Hamilton South By-election 1999

'The party with the best chance of causing an upset, the SNP, attacked Labour's record on pensions, with Annabelle Ewing claiming the Government had treated Scotland's one million OAPs 'like an underclass'. By the end of this parliament pensioner couples would be £350 a year worse off as a result of the refusal to link pensions to earnings rather tahn prices.' Robbie Dinwoodie in the Herald, 11 th September 1999

Look at the facts says Hague's man in Hamilton

By Robbie Dinwoodie in the Herald

Tory candidate Charles Ferguson said: 'There has been a long established claim that labour can not be defeated in hamilton South. The Tories totally reject this claim and therefore I challenge each voter to ask what labour's real record amounts to. Behind all the spin, look at the hard facts. Labour cannot be trusted by the people of Hamilton South.'

He was joined by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, president of the Scottish Conservatives, who criticised Labour's grip on both local politics and at a Scotland-wide level, saying that parties which were in power too long could have a negative effect. He added that if the criticism had been true of the Conservatives then it was equally true of Labour.

The party with the best chance of causing an upset, the SNP, attacked Labour's record on pensions, with Annabelle Ewing claiming the Government had treated Scotland's one million OAPs 'like an underclass'. By the end of this parliament pensioner couples would be £350 a year worse off as a result of the refusal to link pensions to earnings rather tahn prices.

For the Liberal Democcrats, Marilyne MacLaren said the war on drugs should be pursued through much greater emphasis on treatment and after care.

She said 'Drug misuse is a Scottish-wide problem. However, the problem is clearly worse in Strathclyde than in many other areas following the deaths of over 100 people on drug-related fatalities. If I'm elected MP for Hamilton South I will be calling for an investigation into the causes of this.'

Labour continued to play a low-key campaign yesterday, confident that the strong local connections of their candidate Bill Tynan, buttressed by the occasional Ministerial visit, will be enough to see him home comfortably next week.