Labour "Soor Plums"
According to the Telegraph and other sources Labour have taken the hump, a bit like their future Leader MaCavity Brown, and are apparently looking to challenge the result of the vote in Cunninghame North constituency which was won by just 49 votes by the SNP. This is the constituency which includes Arran and had a problem getting the votes delivered by boat. According to Labour
When the ballot boxes arrived they had been opened and some of the papers inside were wet.Which is not surprising considering what they had gone through, anybody who has seen the boxes might understand why they might have been a bit battered, even if they hadn't been attacked by a golf club waving senior citizen.
Whilst this might appear to mean they would then be back in control of the Scottish Parliament, it is more likely that they would then drop one from the regional list which would go back to the SNP, which means no change in the number of MSP's for either party. The BBC has more on the story here.
If Labour does press for a review of this, they are more than likely going to open up a huge can of worms that they may prefer to leave closed, but as the columnist in the Telegraph says
... as I learnt from reporting on the murky world of Scottish politics, it pays never to underestimate the Scottish Labour party's arrogance and stupidity (a fatal combination in the affairs of a country) when it is backed into a corner. And so it is proving in Thursday's aftermath.Continuing in the Telegraph is a litany of how the Labour Party in Scotland is having a severe sour grapes problem (should I have said soor plums). These include
- Jack McConnell stuttering and muttering about how he still wants to form a Government.
- Others saying it was just one seat so they are still within their rights to govern.
Any attempt to back-door a win in this election will inevitably create a huge backlash against them so let's hope they try and then fail.
Humility and guile: a plan to save the Union
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3 comments:
My view is that anyone in Labour's position would do they same. They only lost by 48 votes in Cunninghame North. I'm no Lab supporter, far from it, but I get their point.
It's easy to run the sour grapes argument as the SNP have done, but it's still a fact that the bloody election was a shambles and if there were genuine mistakes, lost papers or whatever in that constituency it could affect the outcome. Incidentally the Scotsman are saying that Lab wouldn't lose a list seat if the constituency changed hands.
I've got more here
http://haveringhavers.blogspot.com/2007/05/no-mandate-for-breaking-up-union.html
Richard, 100 "dodgy" ballots in one constituency could effect that result. But equally 100,000 spoilt papers could also effect the final result which left the SNP with only the one seat majority.
If the result in that constituency is deemed unsafe and remember it could effect the balance of power, then I suggest that the whole election result is unsafe and should be rerun.
Either we accept the whole result despite the very unsatisfactory way the whole voting system was reduced to a shambles, including the often forgotten amount of postal ballots which were never delivered on time or we don't accept the whole result.
The whole mess was a huge embarrassment and has made us a laughing stock, there were various reports of dodgy practices and I don't believe that we can cherry pick just one. Don't have the figures to hand but I believe there are a few seats where the majority is less than the amount of spoilt ballots.
It struck me this morning as I was shoring up my potatoes that in fact Labour and particularly the Joker probably feel they came out of the election best of all the parties. I bet JM and his Labour heavies must have gone into the election expecting far worse. Even with the swing to Labour late on in the pre election polls I'm sure the Salmon would have expected better. Of course he'll never say that, but my money is still on the fact that Salmon is gutted.
The Tories, probably about even on expectations, although they certainly didn't expect to unseat Euan Robson. Stephen Nicol would undoubtedly have expected more - he's that kind of guy. The only one I'm not sure about is little cousin Robin and the Greens, maybe they were expecting a wipe out, then again the small brushes I've had with the Greens lead me to believe that their arrogance would have dictated otherwise
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