13 Nov 2009

Glasgow North East by-election 'It was the Sun wot won it'


The Sun gave Gordon Brown a boost, shocking to see the fascists with a 1,000 votes, that will be the BBC publicity for Nick Griffin, full results when I get them.

Difficult to compare as it was the speakers seat, so most parties do not contest by convention but it is a boost for Brown, helped by the SNP being in government and the Sun's handwriting debacle.

Weak result for Greens but this is not natural green territory, very embarrassing for the Lib Dems to be beaten by the BNP.

The socialist label produced three candidates....left unity would have beaten the BNP, I bet Tommy Sheridan never thought that he would lose to a fascist candidate in a working class part of Glasgow.

It would be great if the Greens and socialist cooperated more but the very fact that the once strong SSP is now so splintered is particularly depressing.

I am more sympathetic to the SSP but the ecosocialist network in Solidarity are pressing for red-green unity, so I wish them luck and much needed solidarity in their solidarity.

Fascism is on the rise even in working class Glasgow and that has to be a worry, BNP vote increases tend to correlate with more racist violence. All the 'mainstream' Parties are camping up the racism and getting tough on 'migration', which will of course make the BNP look more respectable, they don't care if prejudice brings votes, they just bring it on more.

An ethical politics, we still have some way to go.




Results

Labour 12,231 59.4%

SNP 4,120 20%

Conservative 1,075 5.2%

BNP 1,013 4.9%

Solidarity 794 3.9%

Liberal Democrat 474 2.3 N/A

Scottish Green 332 1.6 N/A

Jury Team 258 1.2 N/A

Scottish Socialist 152 0.7 -4.2

Mikey Hughes 54 0.3 N/A

Socialist Labour 47 0.2 -14.0

Independent 32 0.2 N/A

The Individuals Labour and Tory (TILT) 13 0.1 N/A

Majority 8,111 39.4 +3.7

Turnout 20,595 33.2 -12.6

5 comments:

Peter said...

Oh, god, so terrible!

Anonymous said...

Surprised to see such a low Green vote, don't you have a few councillors in Glasgow?

Derek Wall said...

its actually a little better than other recent parliamentary by-elections where we under perform compared to euros etc.

The Scottish Greens are a separate party from the Green Party of England and Wales, they have just had a great conference, membership is up, and they I have I believe 5 councillors.

so it would have been nice to have seen a stronger vote, however as I say parliamentary by-elections seem to be the category of contest where we under perform a little.

I am sure that SGP might want to comment

Derek Wall said...

by-elections in Glasgow I mean

ModernityBlog said...

Good post, that is the danger of neo-fascism, it is creeping up on all parts of Britain, whilst bits of the Left play games.

I hope that the Green Left make an effort to target these types of seats, and push out the BNP.

Imperialism Is the Arsonist: Marxism’s Contribution to Ecological Literatures and Struggles

Derek Wall ’s article entitled  Imperialism Is the Arsonist: Marxism’s Contribution to Ecological Literatures and Struggles , argues that Ma...