Election results
Scottish Socialists treble their vote
The Scottish Socialist Party campaign was the only bright spot in an otherwise exceptionally dull election campaign. Long before the polls it was clear that turnout would be low. In the event 58.1% voted – down 13% on 1997.
As in England there was a high degree of disillusionment with Labour – it is estimated that 9% of the electorate are previous Labour voters who could not bring themselves to vote New Labour and stayed at home.
There were also specifically Scottish factors. Media coverage of the election concentrated on Health, Education and Policing which are devolved matters which are the province of the Scottish Parliament and therefore not directly affected by the UK election. Only 18% of news coverage in Scotland dealt with Scottish issues.
Disillusionment amongst SNP and Labour members was high.
The SNP ran its most right wing campaign ever (still well left of Labour) and seemed to lack a theme. SNP activists were scarce on the ground, Labour equally so. There was a widespread view amongst the SNP that these elections were irrelevant, that they shouldn’t be standing for Westminster.
The lack of Scottish coverage also marginalised the SNP more than usual The result was a fall in the SNP vote even greater than that in the Labour vote. Compared with the 1999 Scottish Elections there was a 7% swing from the SNP to Labour – a result that defied all opinion poll projections.
The Liberals benefited from their UK coverage and were viewed as to the left of Labour. This UK effect appears to have overcome the negative impact of their performance in the Scottish Parliament, and they took 16% – up 3%.
In actual votes they increased by 13,000 over 1997, so perhaps we should only say their vote turned out. They appear to have strengthened in the areas where they were previously strong, taking votes from both Labour and SNP.
The SSP had beaten the Liberals in a series of by-elections in the preceding months. It will be interesting to see if the right wing leaders of the Liberals in the Scottish Parliament can continue to reconcile their actions with the left rhetoric of Kennedy.
The Tories saw their support, already at a low ebb, fall further, down 2% in percentage to 15.6%. Their only bright spot was taking a rural Borders seat in the heart of Foot and Mouth territory from the SNP as a result of a collapse in SNP votes.
The only party to gain significantly from the election was the SSP which took 3.1% of the Scottish vote – 72,518 votes.
The SSP Campaign
The SSP decision to stand in all Scottish seats was justified. SSP branches now exist and function in every part of Scotland, from the Western Isles, Orkney, the Borders, Argyle as well as Glasgow and the central belt.
This has been the main lasting benefit from the campaign. We have the opportunity to consolidate membership and be involved in every local campaign, to become a real party of the people.
The decisions of the February conference, to stand in all seats, to accept the SWP into membership, to launch a weekly paper, were all successfully carried out. Actioning them placed major strains on the central apparatus and full time staff – who fortunately survived, but need a holiday.
The SWP joined on May 1 just in time for the election campaign. Throughout the campaign the ex SWP members have played a significant role in building the SSP and promoting the Scottish Socialist Voice. This has overcome many concerns of those who were sceptical about the SWP’s commitment to building the SSP.
The projected launch of Scottish Socialist Voice was delayed in practice both by the postponement of the election and last minute distribution problems. But the weekly is now up and running and is available at around 1,000 newsagents throughout Scotland.
Initial print runs were 25,000 and the paper will assist in building even more SSP branches throughout Scotland.
Having a weekly paper increased the tempo of activity of branches during the election and allows on going up to date coverage of disputes in a time scale that allows support initiatives.
Having achieved a weekly paper, the SSP intend it to be maintained and strengthened in the future and steps have been taken to increase the number of full time journalists.
Despite standing in every seat, the SSP was excluded from most of the BBC and STV coverage. At several BBC election shows this was raised to increasing fury of BBC floor managers.
One explanation they gave – that the SSP held no Westminster seats in Scotland – was immediately responded to by the Tory spokesperson, who asked the BBC why he was included as the Tories had no Scottish seats either!
The campaign took off with the Party Political Broadcast – a short play on Privatisation. This was followed by the Election leaflet which was delivered to every house in Scotland.
Suddenly the phones wouldn’t stop ringing. Over 300 calls a day for 2 weeks came in to the Glasgow office. Several thousand copies of the manifesto were issued, at least 30 central applications to join each day. It is estimated that including the SWP, over 1,000 joined during the campaign.
If this is consolidated, it would give the SSP a membership of over 3,000. Already some branches are considering splitting into smaller areas.
In the last week of the campaign, 2 SSP candidates took to the platform on BBC Question Time wearing gags to emphasise the lack of coverage. Finally the SSP was given a slot on BBC radio to put its position and Tommy Sheridan was given a 20 minute slot on STV.
Challenging a media gag works, and did no harm to our image.
Results
The SSP had very little money with which to fight the campaign and received very little coverage. Most of its branches were weak and had never fought a campaign – the 1999 Scottish Campaign was token in much of Scotland.
More than both of these factors, the UK nature of the campaign, the general apathy about the election and the fact that we were upfront about not winning any seats made this a difficult campaign. In 1999 we were able to galvanise voters in Glasgow with the belief we could get Tommy Sheridan elected.
Despite this we launched the campaign with the objective of getting 100,000 votes in Scotland. This was based on us sitting at 5% in opinion polls for the Scottish parliament.
At the start of the General Election campaign the SSP was showing 2% in opinion polls for the Westminster election. The objective was to convince people who were considering voting for us at Hollyrood to actually vote for us now. Our opinion rating increased as the election progressed with one poll giving us 4% – the actual result was 3.1% 72,500.
There was some initial disappointment at not reaching 100,000, though my own predictions had started at 60,000 but in the last days I thought we would reach 80,000. Nevertheless given our resources this was an excellent result.
In the 1997 election the SSA stood in 10 Glasgow seats and 6 others and took 9,457 votes. In 1999 the SSP took 25,000 votes in the first ballot across Scotland and 39,000 in the second ballot. Compared with 1999 we have tripled our vote.
I would anticipate a significant rise in our support in the second set of elections for the Scottish Parliament – a 5% SSP vote across Scotland in 2003 is a viable target.
One caveat is that in 1999 the SLP got slightly more votes than the SSP. These votes have now switched to the SSP.
Whilst intentions differ it appears that those who voted SSP or SLP in 1999 as a protest in the second ballot are now willing to vote for the SSP at all times.
Between now and 2003 we must hope to win the votes of the 9% ex Labour voters and large numbers of disillusioned SNP voters to vote Socialist.