Well today is by-election day. Remember, way back in the mists of time, well May, wasn’t it, when the Speaker resigned because the Commons had lost confidence in him... the first time for three hundred years... because he had been fiddling his expenses and encouraging an atmosphere where others could do the same?It took a long time and much backbench muttering but eventually the party leaders, led by Nick Clegg, turned on him, he was disgraced and he had to go.
So very quietly they sent him packing to the Lords, where there was much muttering about him bringing Their Lordships’ House into disrepute, but where in reality, there are so many other thieving old gits that another one won’t be noticed. And they did nothing about replacing the man in the Commons, on the basis presumably that they didn't have enough volunteers to fill in all the Mickey Souris and Donald Canard postal votes.
Well, today, having seen (I read somewhere) an increase of 4,000 applications for said postal votes, Glasgow North East goes to the polls. After 70 odd years of Labour domination, it is one of the most deprived areas of Scotland, indeed of Europe.
It comes at the bottom in just about every single possible indicator, as you can see from this information copied from Mr Burton's excellent The Universality of Cheese blog.
http://the-universality-of-cheese.blogspot.com/2009/11/glasgow-north-east-press-silver-in-my.html
School leavers with no qualifications - 300 per cent higher than the Scottish average.
Teenage pregnancies – 60 per cent higher
Deaths from lung cancer – 94 per cent higher
Heart disease – 40 per cent higher
Folk on income support – 130 per cent higher than the national average
Unemployment rate – 140 per cent higher.
Looking at the photograph above, it makes you wonder, when you consider that, until May of this year, the most powerful commoner in the land, The Speaker of Her Majesty's House of Commons was their MP. There is no doubt at all in my mind that he could have got things done. When he spoke people listened. He wasn't just a little unimportant MP that civil servants treated with disdain. He was MR SPEAKER. No one wanted to be on the wrong side of him. If he asked, he got.
Instead he used his huge power and influence to line his nest, and that of his taxi loving wife and of his children and grandchildren. He claimed expenses that he had no right to and he used his enormous power to block investigations into all MPs' expenses, including spending vast amounts of taxpayers' money to ensure that taxpayers would remain in the dark about MPs' tastes for all that is expensive.
He misused the power that he could have used to make life better for people in his constituency.
Today the voters of this benighted place go to the polls.... and in all probablility they will vote Labour, because, after 70 years of there being a Labour MP in that area, they still think that Labour is the party for people like them.... Oh well....
There are some more photographs here. This is Labour’s legacy.
http://www.scottishreview.net/IMcLeod166.html
Hope you got your postal votes in, remember, vote early and vote often as Labours new motto goes.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they will have QM. I'm looking forward to hearing the result tonight. I just hope we have reduced their massive majority.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed they get their arses kicked.
ReplyDeleteYou get the best annuity rate in the United Kingdom if you reside in Glasgow and have an existing condition, smoke like a chimnney and drink like a fish Glug!Glug!(Subrosa is a shoo in there)
ReplyDeleteA fact as proven by the BBC
Gone from 1000 (Alex said) to 4000 in a few hours tommorow afer the snp get royally spanked
we will have to put up with all conspirati and the postal vote plots again! yawn!
Why the snp supporters feel that slagging of the people of Glasgow and bellowing at them they live in cesspits and shitholes..will som how convive thme to vote snp is beyond me!
perhaps a more positive approach may help but i fear the pathological ingrained hatred of the labour Party and those that vote for them.
Drives the snp down this cul-de sac of negative bile..
and then they are surprised people from glasgow dont flock to their cause when most have the impression..the snp dont want them as they are 'SCUM'
You'll certainly not get me to suggest that the people of Glasgow are scum Niko. My mum comes from Glasgow.
ReplyDeleteI'm just dismayed that they get treated so badly and then go back for more of the same. It surely isn't because they want the best rates for their annuities?
Seeing as you mention a more positive approach Niko, you might like to say what is positive about the current state in GNE. Give me some pointers.
Scunnert:
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice, but it's an awful lot to ask for from one of the safest Labour seats in the country. I'm expecting a big drop in their majority. I'm sure there won't be an unbelievable number of postal votes. Nobody makes that kind of mistake twice.
My predictions...
ReplyDeleteTurn out... 29%
Votes as a percentage %
Labour 42%
SNP 32%
Tory 7%
Green 6%
BNP 6%
Lib 5%
others 2%
I really do think the Libs will get pumped in this by-election because the Granny candidate was very poor.
Smeaton could even do well although I think his airport bravery has washed off a bit and under neath he is just a dafty.
Interesting Spook.
ReplyDeleteI had a guess at 25% turn out with:
Labour 44%, SNP 35%, Tories 5%, BNP 5%, Green 3% Liberals 3% Tommy 2% Others 3%
Will be interesting to see who's nearer...:)
As an after thought Spooks, I never even saw the Lberal candidate. It shows how poor a left of centre party is when they are beaten by the Tories in a constituency as "Labour" as Glasgow NE. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what their future is in Scotland. Tavish doesn't have much to brag about, does he?
The hard pounding of the snp cannons fall silent the fog of battle slowly clears to reveal.
ReplyDeleteThe shining citadel of a Labour Glasgow North East glinting in the early morning sun..
the people of Glasgow North East have spoken
and with once voice they have cryed out......
FREEDOM! from the snp
Seems the people voted to keep themselves in the manner that Labour choose to keep them. Glasgow East is one of the poorest and most deprived areas in the country, has been for decades and they voted for more of the same, still that's what passes for democracy in this country and no doubt the voters of Glasgow East have got exactly what they deserve.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Labour have once again taken advantage of the Glaswegian self destructive chip on their proverbial shoulders and opted to remain in the pig sty. I wonder if they would not be happier as an independent republic, that way they could stop holding the rest of Scotland back.
ReplyDeleteAye Niko. Labour must be well pleased with themselves and their result. They sent the SNP homeward tae think again, and no doubt.
ReplyDeleteI hope that they continue to be proud of the landscape of dereliction they have charge of. If it were me I'd be deeply ashamed of the mess there, but I'm not labour, so I can't say.
Yes Quiet Man. I wonder how you get over to people that life doesn't have to be like this. Moreover, I wonder how you get through to them that someone might be able to change it. That's the quetion.
ReplyDeleteWell, Anon, this is what we call democracy, and we need to accept that this is the result that the people wanted. Of course with record low turnout levels it's hard to claim that it was what the majority of the people wanted. The majority, for whaever reason, passed that responsibility on to just 33% and stayed at home, or wherever else they were.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, looking on the bright side, Willie has told us that it is vindication of all Gordon Brown's policies and we can look forward to a fabulous future as Labour wins decisively next year when Brown is forced by law to call an election.
So I woke up with morning with a spring in my step. The poeple have spoken and all is well with the world....
Depressing isn't it....
It’s incredible that Glasgow North East is the biggest shit hole in the UK. Do the people who live there not know that? I wonder what they see when they look out of their windows each morning, clearly not the grey depressing piss stained dump that the rest of the world sees. But a socialist utopia that is just a little frayed around the edges. That must be great, they should bottle that, it would make them more money than any drug or any quantity of oil.
ReplyDeleteI did not think that the SNP would take this one. Am a bit disappointed that 60% of the 33% turnout voted Labour, I was expecting between 45-50%. Oh incidentally I also predicted that Smeato would lose his deposit, so i got one thing right at least.
ReplyDeleteBTW Tris am I your side kick or are you mine? There seems to be some confusion on this issue in another place.
I've often wondered what it could be like to live in a place like that. (Not that I live in some fantastic middle class area, you understand.)
ReplyDeleteI've worked in areas like that in Dundee, but with the best will in the world I can't imagine living there.
Grey walls, broken buildings, dog dirt, grafitti, rubbish, and scruffy, hard, thrawn, worn out looking people.....
No, I really can't imagine what it feels like.
Of course, I can't imagine what it feels like to wake up is a large house and have someone bring me a tray in bed and draw my bath, so maybe it's my lack of imagination.
I wouldn't believe a politician who came round and told me that my life could be like that. Why would they?
Munguin: It was predictable, as my article above said. But you're right. I didn't think that so many would vote Labour, or that so few would vote SNP.
ReplyDeleteAs I said above, I doubt that anyone in that area would believe that anyone could make it better. It's what most of them have had as a life for all of their lives. They really can't imagine anything else.
And voting SNP in this by-election would have made little difference anyway. The guy would not have time to prove himself and no matter how good he was, the seat would revert to Labour at the next election.
It's all pretty depressing when you think that the voters consider that Glasgow NE is the best it will ever be, and that their best hope lies with Gordon Brown....
Geez. If I thought that Brown was my best hope I'd be looking for the stairs to the multi roof.
Munguin: I note that on the fair Subrosa's blog there is something of an argument going on over these piddling details.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that it never occurred to me that I was so important.... or you for that matter.
Oh, can you fetch me a Pimms please....
Tris: I'm not one to gossip but........
ReplyDeleteOh and make mine a pink gin.