Friday, April 13, 2007

South of Scotland

Ayr - Just the Big 4 here, and John Scott looks like holding the seat for the Tories.

Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley - the Big 4 plus a candidate from the Equal Parenting Alliance and Independent Candidate Hugh Hill. This looks like a win for Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson.

Clydesdale - the Big 4 again here. It's looking like a close-run thing between Labour incumbent Karen Gillon and SNP challenger Aileen Campbell. The national figures currently have Gillon holding on, but only just.

Cunninghame South - nothing of note here, just the usual suspects challenging and it's a fairly safe Labour seat. Irene Oldfather will probably be back in on May 4.

Dumfries - just the Big 4. This is one of the few seats where the Tories are the main challengers, and their candidate is Murray Tosh. Despite the chagrin shown by one reader of this blog, I still see Elaine Murray as hanging on by the skin of her teeth, unless the Labour campaign gets any worse, or the Tories find some national momentum.

East Lothian - just the usual four again. John Home Robertson is standing down and Labour's proposed replacement, former Edinburgh Pentlands MSP Iain Gray, is the likely winner.

Galloway & Upper Nithsdale - the Big 4 plus the delightfully named Sandy Preposterous Richardson. The current figures see the SNP's Alasdair Morgan winning the seat back from Conservative Alex Fergusson, who defeated Morgan in 2003.

Roxburgh & Berwickshire - the Big 4 plus musician Jesse Rae. It looks like a fairly safe hold for LibDem Euan Robson.

Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale - the Big 4 here. Jeremy Purvis is the incumbent, he has a wafer-thin majority over SNP Candidate (and Regional MSP before dissolution) Christine Grahame. Derek Brownlee, the Tory candidate has been a Regional MSP at Holyrood since Mundell's resignation in 2005, but I can't see past a Grahame victory at this stage.

The Regional List - the Big 8 are all here, along with the BNP, the Christian People's Alliance and the Scottish Christian Party, Scottish Voice, Socialist Labour, and UKIP. Paddy Scott Hogg is standing as an Independent. It's looking like 4 SNP Members: a return for 2004 Leadership Contender Mike Russell, re-election for Adam Ingram, and election for Aileen Campbell and Aileen Orr. They'll be joined by Tories Derek Brownlee and John Lamont (so Murray Tosh is in trouble), and LibDem Jim Hume.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tory win in Dumfries, the Labour campaign is dreadful with their only card being the Tory candidate isn't from Dumfries. Noone cares. Everyone is tired of Labour. Apart from that pretty spot on although I'd like to see Fergusson win GUN, I am starting to worry he won't.

Anonymous said...

Who's Paddy Scott Hogg?

Richard Havers said...

Roxburgh & Berwickshire.

I think there will be a swing to John Lamont he got one at the last London elections from the Lib Dems and I think the vote Lib Dem is a vote for Labour will help him. I'm sure it won't be enough.

Some more here on our area

http://haveringhavers.blogspot.com/2007/04/battle-of-pamphlets.html

Richard Havers said...

The Conservatives trashed the Lib Dems at the last Holyrood elections for the last MSPs in Roxburgh and Berwickshire.

Added to which Euan Robson is conducting what must be one of the dullest campaigns in living memory