By Stewart Weir
It was around 1:30am on Friday, in East Kilbride. Andy Kerr had just become Labour’s first high-profile casualty when those with Holyrood ambitions in the nearby constituency of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse were called by the presiding officer to hear their fate.
Of course, they knew the outcome before stepping into the glare of TV crews and camera flashes. And given the facial expressions of the leading candidates, those sitting at home could ignore the predictions of university professors, pollsters, tipsters, political experts, tea-leaf readers and the like.
Christina McKelvie, SNP, had that look of “I know something you don’t know” – desperate to smile, but equally desperate to keep her joy under wraps until the man with the microphone recorded the verdict.
In contrast, Tom McCabe, Labour – who had previously held the seat – gave off only negative vibes. He knew what was coming. Very shortly, so did all the analysts and talking heads in the TV studios. And, most importantly, so did the electorate.
Want to discuss other issues? Join the debate on our new Scottish Voices forum
McCabe, MSP for Hamilton since the inception of the Scottish parliament in 1999, had lost. The former Labour finance minister exited left as McKelvie, a regional list MSP since 2007, romped home, recording a majority of 2,213. That was a seismic shift, given that she had lost four years earlier by 3,652 votes. It was an 11 per cent swing. While McKelvie and her SNP cohorts swept all before them, Labour’s yesterday men and women were quizzed about why they had gone in to meltdown. In McCabe’s case, he like others may just have been overlooked because people believed the SNP / Alex Salmond government had done a decent job over the past term. But there were other factors – of which being taken for granted was one. Labour only had a heartland because people had previously voted for them as if it was in their genes, passed down from earlier generations. Now was a time for change. Boundary changes may have been another factor. However, in McCabe’s territory, there was an issue which became dear to a great many people. In February this year, South Lanarkshire council’s planning committee voted to give permission for work to commence on a hazardous waste incinerator located near Dovesdale Farm, just a mile or so outside Stonehouse, bang in the middle of the constituency. It was a painful blow to campaigners – who, for several months previously, had corralled support from local communities and cross-party politicians opposed to such plans. That group included Labour MSP Karen Gillon, who would be ousted from her Clydesdale seat by fellow anti-Dovesdale politician, the SNP’s Aileen Campbell. But McCabe appeared to distance himself throughout the Dovesdale campaign. Of course, he might have been working on intelligence gleaned from his advisers on the ground, that it was no more than a localised skirmish. You would have to believe one such adviser was local councillor Jackie Burns, who voted for the incinerator. Oh, and Burns was also McCabe’s electoral agent. So, in the lead-up to the election, while McKelvie went into print with her objection to Dovesdale, McCabe made no reference to the project. “The SNP’s opposition to the Dovesdale incinerator – the only party to vote against it – is greatly appreciated by voters in the constituency,” said McKelvie. But if McCabe said nothing, whether through choice or ignorance, the same couldn’t be said for some of those working on his behalf. One polling station canvasser in Larkhall, in attempting to win over a voter who had already made up their mind that they were ABL ("Anything But Labour"), tried to convince the unconvinced. The incinerator facility would be "virtually invisible" (even with four chimneys and a 40-metre-high stack), it was safe, and anything said against it or the developers Scotgen – whose other facility near Dumfries is one of Scotland’s top 20 worst polluters – was just propaganda. Even – almost in desperation – that Dovesdale “wasn’t near Larkhall anyway”. So any fallout or dioxins, despite wind and rain, would obviously stop at Canderside Toll. That’s why protesters, who replicated possible fallout with a balloon release last August, received replies from as far away as the Cumbrian coast. Slightly further than Larkhall, methinks. As a supporter of the Dovesdale Action Group from the off, it would be nice to think the group had influenced people in some way to lodge a protest vote, or that Jamie Lowe and "Crimewatch Phil" Brunton had swayed countless voters by standing in the rain for hours in Stonehouse on Thursday, or that we had converted people to become like-minded thinkers. But I’m not that naïve. People made up their own minds about who they were going to vote for and the reasons why, of which there were many. However, the entire Dovesdale issue didn't leave people’s thoughts for very long. And if it did slip momentarily, the SNP candidate and canvassers reminded them of it. On the big day, McCabe remained confident after the polls had closed, but reality struck home in the wee small hours. “We [Labour] have to listen to the voters and learn lessons,” he said. Run that past me again, Tom. “Have to listen”? McCabe and Labour councillors in and around this particular constituency chose to ignore the public the last time they voiced an opinion – not at a UK or Scottish general election, nor local elections, but when in excess of 20,000 folk put pen to paper with letters of objection over the Dovesdale development. That figure represents the biggest protest to any planning application in South Lanarkshire's history, if not Scotland. Remember, it was not a petition, which would have counted as just one objection. Each letter was from an individual. Those 20,000-plus (although not all of voting age) were not listened to. Indeed, some politicians went out of their way not to even acknowledge their existence, and completely ignored the protestors. It was as if the politicians knew best and would decide, and those against this hazardous waste plant would just have to accept it. Which some – whether the 11 per cent of "shifters", or just 11 individuals – obviously have not done, given Tom McCabe’s demise. Now, all eyes will be on Christina McKelvie and just what her actions will be, and on the council elections next year. Twelve months on is a long time in politics – but not if you are watching and waiting for a hazardous waste incinerator to take shape on a daily basis…Want to discuss other issues? Join the debate on our new Scottish Voices forum
Related posts: