Is George Foulkes Future in Lib Dem Hands?

That is the question that is posed by The Hearld this morning. The Labour peer and former Hearts chairman is top of the Labour list for the Lothian region, a position that no MSP has thus far been elected to Holyrood. The reason being that in 1999 they secured 8 of the 9 FPTP seat and in 2003 that dropped but only to 6 when David McLetchie won Edinburgh Pentlands for the Tories and Mike Pringle won Edinburgh South for the Lib Dems.

So while the Herald does mention that the SSP leader Colin Fox in vulnerable due to recent showing by his party this one slip off the list is not enough in itself to elect Foulkes. He will be relying on Labour colleagues losing some of the vulnerable seats around the region. The thing is that Foulkes has already said that he will be fighting for his colleagues in the seats vulnerable to a Lib Dem capture next May.

Elsewhere in list news how my Lib Dem colleague, friend and fellow blogger Alex Cole-Hamilton can stand against Gordon Brown in last May's election almost doubling our vote and be considered an unknown by the Scotsman is beyond me.

Lothian List Placings

The order the Liberal Democrat candidates for the top up list for next year's election in the Lothian region have been counted and verified and the placings are:

1. Mike Pringle MSP
2. Simon Clark
3. Gill Cole-Hamilton
4. Mike Crockart
5. Charles Dundas
6. Jacqui Bell
7. Derek Young

Quite a could wealth of experience and committment on that list. A good team to be going out to challenge for seats in Lothian.

As one of the above stated on their election literature 100 years ago the Lothian region was largely represented by Liberals. Ironically the only seat we did not hold in the year of the Campbell Bannerman landslide was Edinburgh West now one of the safest Lib Dem seats in the country.

Now it is two in Holyrood and we'll just have to see what happens in the others next May.

A Sign of Things to Come?

Kate Maclean the Labour MSP for Dundee West has announced that she will not be seeking re-election next May. Her majority in 2003 was 1066 so maybe she is getting out after five successful election campaigns and representing parts fo Dundee for 19 years befoire she ends up with a metaphorical arrow in her eye. The seat is one of the most likely to fall to the SNP in May.

Meanwhile I have sized up the seven candidates for the Liberal Democrat Lothian list. I have been on the campaign trail with all seven of them at various points in the last 12 months and therefore had very little problem in ranking them before posting my ballot off. They are a very strong selection and hopefully we will have a significant share of the second vote to see some of them elected even if we do increase our number of constituency seats across the region.

George Foulkes Taking Maths Lessons Off Salmond

It looks like poor George Foulkes former MP, former Chairman of Hearts FC has been taking maths lessons from Alex Salmond.

Mr Foulkes is looking forward to returning to politics for Labour on the Lothian list at next May's elections. This must spell disastor for some of the regions constituency MSPs in that event.

Even if Labour could maintain their second vote share from 2003 they would have to lose 3 constituencies before they pick up any seat off the Lothian list. So that would mean goodbye to Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow), Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) and Bristow Muldoon (Livingston). Of course if they are losing seats their second vote would also be affected as would that of other parties.

Interestingly the article in the Scotland on Sunday states that Foulkes will be helping Boyack and Martin Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) to retain their seats, no mention of West Lothian. Chisholm had an 18.84% majority and was the 19th safest of Labour's 46 consituencies in 2003. Is this a slip from the brain to the lip? Or does it show just how worried Labour really are about next May's elections?