 | 'I would be proud to serve in a Scottish Parliament.' Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary, George Robertson, during the Great Debate. |  |
| 'I would be proud to serve in a Scottish Parliament.' Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary, George Robertson, during the Great Debate. | |
 | |||
 | Annabelle Ewing |  | Bill Tynan |
 | Charles Ferguson |  | Cllr Marilyne MacLaren |
 | Shareen Blackall |  | Alistair McConnachie |
| Fans of Hamilton Academicals FC | Stephen Mungall | ||
Following the appointment of the Secretary of State for Defence, the Right Honourable Member of Parliament for Hamilton South, George Islay MacNeill Robertson, recently ennobled as Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (aka Wee Doddie) as Secretary General of NATO, a by-election is to be held in Hamilton South on the 23 rd September 1999.
Hamilton has pride of place in Scottish Political Mythology thanks to Winnie Ewing's 1967 by-election victory for the SNP, which in the words of Oliver Brown caused 'A shiver to run along the Scottish Labour benches looking for a spine to run up.' While the first Hamilton by-election in 1967 marked the rise of the SNP, the second in 1978 marked the start of the decline.
Although the seat did not change its name in 1983, it underwent major surgery, gaining 14,000 voters from East Kilbride, 8,000 from Bothwell and losing 14,000 to Clydesdale. In the present review, 15,000 voters around Bothwell, Uddingston and the extreme north of Hamilton are transferred to Hamilton North and Bellshill while a handful of voters in the south-east are moved to East Kilbride.
Hamilton was the scene of a political earthquake in 1967. In October, when the sitting MP Tom Fraser resigned to become chairman of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, Hamilton was Labour's safest Scottish seat. In November, a young Glasgow lawyer, Winnie Ewing ran rings around her Labour opponent Alex Wilson and became the first SNP MP be elected in over 20 years. The SNP had taken 6.2% when they last contested Hamilton in the 1959 general election. In 1967, Winnie Ewing took 46% of the vote. Labour's vote crashed from 71.2% in 1966 to 41.5% in 1967, while the Tory vote fell from 28.8% to 12.5% giving Mrs Ewing a 1,699 majority for the SNP.
Tam Dalyell has written 'The election of Mrs Ewing went off like an electoral atom bomb in the Labour Establishment.' However, with hindsight, Hamilton might have been predicted. Labour, nominally pro-devolution in 1945, had quietly dumped their commitment to a Scottish Parliament in 1950. By 1967 under the leadership of arch-Unionist, Willie Ross, the party was almost totally hostile to any form of Home Rule for Scotland. The SNP, after almost 20 years in the wilderness had started to do well. Ian MacDonald had taken 19.3% in the Glasgow Bridgeton by-election of 1961, William Wolfe gained 23.3% in West Lothian in 1962, and eight months before Hamilton, George Leslie obtained 28.2% in Glasgow Pollok. Meanwhile in Wales, the Chairman of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans had won the 1966 Carmarthen by-election.
Although Mrs Ewing narrowly lost Hamilton at the 1970 general election, Donald Stewart was elected in the Western Isles and her by-election victory lit a flame which has never been extinguished. It gave the SNP as much media exposure as it had in the 20 previous years and heralded a record SNP vote of 34% in the May 1968 local elections. The lessons of Hamilton, now apparently forgotten, are a warning to the Labour party of just how soft their traditional vote can be when they are taken for granted.
The SNP continued to mount a strong challenge to Labour in Hamilton and in October 1974, Ian Macdonald came within 3,332 votes of unseating Labour's A. Wilson. Mr Wilson's death in 1978 caused a second by-election in Hamilton. However, whereas 1967 heralded the SNP's breakthrough, the 1978 by-election revealed the start of a decline in the SNP's fortunes and it was not until ten years later, that the SNP fortunes revived after Jim Sillars won the Glasgow Govan by-election. In the 1978 Hamilton by-election, the SNP's candidate was the formidable Margo MacDonald, who had won the 1973 Glasgow Govan by-election. Although Govan went back to Labour at the General Election, the SNP won seven other seats in February 1974 which they increased to 11 at the October General election. After an absence from politics of 20 years, Mrs Macdonald, who is married to Jim Sillars, is now contesting Edinburgh South and heads the Lothians regional list for the SNP. She is guaranteed to make her mark on the new Scottish Parliament.
Back in 1978, however, the tide had turned for the SNP and Margo MacDonald won 5.6% less of the vote than Ian Macdonald had in October 1974. The winner of this remarkable by-election victory, increasing the Labour majority from 3,332 to 6,492 was none other than Doddie Robertson, presently Secretary of State for Defence. Hamilton was truly a turning point in Scottish political history. Glasgow Garscadden the month before had seen the return of Donald Dewar despite a 3.6 % swing to the SNP - Hamilton saw a 4.5 % swing to Labour. The SNP's fate was sealed by the disastrous campaign in Berwickshire & East Lothian, which was sabotaged by SNP HQ when a popular local candidate was forcibly replaced by an office bearer who subsequently revealed that she would not be contesting the seat at the general election even if she were victorious in the by-election.
At the 1979 General election, the SNP vote collapsed completely and Mr Robertson increased his majority to 14,799 over the Conservatives. In the revamped seat Doddie obtained majorities of 15,019 over the Liberals in 1983 and 21,662 over the Conservatives in 1987. In 1992, despite a 5.75% swing to the SNP, George Robertson still took over 50% of the vote and had a majority of 16,603.
Doddie Robertson was a spokesman on Scotland from 1979 to 1980, defence from 1980 until 1981 and foreign affairs from 1981 to 1993. He was elected to the Shadow Cabinet in 1993 when he replaced Tom 'who?' Clarke as shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
Since the 1997 General election, the Scottish Political scene has been a much duller place without Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, George Islay Macneill Robertson. Cruelly lampooned as the 'ugliest man' or the 'smallest mouth' in Scottish politics, Doddie had more misfortunes than Lieutenant Frank Drebin: Robertson's dead-pan performance in the Great Debate and delivery of the London leadership's U turns on devolution was the best comedy turn of the last parliament. Although he was often made to look like a witless oaf, Doddie Robertson is actually a very talented politician and was voted Parliamentarian of the Year in 1995. Robertson simply had the misfortune of having to cover for Tony Blair's ditching of Scottish interests and sharp right turn in the scramble for the votes of Middle England. Any politician who put principle before personal ambition would have found this to be an almost impossible task, as John McAllion proved when he resigned as Labour's Constitutional Spokesperson.
The new Hamilton South appeared to be a rock-solid Labour seat and before the 1997 election we commented 'It seems almost certain that Mr Robertson will still be around after the next election to impose the will of Tony Blair and Labour's Islington leadership on the Scottish Party.' In fact, Blair, like most Pantomime villains, did not reward his faithful stooge for his blind loyalty. Wee Doddie was instead shunted off to Defence with Scotland placed back in the more capable hands of Donald Dewar. Although Doddie was clearly miffed about losing the Scottish Secretary's post, he did have the satisfaction of getting to play with real bombers during the War of Monica's Dress and strut about pretending to be a real world class politician (without the embarrassing stains). Doddie has been so taken with playing with his tanks and guns (just pray that nobody lets the bairn get his hands on the nuclear missiles) that he has ditched his promise (along with several dozen others) to stand for the Scottish Parliament and now sees himself as God's Gift to Defence. One can only regret that the Scottish Parliament will be a much less amusing place without this inveterate gaffer. Will ye no cam back again?
In 1997, Wee Doddie's majority was reduced to 15,878, down from 16,603 in 1992, but this was simply in line with a reduction in the size of the seat. There was in fact a swing of 5.7 % from the SNP to Labour, one of the biggest in the country. Since 1997, the trend has been reversed, with swings as large as 36.4 % from Labour to the SNP in local council by-elections in North Lanarkshire. In opinion polls too, the swings to the SNP have been largest in Labour heartland areas and when the SNP were riding high in the polls in May 1998 the Herald predicted that even seats like Hamilton South would be won by them.
In the May 1999 Scottish Parliamentary election, as in the 1997 Westminster election, Hamilton South was the first seat to be declared. While the 1997 election result predicted excellent news for Labour with a considerable swing to them from the Conservatives, in 1999 Hamilton South was the harbinger of the worst Labour result since 1935 with massive swings to the SNP. Hamilton South's MSP is Tom McCabe, now a member of Labour's Scottish Executive and their business manager. In a previous incarnation Tom McCabe was leader of the troubled South Lanarkshire Council. His partner is Lorraine Davidson, Labour's equally troubled head of communications. McCabe is not popular with traditionalists and nationalists in the Labour party as he is a founder member of the Blairite Scottish Labour Forum which promotes the continuing imposition of right wing Thatcherite policies in Scotland. Cllr McCabe had personal problems too when the secretary of the Labour group on the council accused him of bullying. Like North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire has also seen massive swings to the SNP and gains by them in local government by elections.
Return to home page