Scotland

In terms of which parties won how many seats – a pretty basic criterion for judging the outcome of a general election – 2010 in Scotland was a re-run of 2005. This is a longer version of this article than in the printed paper . In both general elections Labour won 41 seats, the Liberal Democrats 11, the SNP six, and the Tories just one. But Labour did regain two seats last week which it had lost in by-elections after the last general election: Dunfermline and Fife West (won by the Lib-Dems in 2006) and Glasgow East (the third-safest Labour seat in Scotland, won by the SNP in 2008). In both...

Following its failure to organise protests in Glasgow (in November last year) and Edinburgh (in February this year) the Scottish Defence League (SDL) announced that it would be holding a “respectful vigil” in Lockerbie on 27 March. The SDL’s decision to opt for a “vigil” in Lockerbie was a confession of weakness: lacking the confidence to try to organise an event in an urban centre, it chose instead to try to stage a stunt in a town of just over 4,000 inhabitants in the Scottish Borders. (The pretext for a protest in Lockerbie was Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill’s decision — taken in...

Public sector union Unison has called a demonstration in Glasgow on 10 April against planned, and already implemented, local authority job losses and cuts in services throughout Scotland. 50% of respondents in a recent survey of Unison members in Scotland reported a freeze on filling vacancies in their workplace. And 20% of respondents reported a policy of no cover being provided for absent members of staff. Given that the survey covered the impact of cuts imposed over the last two years, it does not take much to work out what will be the impact of the far greater cuts in spending due to be...

The Scottish Defence League (SDL) decision to stage what it calls a “respectful vigil” in Lockerbie on Saturday, 27 March, represents a sign of weakness — if not outright desperation. In November of last year, the SDL tried to stage a demonstration in Glasgow. It failed. Two weeks ago (20 February) it tried to stage a demonstration in Edinburgh. Again, it failed. Lacking the confidence to attempt another demonstration in a major urban centre, the SDL is retreating to rural Lockerbie. According to their statement announcing the “respectful vigil”, the SDL has selected Lockerbie for two reasons...

Violence, religious conspiracy, boozy teenagers. The Buckfast Code certainly provided low-brow entertainment. Unfortunately, it also missed an opportunity to explore poverty in one of Europe’s most deprived “prosperous nations”. Buckfast remains relatively unknown to the majority of Britain, perhaps because 60% of sales are concentrated in Scotland. A low quality wine costing the same as the average supermarket red; at 15% it is also similar in alcohol volume. What separates it is the 281 micrograms of caffeine per bottle. That mixing alcohol with concentrated caffeine provokes aggression is...

The Scottish Defence League (SDL) had planned to stage a city-centre rally in Glasgow on 14 November. In the event, they spent most of their time sitting in a pub, reliant on the protection of a couple of hundred police officers. “Scotland United” (SU) — launched in October to meet the SDL threat — staged a rally followed by a demonstration through the city centre on the day. It staged the rally and demonstration as an alternative to mobilising to confront the SDL. An alternative group, “Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance” (GAFA), was also set up because activists were concerned that any SDL...

Only 30% of the electorate felt sufficiently motivated to cast their vote in last Thursday's by-election in the Glasgow North East constituency. This was the lowest turnout ever in a Scottish by-election, and 13% lower than the turnout in the constituency in the 2005 general election. Apart from demonstrating varying degrees of voter indifference to all the parties which stood candidates - despite the vast resources poured into the by-election by the four main parties - what, if anything, can be read into the results of the by-election? Labour won 60% of the votes cast and secured an easy...

This year is the centenary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC). This august event in the calendar of the labour movement is being celebrated with millennium-style revelries, ranging from face-painting to street-busking. Unfortunately the festivities have diverted attention away from one fundamental fact: during the hundred years of its existence the STUC has turned away from working-class politics, in favour of Scottish-consensus politics of the lowest common denominator. The founding of the STUC in 1897 was a by-product of a conflict in the late nineteenth century British labour...

The Glasgow North East by-election, triggered by the resignation of the sitting Labour MP and House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin, will take place on 12 November. There will be three contests in this election. • To win the election (Labour is the favourite against the SNP). • Between the “candidates of the left” and the BNP. • And rivalry between the left candidates. Michael Martin stepped down at the height of last summer’s scandal over MPs’ expenses, after facing sustained attack for his failure to be critical of MPs who had milked the Commons expenses system and after trying to prevent...

Somewhere, out there, there must be a book which provides a decent analysis and critique, from a socialist perspective, of the SNP and the SNP minority government which has been in power at Holyrood since May 2007. Unfortunately — for reader and author alike — Tom Gallagher’s recently published work is not that book. The book begins with a history of Scotland from the Treaty of Union of 1707 through to the SNP’s election victory three centuries later. It is the good part of the book. The Union of 1707, Gallagher explains (like countless others before him) was not an act of annexation. On the...