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Saturday 6 September 2008

Musings from the Glenrothes campaign trail

Well, the Party Leaders are sorting out their visits to the constituency of Glenrothes.

Tavish Scott MSP, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats was first there over a week ago, with a second visit this week.

Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats was the first UK leader to visit, where he launched a commuter campaign with Harry Wills.

Gordon Brown, the second UK leader did a secret back door visit yesterday.

And, bringing up the rear, in third place is Alex Salmond, who is only going today.

To be honest, that's where the SNP should be in a Westminster election.

In Fife, the elections for Westminster seats are very firmly between the out of touch Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

There are already two Lib Dem MPs in Fife, Ming Campbell and Willie Rennie. In fact, let us not forget that the last by-election in Fife was only two years ago, and was was won by the Liberal Democrats.

There is no point in the good people of Glenrothes electing an SNP MP, they hold no relevance in the House of Commons.

Their blatant arrogance is already apparent where they think they've already won.

Harry Wills is concerned that the local people have been let down massively by Brown's Labour government and they are being taken for granted by Salsmonds one issue party in Edinburgh.

Its time for change in Glenrothes, there is only one team fighting for Fife and that's the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"In Fife, the elections for Westminster seats are very firmly between the out of touch Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats."

That is simply not true. The Liberal Democrats came a poor third behind Labour and the SNP the last time in the Glenrothes seat. It is a two horse race between the SNP and Labour. A Lib Dem vote is a wasted one.

Unknown said...

SP, were you asleep in 2006 during the last by-election in Fife, when at a time when nobody expected the Lib Dems to do well, Willie Rennie stormed to victory against all the odds.

Fifers have a track record of voting for the candidate who will serve them best. Remember the Burntisland Council by-election a few years ago where they came from 4th place to win.

It's clear that Harry Wills would make a great addition to the team of Ming Campell and Willie Rennie and I think that people will see that the contenders in this race are Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Unknown said...

Of course, the Burntisland by election was won by the Lib Dems, just to clarify who the "they" were.

C

Anonymous said...

Scottish Politics has clearly forgotten Salmond's bluster that the Nats were going to win Dunfermline & West Fife - err, they came third!

Anonymous said...

Hilarious assertions. There is no parallel whatsoever that can be drawn between Dunfermline West in 2006 and Glenrothes in 2008.

The Lib Dems actually had Councillors in Dunfermline West for starters. How many Lib Dem Councillors are there in Glenrothes itself? None.

The Lib Dems were also in second place going into the by-election in 2006 and could thus paint themselves as being the main "anti-labour" vote. They are quite clearly a poor third in Glenrothes and nobody in the current by-election is under any illusions, especially given that the SNP won the equivalent Scottish parliament seat in 2007.

The only thing the Lib Dems are doing at this by-election is fighting to avoid 4th or even 5th place and to keep their deposit, unlike in Glasgow East.

The very selective use of graphs graphs just makes the Lib Dems look both dishonest and pathetic in the eyes of the public who know the Lib Dems have no chance of "winning here".

Anonymous said...

It is very, very clear from Scottish Politics that the SNP know that the LibDems are challengers and all their bluster can't hide this!

Anonymous said...

The Liberal Democrats have a very high profile in Glenrothes, as they do in the rest of Fife. Being in partnership in the Council administration means that they can, with credibility, say that they are challengers to Labour.

Salmond also made great claims about the Livingston by-election, how they were going to win there, but of course they didn't.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the Lib Dems and their Glenrothes profile.

Would your candidate for the by-election happen to be the gentleman of the same name who failed to win a council seat in a four member ward under PR in Glenrothes in the 2007 elections?

Not exactly what I would call "winning here" or much evidence of a latent Lib Dem vote waiting to be tapped.

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