European Parliament Elections 2004

'This is Labour's worst result in Scotland since 1918. This is the narrowest the gap between them and ourselves has ever been in a nationwide election.'
Alex Salmond commenting on the 1999 European elections, 14 th June 1999.

The European Parliament elections 1975 - 1999

The European Parliament was set up in 1975 and until the first direct elections in 1979, the parties sent their own representatives: Winnie Ewing MP for the SNP, Russell (now Lord) Johnston MP for the Liberals and Sir Thomas (Tam) Dalyell MP for Labour and Alex Fletcher MP (Conservative & Unionist) who was later replaced by John Corrie (Bute & North Ayrshire). While Tam Dalyell and Alex Fletcher did not contest the first direct elections and Russell Johnston failed to get elected twice, Winnie Ewing went on to become the longest serving member of the European parliament in 1996 and was awarded the honorary title 'Conservator of the Scottish Privileges of Veere' by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Winnie Ewing went on to become the Mother of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and as acting Presiding Officer uttered the memorable words 'The Scottish Parliament, adjourned on the 25 th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened'.

The first direct elections to the European Parliament were held in 1979. Due to a low turnout and Labour hostility to Europe, the Conservatives did incredibly well, taking five of the eight constituencies with 33.7 % of the voted compared to two for Labour with 33.0 %. The other seat, Highlands and Island, was won by Winnie Ewing for the SNP with a majority of 3,882 over Russell Johnston, who was the favourite.

Labour had its revenge in 1984 when it won Strathclyde West, Mid Scotland & Fife and Lothians from the Conservatives with large majorities of 13.4 %, 14.4 % and 14.0 % respectively. Labour doubled their majorities in Glasgow and Strathclyde East to over 40 %. The Tory majority in South of Scotland was slashed to 1.9 %, while they held on in North east Scotland with Labour moving into third place, the SNP moving to third and the SDP/Alliance falling to fourth place. In the Highlands & Islands the SNP's Winnie Ewing more than quadrupled her majority over Russell Johnston.

The (then) socialists reached their electoral summit in 1989 when they won the last two Tory seats. South of Scotland fell to Labour with a majority of over 15,000 over the Tories while in North East Scotland Tory MEP James Provan was beaten into third place with Labour's Henry McCubbin snatching the seat with a majority of 2,613 over the SNP's Dr Allan Macartney. Meanwhile, in the Highlands & Islands, Winnie Ewing took over half the vote, increasing her majority to almost 45,000, up from under 4,000 in 1979. The big surprise in 1989 was the strength of the Green vote - they polled 115,028 votes and their 7.2 % share was 2.9 % more than that of the Liberal Democrats.

In 1994 the Tories were routed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats in England & Wales. Labour celebrations were tarnished by the loss of North East Scotland where there was a swing of 8 % to the SNP and Dr Allan Macartney took the seat with a majority of over 31,000. Henry McCubbin obtained his place in the record books as the only British Labour MEP to lose his seat.

Dr Macartney's death in 1998 caused a by-election in North East Scotland. Labour had some hopes of winning back the seat, or at the very least reducing the SNP's majority. They were heartened on the eve of the by-election when the Scotsman published an ICM poll of 1,135 voters in the North East Scotland constituency which suggested that Labour were only 4 % behind the SNP. Both Labour and ICM were humiliated in the by-election when the SNP's Ian Hudghton won the seat with an increased majority of almost 34,000 over the Tories while Labour were beaten into third place with 18.5 %, almost 30 % behind the SNP.

The fifth direct elections in 1999 were held by proportional representation with the d'Hondt system being used to determine the placing. Labour and the SNP were expected to take three or four seats each with the Tories tipped to win the final seat. In fact the results were quite different. Despite polling its worst electoral showing since 1918, the Labour party with 28.7 % gained three MEPs, with the SNP, who polled 27.2 % taking two seats. The big surprise was the showing of the Tories, who with 19.8 % of the vote also won two seats while the Liberal Democrats, whose European vote had collapsed since they polled 15.6 % in 1984, broke their duck and won a seat with 9.8 % of the vote.

In 2004, the stakes are even higher than they were in 1999 and one party is guaranteed to lose a seat. Due to the enlargement of the European Union, the number of seats allocated to member states have been cut and the UK government has decide to reduce the number of seats in Scotland from eight to seven. If the voting pattern in 2004 exactly duplicated that of the 1999 European election, Labour, the SNP and the Tories would win two seats each, with the Lib Dems winning one seat. However, as the 1999 election proved, nothing can be taken for granted and the parties have everything to play for.

The competition for the seven seats seems guaranteed to be intense with the Greens and Scottish Socialist Party, who won seven and six seats in the 2003 Scottish parliament elections with 6.7 % and 6.9 % of the regional vote respectively, also hoping for a share of the European cake for the first time. The UK Independence party are polling very strongly south of the border and have hopes of beating the Lib Dems into fourth place. However in Scotland the UKIP is realitively weak, polling only 1.3 % of the vote in 1999 compared to 7 % in the UK as a whole.

One scupper factor could be the turnout. At the 2001 Westminster election, just 58.1 % of Scots bothered to vote, 13.2 % less than in 1997, while the turnout at the Scottish Parliament election in 2003 was even worse at 49.4 %. Few voters see Europe as relevant to them and turnout at these elections have been traditionally low. At the last European elections in 1999 turnout in the UK was 24 %, the lowest in the European Union. In January 2004, the UK office of the European Parliament, polled over 2,000 people and discovered that only 18 % of them would definitely vote in the European elections on 10 th June.

In such circumstances, almost anything could happen.

The Party Lists

Party	Labour	Scottish National Party	Conservative & Unionist	Liberal Democrat
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1	David Martin MEP	Ian Hudghton MEP	Struan Stevenson MEP	Elspeth Attwooll MEP
2	Catherine Stilher (nee Taylor) MEP	Alyn Smith	John Purvis MEP	Cllr Robert Aldridge
3	Bill Miller MEP	Kenneth Gibson	Cameron Buchanan	Alex Bruce
4	Kirsty O'Brien	Douglas Henderson	Sebastian Leslie	Cllr Karen Freel
5	Colin Smyth	Alasdair Nicolson	Anne Harper	Douglas Herbison
6	Catriona Renton	Alex Orr	Paul Nelson	Dr Clive Sneddon
7	Gemma Doyle	Janet Law	Douglas Taylor	Christine James
8		Duncan Ross		Jermaine Allison

Party	Scottish Green Party	Scottish Socialist Party	UK Independence Party	British National Party
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1	Chas Booth	Felicity Garvie	Peter Troy	Steven Blake
2	Tara O'Leary	Dr Nick McKerrell	Philip Anderson (was George Cormack)	Scott McLean
3	Martin Bartos	Hugh Kerr	George Cormack (was Michael Phillips)	David Kerr
4	Moira Dunworth (was Mark Sydenham)	Catriona Grant	Michael Phillips (was Janice Murdoch)	Stephen Burns
5	Alastair Whitelaw (was Martha McGlynn)	Lynn Sheridan	Janice Murdock (was Donald MacKay)	Bryan Dickson
6	Katherine Joester (was Moira Dunworth)	John Sangster	Donald Mackay (was Peter Neilson)	Craig McComb
7	James Park (was Alistair Whitelaw)	Andrew Rossiter	Peter Nielson (was Robert McWhirter)	John Bean

Party	Scottish Wind Watch	Operation Christian Vote	Independent
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1	Brendan Hamill	James Hargreaves	Fergus Tait
2	Sylvia Thorne	William Thompson
3	Charles Benny	Richard Russell
4	Jennifer Scobie	David Braid
5	Bennie Palmer	Marion McNeill
6	Helen Pass	Mary Hay
7	Richard Hammock	Rose Irtwange

The Candidates

Labour

David Martin MEP is currently Scotland's longest standing European MP, having won the Lothians from the Tories in 1983. He was elected as the first list MEP in 1999. A former accounts clark, animal rights campaigner, Martin has served as a Vice President and Deputy Speaker of the European Parliament and is well liked. Except by New Labour, it would seem. When Dr Sam Galbraith decided to retire from the Scottish Parlaiment due to ill health in 2001, David Martin wanted to stand for Starthkelvin & Bearsden, but did not even make the short lite. Perhaps that was just as well as in 2003, Labour lost Strathkelvin & Bearsden to hosptal campaigner Dr Jean Turner. In October 2002 David Martin threatened legal action after Scottish Labour appeared to favour Bill Miller over him and Catherine Stihler. David Martin's first place on Labour's list virtually guarantees his return to Brussels and Strasbourg.

Catherine Stihler (nee Taylor) MEP contested Angus for Labour at the 1997 Westminster election, coming third with 15.6 %. She was fourth on Labour's list for the 1999 elections, but after a disasterous showing in the 1998 North east Scotland by-election, Kathleen Walker-Shaw resigned her third place on Labour's list and Stihler was elected as the eight list MEP in 1999.. This time around she has moved up to second place and should be hoping to hold her seat unless the Labour vote crashes.

Bill Miller MEP Bill Miller is Scotland's second longest continually serving MEP, having inherited Glasgow, one of only two seats that had been won by Labour in 1979, when Janey Buchan retired in 1994. He was elected as the fourth list MEP in 1999. Where Mrs Buchan was a confirmed Euro sceptic, Bill Miller is more pro-European. Having lost out on second place on Labour's list to Catherine Stihler, Bill Miller's return to the European parliament looks far from certain.

Scottish National Party

Ian Hudghton MEP held North East Scotland for the Scottish National party in the first and only European Parliamentary by-election following the death of SNP deputy leader Dr Allan Macartney. Labour had hopes of regaining the seat which they had won from the Tories in 1989, only to lose it to the SNP in 1994. An ICM opinion poll in the Scotsman on the eve of the by-election put Labour just 4 points behind the SNP, but the next day Ian Hudghton obtained a majority of over 33,000 over the Tories with Labour falling back to third place almost 30 % behind the SNP. He was elected as the second list MEP in 1999. In the last parliament, Ian Hudghton covered the North of Scotland with his colleague, Professor Sir Neil MacCormick covering the south. He currently serves on the Fisheries, Budgets and Agriculture & Rural Development Committees

Alyn Smith was SNP candidate for Edinburgh West at the 1997 Westminster election polling 10.3 %, and at the 2003 Scottish election, when he polled 12.4 %. He succeeds Professor Sir Neil MacCormick, as second on the SNP list. Professor MacCormick who is retiring, was elected as the fifth Scottish list MEP in 1999. Alyn was born in Glasgow in 1973, grew up in Saudi Arabia and returned to Scotland in 1986. He attended Leeds and Heidelberg Universities, and graduated from Nottingham Law School in 1996. A passionate European, Alyn is a graduate of the College of Europe, member of the European Movement Scotland, and worked with Scotland Europa in Brussels. He is a Director of Business for Scotland and Fairshare's Company Secretary - Scotland's campaign for fair votes in local government. Since qualifying with a commercial law firm in London as a commercial lawyer, Alyn joined the SNP staff in Holyrood. Alyn lives in Edinburgh West with his girlfriend.

Kenneth Gibson Kenneth stood in Monklands East in the 1987 general election coming third with 12.9 % of the vote. He became a Glasgow District Councillor in 1992 when he won Mosspark from Labour and also represented the ward in Glasgow City council until 1999 when he was succeeded as councillor by his mother. Between 1998 and 1999, the SNP became the official opposition on Glasgow Council with Kenny Gibson as leader of the SNP group. He was an SNP MSP for Glasgow from 1999 until 2003 where he was successively Shadow Minister for Transport & the Environment and Shadow Minister Local Government.

Douglas Henderson was one of the SNP's 'first eleven' in the 1970s. He contested Aberdeenshire East in February 1974, winning the seat with a majority of 5,699 and 50.8 % of the vote, and holding it in October 1974 with 48.5 %. In 1979 Douglas Henderson was defeated by 558 votes by Tory Albert McQuarrie. Douglas Henderson contested the successor seat of Banff & Buchan in 1983, coming 937 votes behind Mr McQuarrie, who was defeated by Alex Salmond in 1987.

Alasdair Nicolson is the director of a charitable company. He has contested the Western Isles at both Westminster and Holyrood elections. In the 1999 Scottish election Alasdair Nicholson polled 36.9 % and exactly equalled that percentage at the 2001 Westminste election. In 2003 he took 41.2 % of the vote and reduced Alasdair Morrison's majority from 2,093 to 720.

Alex Orr Merchiston ward of Edinburgh city Council in 1999, coming forth with 12.8 %, and the Prestonfield by-election in Edinburgh in July 2001, coming fourth with 10.1 %. He also stood in Edinburgh South at the 2003 Scottish election, coming fourth with 14.1 %. A member of Edinburgh South constituency SNP, Alex is a member of the party's Appeals Committee and has previously stood for the post of National Secretary. A Board member of the European Movement, he is a regional organiser for the pro-euro Scotland in Europe campaign and established the vote16 campaign planning to reduce the voting age to 16. He is also a member of Fairshare - Scotland's campaign for fair votes in Local government.

Janet Law Janet Law, was a councillor Perth & Kinross Council and was the council's education convenor until 1999. She was fifth on the SNP's list for the 1999 European elections.

Duncan Ross is the Political Education Officer for Glasgow West End Branch. He contested the Hayburn ward of Glasgow City Council in 2003.

Conservative & Unionist Party

Struan Stevenson MEP Struan Stevenson was elected as third list MEP for Scotland in 1999, the first Conservative to be elected to the parliament since 1984. In 1998 he stood in the North of Scotland European by-election, coming second with 19.9 %. At the 1992 Westminster election he contested Eastwood, which retiring MP Sir Hector Monro had held since 1964. A 6,415 Tory majority was transformed into a 9,643 Labour majority, and Stevenson, like all his Scottish colleagues, failed to make it to Westminster.

John Purves was elected as the sixth list MEP in 1999. He had served in the European parliament twenty years before, having been elected as MEP for Mid Scotland in Fife by 7,487 votes in 1979 before losing the seat to Labour's Alex Falconer by 27,166 votes in 1984.

Sebastian Leslie was fifth on the Tory list in 1999. At the 1992 Westminster election he contested Cunninghame South coming third with 16.32 %, while in 1997, he contested Angus, coming second with 24.6. %.

Liberal Democrats

Elspeth Attwooll MEP became the Liberal Democrats first ever MEP when she was elected seventh from the Scottish list in 1999. She contested Glasgow in the European election of 1979, coming forth with 7.3 %. She also contested Glasgow Maryhill at five Westminster elections, coming fouth in October 1974 with 3.1 %, in 1979 with 6.8 %, second in 1983 with 22.2 %, in 1987 with 11.7 % and third in 1997 with 7.1 %.

Cllr Dobbie Aldridge was second on the Lib Dem list in 1999. He had been an Edinburgh councillor since 1984 and since 1987 has been leader of the Lib Dem group.

Alex Bruce is a former political assistant to Elspeth Attwooll MEP and is based in Brussels.

Cllr Karen Freel was 7 th on the Lib Dem list in 1999. She contested Cunninghame North in 1997, coming fourth with 5.5 %. In 2003 she was elected to Aberdeen City Council.

Douglas Herbison is the Scottish Lib Dem Treasurer and was a Liberal councillor in Motherwell District from 1973 until 1979. He contested Strathclyde West at three European elections, coming fourth in 1984 with 15.1 %, fifth in 1989 with 3.9 % and fourth in 1994 with 7.5 %. He contested Cunninghame North at two Westminster elections, coming third in 1987 with 12.1 % and fourth in 1992 with 6.7 %. At the 2001 Westminster election, he contested Banff & Buchan, coming fourth with 9.0 %. At the Scottish election of 2003 he contested Glasgow Kelvin, coming third with 15.1 % and was fourth on the Glasgow list.

Dr Clive Sneddon was fifth on the Lib Dem list in 1999. He was a North East Fife District Councillor from 1980 to 1996 and was Chairman of the council from 1988 to 1992. He has also been a member of COSLA (1990- 1992) and the EU Committee of the Regions (1994- 1998). In the Scottish election of 2003 he contested Dundee East, coming fourth with 6.0 %.

Christine James was an Alnwick District Councillor from 1991- 1994.

Jermaine Allison stood for Highland Council in 1999 and in the Scottish election of 2003 she was seventh on the Lib Dem regional list for the Highlands & Islands.

Scottish Socialist Party

Felicity Garvie, known as 'Fiz', is the office Manager for SSP leader, Tommy Sheridan MSP.

Dr Nick McKerrell is a lecturer in European law at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Hugh Kerr was Labour MEP for Essex West & Hertfordshire East until he was expelled for criticising Tony Blair. He then sat as a Scottish Socialist Party MEP until the 1999 election.

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