Scottish National Party Wins Glasgow By-Election

Yesterday’s Glasgow East by-election saw one of Labour’s safest seats, a seat it held for 84 years, fall to the Scottish National Party. In taking the seat, the SNP wiped out Labour’s general election majority of 13,507 to win by 365 votes. Alex Salmond, the SNP’s leader and First Minister of Scotland, said British PM Gordon Brown should either "change his policy or change his job." He’ll do neither, but he should call an election.

Mr. Salmond also said, “This by-election was unique - this was a by-election which was a test of strength between the Labour London government led by Gordon Brown and an SNP government in Scotland doing its best for the Scottish people. That was a test of strength that the Labour party set the timing of. It was in their third safest seat in the whole of Scotland. That was the test of strength, and it was London Labour that was found wanting and the SNP in Scotland that emerged victorious. We now command the agenda in Scottish politics.”

Prime Minister Brown told his side to “have confidence that not only do we have the right policies but that when the time comes we will be able to persuade the British people.” That means he will hold off on a general election until he absolutely has to call for one. By then, he hopes the economy will have improved, and the people of Britain will be feeling better about his actions.

The sad truth is that, by holding off as long as possible, Mr. Brown is merely delaying the day of reckoning. New Labour is now old hat. Graham Stringer, a Labour MP, said late last night, that the Cabinet should have a “closed and honest discussion with Gordon Brown. We need a new start and that can only come from a debate around the leadership.” Instead, Labour will go into the August recess without any candid discussion of anything at all.

Daniel Finkelstein of The Times wrote that there was something different about the Glasgow East by-election. He mentioned previous by-election defeats and European parliamentary defeats and noted, “What characterised these previous defeats was base Labour voters staying at home, unwilling to go out and cast a positive vote for Labour. Glasgow East was different. In Glasgow East, voters in pretty large numbers did turn out. They rushed out to vote for anyone who could beat the Labour candidate.” Mr. Finkelstein also noted that Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Tony Blair, said Labour was “sleepwalking to a massacre.” It might not even be that good.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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