It must take a lot of thought before one decides to leave a political party, especially when you are the top of the rankings list for a region that your party probably won’t win a First Past the Post constituency in. However, Hugh O’donnell has done just that, abandoning the Lib Dems 6 weeks shy of the election date. The party has not been slow to completely cut the cord, removing his page on the party website and saying that he “won’t be missed”.
So will this affect the result in Central? Well, the Lib Dems were always going to struggle to win a seat and the public don’t tend to vote for parties that are falling apart so one can only assume that this will have an impact.
Labour cannot expect to win any list MSPs here and the Tories won’t be looking beyond the token Tory they win in this part of Scotland each time. Consequently, it will be the SNP and the Greens (or perhaps SCCUP/Socialists) that shall be scrapping for Hugh O’Donnell’s generous spoils.
On current polling one has to suspect that this move points towards 6 SNP MSPs on the Central list. A first for Holyrood and a potential game-changer once all votes are counted?
Nats might be queuing up to buy Hugh a drink on May 6th.
#1 by CassiusClaymore on March 27, 2011 - 9:12 am
Can you blame him? He joined a soft left protest party – and he ended up representing a party which has been hijacked by a group of wet-right career politicians who are now enabling the implementation of the Conservative agenda at a UK level. Actually it’s a refreshing surprise to see a LibDem taking a principled stance.
Isn’t the real surprise how few Scottish LibDem MSPs have decided to stand down? After all, their party has closed Scottish air force bases, is trying to force through a cut in Scotland’s funding via the Scotland Act, has given corporation tax powers to Northern Ireland, but not to Scotland, and has just backed an insane budgetary attack on Scotland’s most important industry.
What happened to their principles? Or are they addicted to the public purse paying them 60K a year, a salary few of them could otherwise command?
CC
#2 by Top Tory Aide on March 27, 2011 - 11:13 am
There aren’t many Lib Dems with a conscious but it appears that O’Donnell stands for something unlike many of his colleagues.
On a side note, I expect it’ll be 6 SNP MSPs and 1 Tory on that list although Swinburne may be thinking he can return now.
#3 by cynicalHighlander on March 27, 2011 - 4:27 pm
Scottish elections: Lib Dem candidate quits party
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he criticised the party’s Scottish leader, Tavish Scott, and said founding principles had been “subsumed” by a desire for position and power.
Mr O’Donnell claimed the leadership of the party in Scotland could no longer be regarded as either Liberal or Democratic.
#4 by Jeff on March 27, 2011 - 7:12 pm
Harsh words. Harsh, but fair…