actually live in the ward in their home in Cardonald, which is midway between Glasgow and Paisley.

However many other candidates do so as well but at least they can claim to be local.

If Gail Sheridan is elected, she will be compelled to take her role seriously, because her election if successful is about more than just her, so in some respects, the people in Ward 4 may get a better service from Gail Sheridan than from other candidates.

Some candidates will be doing their council duties as very much as a part time job.

In Craigton, there is a strong Labour vote, so Alistair Watson and Mathew Kerr stand a very decent chance of re-election.

Then there is the Scottish National Party, the long serving Councillor Iris Gibson stands a decent chance of re-election as she is targeting the vote in Mosspark area.

That is 3 out of four seats possibly gone.

One left, for the others to fight over.

The rest are:

Gordon MacDiarmid, Glasgow First
Janice MacKay, UKIP
Jayne Ann Morgan Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Isabel Nelson Scottish Liberal Democrats
Ian Ruffell Scottish Green Party
Jim Torrance Scottish National Party (SNP)

Does the Glasgow First candidate have enough trigger time in the Ward? No, they are a new group and McDiarmid isn’t even a councillor.

Janice MacKay, UKIP, this party is seen as a version of the Tory party with anti EU stance, no chance.

Jayne Ann Morgan, Tory candidate, well, no chance.

Isabel Nelson Scottish Liberal Democrats, very extensive history of politics in her CV, but the Lib Dems a downward spiral.

Ian Ruffell Scottish Green Party may pick up votes but I think he has a mountain to climb in this area.

Jim Torrance Scottish National Party (SNP) his chance of success may rest on popularity of the Scottish National Party. If elected he will be very much a part time councillor but voters may go for him instead of Iris Gibson as the younger candidate.

So, Gail Sheridan is the high profile candidate, but her task isn’t easy, her husband’s problems will affect her possible vote, but politics is weird sometimes and people can be forgiving.

To return to the plus column, born in Govan, Gail Sheridan has lived much of her life in Cardonald and for the past 10 years she has been vice-chair of the community council.

In the Ward she is recognised which cannot be said for many of the other candidates standing in this election.

If she was standing in my ward, I would give her one of my votes for the four places.

She unlike some others standing in Ward 4 understands the meaning of loyalty.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University