That is the question that is posed by The Hearld this morning. The Labour peer and former Hearts chairman is top of the Labour list for the Lothian region, a position that no MSP has thus far been elected to Holyrood. The reason being that in 1999 they secured 8 of the 9 FPTP seat and in 2003 that dropped but only to 6 when David McLetchie won Edinburgh Pentlands for the Tories and Mike Pringle won Edinburgh South for the Lib Dems.
So while the Herald does mention that the SSP leader Colin Fox in vulnerable due to recent showing by his party this one slip off the list is not enough in itself to elect Foulkes. He will be relying on Labour colleagues losing some of the vulnerable seats around the region. The thing is that Foulkes has already said that he will be fighting for his colleagues in the seats vulnerable to a Lib Dem capture next May.
Elsewhere in list news how my Lib Dem colleague, friend and fellow blogger Alex Cole-Hamilton can stand against Gordon Brown in last May's election almost doubling our vote and be considered an unknown by the Scotsman is beyond me.
after the murrayfield by election we need to learn that the local income tax is hurting us in edinburgh. lets ditch it now get through the pain and get the albatross off our necks
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteThe Murrayfield by-election while we did not win it was a massive swing from the Conservatives who held on to ourselves. Hardly a sign that such a policy is hurting us.
Also how would you replace the unfairness of the flat rate property tax which is not based on the householders ability to pay. Where is the fairness in the current system for the pensioners, single adult households etc who end up paying the same or proportionately more than the rich neighbours? People who may be moving in to their neighbourhoods and increasing their house prices and the band for their council tax.
I disagree the Tories focused on it heavily and it cost us. They will do so again next year. Look at the direction Ming is going in - time to follow that methinks
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