Alex Miller
Hard on the heels of its disastrous performance in the Dunfermline parliamentary by-election on February 9, the Labour Party lost a safe council seat to the Scottish National Party (SNP) in a by-election in Milton, Glasgow, on February 16.
In the Westminster seat of Dunfermline, a massive Labour majority was overturned by the Liberal Democrats. Labour was routed despite high-profile support from New Labour leader-in-waiting and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who claims to live in the Dunfermline constituency (when he's not living at 11 Downing Street).
Despite running a very strong campaign that was well-received in the streets and on the doorsteps, Scottish Socialist Party candidate John McAllion failed to increase the SSP's share of the vote, as voters queued up to register a protest vote against Labour by turning to the Liberal Democrats.
Writing in the February 17 Scottish Socialist Voice, the SSP's Ken Ferguson and Alan McCombes castigated the dishonesty of the Liberal Democrats: "Voters were determined to give New Labour a kick — and the main question in most people's minds was which was the best boot to use. In the event, the anti-Labour revolt coalesced behind the LibDems. The [LibDem] party, in keeping with its own time-honoured tradition, ran a thoroughly dishonest campaign. Thus we had LibDem opposition to the Council Tax trumpeted by new MP Willie Rennie as his party MSPs voted to keep it at Holyrood. The LibDem campaign opposed the plan for a Forth Bridge toll while LibDems on the Bridge authority voted for it.
"The LibDems have only 4500 members in Scotland. But they were able to draw upon vast UK-wide resources to finance and staff an awesome campaign. Over 100 telephone canvassers, based in a call centre in Somerset, worked day and night. Over 500 activists were drafted into the constituency from across the UK. An assortment of full colour newspapers were produced focusing on local problems and heavily promoting the candidate, Willie Rennie."
A week later, it was the SNP's turn to rout New Labour. In the Milton council ward, one of the most deprived areas in Glasgow, SNP candidate Billy McAllister polled 49.6% of the vote to Labour's 40%.
The SSP came third, with a creditable 6% of the vote, well ahead of the Liberal Democrats (2.8%) and the Conservatives (1.5%).
In the February 24 Scottish Socialist Voice, SSP councillor Keith Baldassara commented: "The sting in the tail for New Labour is that their defeat comes after they set a 0 per cent increase in Council Tax in a budget they tried to portray as progressive, which in fact was loaded with cuts and had nothing to do with looking after the interests of people in Glasgow."
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, March 8, 2006.
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