Alan McCombes * tion last year. Both the SSP and the Greens had hoped to make a breakthrough into the European Parliament. Several polls had predicted that the UK Independence Party would take 11 per cent of the vote. there was virtually no change in the arithmetic of the Scottish contingent of MEPs. Labour's representation was reduced from three to two. The SP and Tories each retained two seats, while the Lib Dems held onto their single seat. cause for celebration, nor a reason for despondency. sented a slight decrease in our proportion of the vote compared to the Scottish election in 2003. But it also represented a significant increase compared to the last UK-wide election we fought - the Westminster election in 200ł, when the SSP took three per cent. visible campaign on the ground of all the parties. The feedback on the streets was of growing support But it is not always possible to convert sympathy into votes. from the sharply contracting eves based on social class. In the plush, suburban Eastwood seat, almost 25,000 people voted. constituency - the poverty capital of the UK - fewer than 10,000 voted. In other Glasgow constituencies with high levels of poverty such as Baillieston, Maryhill and Springburn, the total turnout was just above 10,000 Yet in three affluent Edinburgh seats, the turnout soared above 21,000. In each of the rural constituencies of Inverness, Gordon, Perth, Strathkelvin and Tayside North, more than 20,000 votes were cast.
The European election in Scotland Thad none of the high drama or
excitement of the Holyrood elecBut when the votes were finally tallied up,
Alan McCombes For the SSP, these results are neither a The 5.2 per cent vote for the SSP repreThe SSP ran by far the strongest and most
for the party. n this occasion, the SSP suffered of participation in the election Euroelection But in the run down Glasgow Shettleston
BNP. Much of the core vote of the SSP consists
in lraq. leader. of low paid workers, council tenants, lone England. parents and people on disability and unemployment benefit. For a lone parent living in a damp council flat and battling against poverty and debt, the European parliament might as well be located on the planet Jupiter for all the relevance it has to their daily lives
Participating in an election to send an MEP to sit in a parliament 1000 miles away in Strasbourg is never going to be a burning priority for people living on the breadline.
There is another important strand of the core SSP vote. Over the past few years a large swathe of young, educated voters have swung to the SSP because of our hardline opposition to war and imperialism Many of these young people did turn out to vote SSP in protest against the occupation of Iraq.
But the anti-war vote in Scotland was spread among four parties. The Lib Dems, in particular, benefited from the UK-wide focus of most of the media coverage of the
Night after night, TV news bulletins reported on the election as though it consisted of a battle involving four parties: Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and the UK Independence Party. There was the occasional reference also to the Greens and the
Scottish coverage of the election was negligible. As a result, the SSP and even the SNP were marginalised by much of the media Day in, day out Scottish viewers were assailed with footage of Charles Kennedy calling for a Lib Dem vote to protest against the war - even though the Lib Dems in Scotland have played no role whatsoever in campaigning against the slaughter and torture
Many SNP activists appeared to have consciously abstained from activity in this election, hoping for a poor result in order to bring down John Swinney. The party slumped below 20 per cent of the vote and the writing now appears to be on the wall for the SNP → support this lection nonethodess espite the further erosion of SNP
provides a further glimpse of the political gulf that separates Scotland and South of the border, the combined right wing parties of Michael Howard's Tories, the UK Independence Party and the BNP took around half the total vote. In Scotland, these parties took barely a quarter of the vote.
By subtly distancing itself from Blair, Scottish Labour has managed to avert the collapse suffered by the party down south Since the shock results for Holyrood last year, Jack McConnell and his colleagues have gone to great lengths to avoid discussion of the war in Iraq.
They have spurned the racist demagogy o the likes of David Blunkett, and rejected the more contentious Blairite plans for education and the NHS.
Yet the SSP and the Greens remain a force to be reckoned with, and the SNP could regain lost ground under a new leader.
For the SSP, this European election was always going to be a difficult contest This was an artificial election, skewed in favour of middle class and rural Scotland. Yet the SSP has managed to stand its ground
Although there will be understandable disappointment that we were unable to break into the European Parliament this time round, the party remains in strong shape to face up to the more important battles that lie ahead over the next three years. * Alan McCombes is a leading member of the Scottish Socialist Party and the ISM, the Marxist platform within it.
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soclalst n co Summer 2004 9
.... Post-election outlook