Glasgow Kelvin Constituency

Kelvin Constituency stretches from Glasgow city centre up to Scotstoun in the west end.

"History of Kelvin" courtesy of Scottish Politics Pages

In 1997, Glasgow Kelvin was really a revamped Hillhead seat taking almost 90 % of its voters from that seat with a further 6,000 from the abolished Central seat. Hillhead itself was created in 1983 taking 66 % of its voters from the old Hillhead seat and 30 % from Glasgow Kelvingrove.

Hillhead was claimed to be the best educated constituency in the whole of the UK where residents were more likely to hold a degree than anywhere else. It is the home of Glasgow University and had been held by the Conservatives since 1922. Between 1948 and 1982, the seat was won no less than eight times by Tam Galbraith, the eldest son of the then Lord Strathclyde and the father of the present Tory Leader of the House of Lords.

Even in 1974, however, there were signs that the Tory stronghold was crumbling as inexorably as many of the houses in the constituency. The majority of Tam Galbraith slumped between the February and October elections from a healthy 6,381 to a much slimmer 2,696 over Labour's D. Welsh with the SNP's Gordon Borthwick almost doubling the SNP's share of the vote and taking them from fourth to third place.

The 1979 election saw a swing to the Tories but in Hillhead Tam Galbraith's majority was further reduced to 2,002 over Labour's Richard Mowbray, who later joined the SDP, with the Liberals regaining third place from the SNP's Gordon Borthwick.

Mr Galbraith's death caused a by-election in March 1982 which made Glasgow Hillhead famous throughout the UK. With Labour turning sharply left, moderates in the party including Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rogers left Labour to form the Social Democratic Party. After a narrow miss in Warrington in 1981, Roy Jenkins won the SDP nomination for Hillhead. This was a seat which Labour should have won with the Thatcher government highly unpopular. However, Labour's David Wiseman ended up in third place with 25.9 % of the vote. The runner up was Tory Gerald Malone, (who later represented Aberdeen South between 1983 and 1987) with 26.6 %. This left Roy Jenkins as the winner with 33.4 % and a 2,038 majority over the Conservatives. It also meant that with Roy Jenkins in Hillhead and David Steel in Tweedale, Ettrick & Lauderdale, both leaders of the Alliance represented Scottish seats. No doubt they were reminded of the years of Liberal dominance when Scotland provided seats for Liberal Prime Ministers such as Gladstone. David Steel's battle cry was 'Go back to your constituencies and prepare for Government!'.

However, it was not to be. Although the Alliance did well in 1983, especially in England where it polled almost as many votes as Labour, it failed to make a breathrough in terms of seats, taking only 23 compared to 209 for Labour. In Hillhead, there had been major boundary changes which meant that the new seat was composed of 66 % from the old Hillhead, 30 % from Kelvingrove, which had been dissolved, and 4 % from Central. The Labour MP Neil Carmichael had been elected for Glasgow Woodside in a by-election in 1962, but when that seat was abolished in 1974 he had moved to Glasgow Kelvingrove. Now Kelvingrove had been abolished and with 30 % of his old electorate and a notional Labour majority of 2,000, Neil Carmichael decided to stand in Hillhead. When the results were counted, Roy Jenkins had taken 14,856 votes (36.2 %) giving him a 1,164 majority over Neil Carmichael who took 13,692 votes (33.4 %). Thus Roy Jenkins had effectively gained Hillhead for the SDP for a second time, once in the 1982 by-election from the Conservatives and now under the altered boundaries from Labour. Neil Carmichael departed to the House of Lords as Lord Carmichael of Kelvingrove.

In 1987, Roy Jenkin's undoing was not a collaspe in the Alliance vote, but the Tory government's extreme unpopulatity in Scotland. No less than 11 of the 21 Tory seats were lost and there was a major swing from Conservatives to Labour which allowed Labour to take the SNP seats of Dundee East and Western Isles. In Hillhead, Roy Jenkin's vote fell slightly from 36.2 % to 35.1 % and he took 14,707 votes, only 149 less than in 1983. However, as elsewhere, the Tory vote collapsed and there was a 9.3 % swing from Conservative to Labour. This allowed George Galloway to increase the Labour vote to 42.9 %, and win Hillhead with a 3,251 majority over Roy Jenkins. The ex-Labour Home Secretary and President of the European Commission departed to the House of Lords as Lord Jenkins of Hillhead.

In 1992, George Galloway increased his majority to from 3,251 to 4,826 over the Lib Dem's Chris Mason. The small increase in the Labour majority hid the fact that there were major changes here with Labour's vote falling by 4.4 %, the Lib Dems down by 8.9%, the Tories up by 2.7 % and Cllr Sandra White increasing the SNP vote by no less than 10.0 %.

In 1997 George Galloway took 16,643 (51.0 %) votes in the new Kelvin seat giving him a 9,665 majority over the SNP's Cllr Sandra White with 6,978 votes (21.4 %). The Lib Dems, who had held this seat from 1982 to 1987 had fallen to third place with 4,629 votes (14.2 %), while the Tories, who had held Hillhead from 1922 to 1982 were in an even worse state with only 3,539 votes (10.8 %).

Somewhat surprisingly, George Galloway did not stand for the Scottish Parliament. Although Mr Galloway may have wished to stand, he probably realised that there is no way someone with his reputation would have got past Rosemary McKenna's witch finders. He was replaced by Pauline McNeil, a former president of the National Union of Students. She was elected as MSP for Glasgow Kelvin with a majority of 4,408 over the SNP, down from 9,665 in 1997. Pauline McNeil took 12,711 votes (44.8 %), down by 6.2 % on George Galloway's share in 1997.

The SNP candidate was Cllr Sandra White who had been a full-time Councillor since winning a by-election in 1989 and until 1999 had represented the Foxbar, Paisley ward on Renfrewshire Council which she held with a 515 majority over Labour. She took 8,303 votes (29.3 %) in 1999, up by 7.9 % on her performance in the 1997 election. She was elected to the Scottish parliament as a list MSP for Glasgow.

Lib Dems Moira Craig moved back into third place with 13.1 %, while Tory Assad Ullah Rasul took 7.9 % and the SSP's Heather Ritchie won 4.9 %.

When Roy Jenkins became a member of the House of Lords he chose as his title, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead in honour of the seat which had rekindled his political career. He recently proposed a very watered down system of PR for Westminster elections which could have dramatic effects on the Scottish parliament as under Jenkin's scheme, Tony Blair would reduce the number of Westminster seats and as he wants the Westminster and Holyrood boundaries to remain the same (for reasons which totally escape the majority of Scots including the late Donald Dewar and Deputy Secretary of State for Scotland George Foulkes) the number of seats in the Scottish parliament could be slashed by as many as 20 with more savage cuts to come. Tory Blair's jibes about the Scottish Parliament being a mere Parish Council suddenly do not sound so funny.

The Westminster MP for Kelvin, George Galloway is a bit of a loose cannon and is often in conflict with the Labour leadership. Before the 1992 election he was the subject of a no confidence vote and attempted coup by Patricia Godman (now MSP Renfrewshire West) which he won with 62 % of the vote. An ex secretary of War on Want, he opposed the purging of militant, identifies with Sinn Fein and has sympathies with the PLO, having twinned Dundee with Nablus in the West bank while leader of Dundee Council. He has criticised the Gulf War and the air strikes on Baghdad, bring back an Iraqi girl to Britain to receive medical treatment. 'Gorgeous George', did not endear himself to the Labour leader when he shouted 'I don't give a fuck what Tony Blair thinks' in a debate with Alex Salmond at Glasgow University in 1994. He has also been extremely critical of the selection of Blairite clones for the Scottish Parliament .

With the SNP candidate in the past three elections now an MSP, they have selected Frank Rankin.

The Tory candidate is Davena Rankin, the Lib Dems have selecetd Tamsin Mayberry. The SSP candidate is Heather Ritchie who was Labour Cllr for Victoria Park in Glasgow before joining the SSP.

In the Hamilton by-election in 1999, the Lib Dems were pushed into sixth place by Hamilton Academicals. They could at least claim that they had never polled well in Hamilton. However, in the 1999 European elections the Lib Dems were beaten in no less than eight constituencies by the Scottish Green Party, including Kelvin, which they had held (as Hillhead) between 1982 and 1987. In Glasgow Kelvin, Labour came first with 29.3 % of the vote followed by the SNP with 24.0 %. The Greens were third with 13.0 %, the Tories fourth with 10.8 %, the Lib Dems in fifth with 9.9 % and the SSP sixth with 8.2 %. Only in Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh North & Leith did the Greens do better. Their candidate here is Tim Shand.

Political History of Westminster Constituencies:

Glasgow Hillhead
Date MP Party
1922 - 1948
Conservative
1948 (by) - 1982 Tam Galbraith Conservative
25 th Mar 1982 (by-election) - 1987 Roy Jenkins Social Democratic Party
1987 - 1997 George Galloway Labour

Glasgow Kelvin
Date MP Party
1997 - George Galloway Labour

 

Glasgow Kelvin is currently represented by New Labour's unpopular George Galloway. But with disillusionment setting in amongst traditional Labour supporters, disenchanted by New Labour's lurch to the right, and a continuing surge in SNP support in the area, an SNP victory in Glasgow Kelvin at the next election is on the cards.

We Stand for Glasgow Kelvin

The SNP has long embraced the vision of a modern Scotland as a positive and active contributor to the European and world community. But we also assert our right to take our own decisions about our place in the world.
London Labour, as the Tories before them, has allowed a culture to grow where people don't trust government at all levels. People simply don't trust politicians and our communities' leaders. They question our very motivations and ethics. They question our worth and the worth of government itself.

We Stand for Health in Kelvin

WE NEED TO PUT improvements to the Scottish health service at the centre of our priorities. To many people, the underspend in the NHS last year of £135 million represented everything that was wrong with the current approach to health. With trusts around the country burdened with crippling deficits and struggling to continue to provide a quality service to patients, we need to cut away the spin and make real investment in the key areas of health.
Tony Blair trumpets the fact that spending in England will soar but says nothing about the fact that Scottish spending will not keep track with the rises down south. The Prime Minister talks of bringing England up to the EU average in terms of investment in the NHS but seems totally unaware of the distance Scotland has fallen behind our European partners. That's why we need the SNP to fight Scotland's corner - to ensure real investment in the NHS.
What we need is a mature and accurate assessment of the needs of the NHS. We need to face up to problems, not try to hide them in a cloud of spin and deceit.
Over the next four years Scotland's health service is to get £320 million less money than the NHS in England. If the extra cash is available in England, why is it not available in Scotland? Only the SNP will end Labour's short-changing of the NHS in Scotland and match health increases in the rest of the UK.
A better NHS is vital for people in Scotland. The SNP's commitment to NHS staff and patients could not be stronger. Improving our NHS is always a key priority for the SNP.

We Stand for Jobs in Kelvin

UNEMPLOYMENT IN SCOTLAND HAS risen this year by 6,000 while it has fallen by 120,000 across the rest of the UK. All Labour can offer is a New Deal that trains people for work - the SNP would offer a Better Deal which not only equips people with skills for the modern day, but also creates jobs across Scotland.
Manufacturing industry is under the cosh because of high interest rates and the high value of the pound. While Scotland has lost 47,000 jobs since Labour came to power, in Europe, where interest rates are significantly lower, manufacturing industry has grown by 11% since 1997.
Scotland has different economic conditions from other countries and regions in Britain and yet the Labour/Lib Dem government in Scotland is unable to depart from London's agenda, even when it is having such a disastrous effect on the Scottish economy.
There can scarcely be a more graphic illustration of why Scotland needs Independence.
Only with Independence can we develop an economic policy that works for Scotland not against us. An economic policy that assists manufacturers instead of destroying them.
The SNP will protect our industries, create jobs not just training opportunities, encourage inward investment while supporting growth in indigenous companies and ensure that we have strong and focussed enterprise companies.

We Stand for Pensions in Kelvin

New Labour seems to think that Scots pensioners are fooled by a few pre-election bribes. But that cannot and will not erase the government's track record in offering a tiny and insulting 75 pence pension rise this year.
Scotland's pensioners view any new money on offer for what it is, a pre-election bribe designed to draw attention away from the fact that New Labour are failing our elderly.
Our pensioners have paid in all their lives and it is now time for us to pay back.
Only the SNP will make good Labour's broken promises - increase pensions, and restore the link with earnings. That's how Scotland's senior citizens can benefit from Independence.
By contrast, New Labour have to defend their track record. A track record of insult and failure. A track record that continues to abandon 70,000 Scottish pensioners to live in severe poverty. This simply isn't good enough. Only the SNP have the determination to put it right.

We Stand Against Fuel Tax in Kelvin

Every corner of Scotland is raging over rip-off petrol prices. It's only the Labour government who is refusing to accept that there is a problem. But Mr Blair and Mr Brown, Scots voters have a different view and they know who's to blame - the New Labour government - which doesn't listen to Kelvin, doesn't listen to people in our country.
In France, prices are about 15 pence cheaper for petrol and 30 pence cheaper for diesel, and their government has had to respond.
But in Scotland our situation is much worse. We have to pay for Europe's most expensive fuel knowing that we are Europe's oil capital. £7.60 of every tenner spent at the pump is grabbed by the Treasury in tax. This nonsense and government greed must be stopped.
Much needs to be done. We know the strength of public opinion on this issue and know that the SNP can win Scotland's trust on fuel taxes.
Already we have promised to freeze fuel tax, to end the pricing disparity in rural Scotland and to extend the fuel duty rebate for public services. This three-point plan will have a clear downward impact on the price of petrol and diesel.
We must start to roll-back Labour's petrol price rises with real cuts in the tax on fuel, bringing us in line with the price paid by motorists elsewhere in Europe.

We Stand for Tackling Poverty in Kelvin

THE EXISTENCE OF POVERTY on the scale that it exists in Scotland is a national disgrace, and represents the failure of successive administrations in Scotland and the United Kingdom.
It is not a failure of business, nor a failure of the economy, and it is not the failure of any individual. It is a failure of public policy, a failure of government.
And in this fourth year of Labour government it is bad as it was under the Tories.
350,000 children in Scotland live in households with less than half average income and over a million Scots, more than twice the number than in 1979, live on or below the poverty line. That is the reality of the new Scotland.
Labour has said that eradicating child poverty will take 20 years. That means that under Labour thousands of children will grow up in poverty and go on to bring their own children up in poverty. That is not acceptable in a country as rich as Scotland.
Scotland currently sends around £20 billion in oil money to London. We are a rich country and our national wealth must be used to tackle poverty in our country. The SNP would create a Scottish Oil Fund - using our resources to wipe out poverty, provide decent homes, and real opportunities for communities across Scotland.
Wealth only has value if it is shared by all our people. The future we seek to create is a genuinely inclusive future. With Independence we can develop economic strength through enterprise that works for all.
We cannot and must not allow the prosperity that will come with Independence to be shared only by the few - Independence is for all of Scotland.

We Stand for Schools in Kelvin

New Labour has failed Scotland's schools. Schools have been starved of resources - our teachers have to do more with less resources and in increasingly dilapidated buildings, and their morale is at an all time low as they go into their second year of not knowing what the Executive plan to do over their pay and conditions. And to top it all Labour has refused to take any responsibility for the exams debacle.
In 2000-01, local authorities were forced to make £23 million of cuts from education budgets because of Labour cutbacks to local government. This led to cuts in janitorial and cleaning services, swimming classes and school buses. This is a failure of Labour in our schools.
Scotland's crumbling schools buildings need £1 billion worth of repairs yet Labour are renovating or rebuilding less than 4% of our schools and that is under the discredited PFI scheme, which effectively mortgages our schools to benefit private shareholders. This is a failure of Labour in our schools.
In the first three years of the Labour government, spending on our schools fell by £270 million. The SNP to fill the funding gap left by Labour's school cuts. Labour are happy to let schools play catch up. This is a failure of Labour in our schools.
Labour has brought our exams and education system into disrepute by presiding over the SQA fiasco, refusing to take any responsibility for the chaos, and leaving our schools and universities to pick up the pieces. This is a failure of Labour in our schools.
Labour has often repeated "education, education, education", yet there has been only one piece of legislation concerning education out of 22 passed or planned Executive bills. This is a failure of Labour in our schools.
Where Labour has failed, the SNP can be trusted to deliver.
The SNP would take a comprehensive approach to improving our schools. Improving standards for our children, improving the morale of our teachers in the front line, improving the crumbling building stock and improving the resourcing that has been lost under New Labour's failed administration. Only with improvement from the classroom to the playground can we ensure the future of Scotland has the best education system available.