Will you vote for independence?

[Celyn]

At Westminster level it's been a Labour constituency since it was created. Before that it was the main part of the old Central Fife constituency, held for years until the mid 80s by the legendary Willie Hamilton. He was succeeded by Henry McLeish, prior to McLeish becoming an MSP. It's traditional weighing Labour votes rather than counting them territory.

That said, it is part of the demographic in recent years that has swung to the SNP in Holyrood elections. The Holyrood seat that covers much of the area was won by Tricia Marwick in 2007, when the SNP formed its first Holyrood administration.

What's interesting about this win is that the ward is the Labour heartland of the constituency. These are exactly the areas that are moving from Labour to SNP first in Holyrood, and now, supposedly, in Westminster. That this ward goes SNP from Labour at this time (incidentally moving the balance of power at Fife Council, at one time a council nobody could imagine being anything but Labour) seems to add evidence to this Labour to SNP trajectory that is only now being noticed by the London media.

When I said "surprise", I was being a bit snarky about the by-election in 2008 when it was a Labour hold, but with questions asked about postal votes and about the loss of the electoral registers.

 

[Celyn]

They're who won it in Glasgow.

The 56% Catholic statistic is interesting, as I understand that the R.C. "constituency", for want of a better word, in previous times, was always strongly urged to vote Labour. I'm not sure how many decades ago I'm talking about, to be fair, as that pulpit power has been decreasing for some time.

 

[Celyn]

Go the young, working class, low earning, Scottish, atheist/Catholic men!

Hey, I knew some pretty old working class Catholic women who did a lot in the referendum too. AND provided lovely cakes, which the young men might not be so prone to do.* Go the 79 or 80 year old working class etc etc.

* Celyn loses 10 points for possible sexism

 

[Sue]

The 56% Catholic statistic is interesting, as I understand that the R.C. "constituency", for want of a better word, in previous times, was always strongly urged to vote Labour. I'm not sure how many decades ago I'm talking about, to be fair, as that pulpit power has been decreasing for some time.

I suspect it may be more to do with the socio-economic stuff --certainly in the past, Catholics were poorer/more likely to be working class than the general population. Don't know if that's still true but would tie in with the poorer/WC = more likely to have voted yes thing.

 

[Sue]

(And I have also heard of priests telling people not to vote Labour due to the Labour candidate's pro-choice views. )

 

[Celyn]

I suspect it may be more to do with the socio-economic stuff --certainly in the past, Catholics were poorer/more likely to be working class than the general population. Don't know if that's still true but would tie in with the poorer/WC = more likely to have voted yes thing.

Yeah, it made sort of sense once, but once ingrained as a habit, it seemed to take a long time for people to work out that voting Labour and refusing to think of any other option wasn't really compulsory. Sudden non-serious thought - perhaps the Greens should go out recruiting at Celtic Park.

 

[geminisnake]

I hope all the unionists and no voters are happy now, pricks

 

[eskdave]

I hope all the unionists and no voters are happy now, pricks

Obviously we have no time for argument-as a typo with one finger. You seem to be in a gruppe that settles on problems like harpies to the feast-you share that-with me-I react-you all make me react.In Dundee in about 1979 I was still a Nazi,because i defended ex-prisoners of war from local twats.You are dealing with idiocy(thank you Socrates).Thank you geminisnake.

 

[eskdave]

Obviously we have no time for argument-as a typo with one finger. You seem to be in a gruppe that settles on problems like harpies to the feast-you share that-with me-I react-you all make me react.In Dundee in about 1979 I was still a Nazi,because i defended ex-prisoners of war from local twats.You are dealing with idiocy(thank you Socrates).Thank you geminisnake.

Sorry '

 

[eskdave]

This Kipper misses Greebo .

 

[eskdave]

This Kipper misses Greebo .

all right -we are all daft as posts