Let no one say Alex Salmond is not prepared to get down and dirty when the need arises.
Photographer and art director, Graeme Murdoch, of Cultural Connect Scotland, was on the prowl in Portobello in Edinburgh earlier today, shadowing Scotland’s First Minister on the stump, with the SNP’s candidate for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, George Kerevan, on the first formal day of electioneering.
The professional always knows how to get the shot and after the rest of the press pack had gone home, Graeme waited around and got this one all to himself – and has let us have it.
In Argyll the pace is hotting up already. Candidates have launched campaign websites – we’re busy rounding them all up and will add them here to this story as we get them.
The first two we have are from Mike Mackenzie and Gary Mulvaney – respectively candidates for the SNP and the Scottish Conservatives – linked below.
These two men courageously – and energetically - submitted themselves in 2009 to the For Argyll Political Challenge – responding, in non-party political terms, to a series of six common questions – important nationally and to Argyll – that we put to them; and being interviewed for a profile piece which we published as the concluding articles in the very informative series.
We will be republishing these profiles, with links to each of their position papers, along with articles on other candidates such as the sitting MP for Argyll and Bute, Liberal Democrat, Alan Reid; Labour’s David Graham, selected as candidate shortly before the 2009 Euro elections; and the very recently declared Elaine Morrison, for the Scottish Greens.
Campaign websites for candidates for Argyll and Bute seat are:
- Mike Mackenzie: SNP candidate
- Elaine Morrison, Scottish Greens
- Gary Mulvaney: Scottish Conservative candidate
- Alan Reid: Liberal Democrat candidate and sitting MP
Note: Alan Reid’s website is still set up as his MP’s website. It will change to his campaign website on Monday 12th April.
We have been trying to make contact with David Graham, the Labour candidate. If and when it exists, we will add his campaign website to this list as soon as possible.
The Photograph above, of Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland with George Kerevan, was taken on 6th April 2010 by copyright holder Graeme Murdoch.
Very bad news for the SNP – the Scottish Green candidate will eat in to their support . They are both Socialist parties who want Scotland to be separate from the rest of the UK and are both against nuclear power . Fantastic news for their opponents to see them cancel one another out
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Only in your dreams Kintyre1.
I voted for Alan Reid at the last Westminster election Doh.. but the time has now arrived for Scots to be represented by a strong SNP lobby at Westminster. We are in for a tough couple of years and we need a strong Scottish voice at Westminster fighting for Scottish jobs and services. Mike Mackenzie is such a man for Argyll and those that have read his pieces on For Argyll in the run up to this announcement will know that he is safe pair of hands that will look out for our interest in the turbulent waters ahead.
I wish Mike a successful campaign and hope that everyone is Argyll get the opportunity to meet him during the campaign. He has been shadowing Jim Mather learning the ropes for a number of years now, a truly knowledgeable nice guy that understands Argyll’s unique problems. He has won my vote and is definitely worth yours. Take the time to check out his lengthy pieces on this Forum there insightful, clever and at times witty.
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Politicians are like nappies. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. Roll on May 6th Westminster General Election.
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Dunoon Observer is running an online poll. Interesting positions at the moment as the LibDems are in fifth place on it -behind “do not intend to vote”.
The LibDem vote in Argyll and Bute is a political chimera made up in part of a residual respect for the late Ray Michie augmented by Labour supporters voting LibDem to keep the Tory out, Tory supporters voting LibDem to keep the SNP out and those voting LibDem because its a nice day and we’ve gone down to the polling station so I suppose we’d better vote for somebody. You could go about Argyll and Bute for months without meeting an actual LibDem.
I think Jim Mather’s victory put paid to most of that however. The self defeating nonsense of the LibDems in the Scottish Parliament may tell very strongly against them across the country. Who’d have ever thought that the “home rule” party would block a constitutional referendum for the Scots?
Note to Newsroom – Labour Candidate is David Graham
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My worry is that the Tories are coming up behind the SNP in this seat. I don’t think the Liberals have any chance.
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Laying aside the usual unpleasant nature of kintyre1′s comment there is an interesting prospect of minor candidates taking substantial votes across the UK – but mostly in England.
In A&B I suspect the Greens may take most votes from erstwhile LibDem voters and in my judgement the Tories are also taking back some of the votes that went LibDem when Mrs Thatcher was a feature. The Labour candidate is a nice big chap but I think he is realistically hoping to beat the Greens
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Does not the logic posited by the strange kintyre1 suggest that the three unionist parties in this contest, all thirled to London control, all supporting the madness of Trident, all opposed to consulting the people of Scotland in a referendum about their constitutional future might cancel each other out ?
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1500 votes could decide who wins Argyll & Bute .
I stand by my prediction that the Scottish Green candidate will do damage to the SNP’s candidate’s vote and result in a unionist win in this constituency .
Why if Mr MacKenzie is such a brilliant candidate , did he receive only 9% of the vote in his home area in the council elections and fail to get elected ?
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Kintyre1 is obviously more than one person. This one knows how to use upper case letters, the other one doesn’t. Perhaps there are several more.
Mike came a credible 5th out of 10 candidates in his first attempt at politics.
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