European Parliament Election 22 May 2014 - Scotland Region candidates

The nominations for the European Parliament Election to be held in the UK on Thursday 22nd May 2014 are now closed and the candidates from the Scotland Region are as follows (listed in alphabetic order by Party):

(#) - indicates a candidate with an address in Scotland
(*) - indicates a candidate with an address outside Scotland

Britain First (Defending the Union 2014)
Dowson, James (*)
Randall, John Arthur (*)
Fransen, Jayda Kaleigh (*)
Clynch, Geoffrey (*)
Clynch, Margaret Dorothy (*)
Shepherd, Jane Susan (*)

British National Party (Because we can make Scotland better)
McDonald, Kenneth (#)
Orr, David James (#)
McKenzie Victoria (*)
Matthys, Angus Jim (*)
Stafford, Paul Brandy (*)
Fleming, Stacey Jayne (*)

Conservative Party (Scottish Conservatives Vote No to Independence)
Duncan, Ian (#)
Don, Belinda (#)
Mobarik, Nosheena (#)
Gardiner, Jamie (#)
McGill, Iain (#)
McIntyre, Stuart ((#)

Labour Party
Martin, David (#)
Stihler, Catherine (#)
Munn, Derek (#)
Murray, Katrina (#)
Khan, Asim (#)
O'Brien, Kirsty (*)

Liberal Democrats (Scottish Liberal Democrats)
Lyon, George (#)
Jardine, Christine (#)
Brodie, Richard John (#)
Holden, Jade Elizabeth (#)
Mathers, Siobhan Helenor (#)
Davidson, Euan Robert (#)

NO2EU (Yes to Workers’ Rights)
Foster, John Odell (#)
Elliott, Andrew (#)
Maclean, Murdo (#)
Morrow, Gail (#)
Smith, Brian (#)
Veitch, Richard Edward (#)

Scottish Green Party
Chapman, Maggie (#)
Booth, Chas (#)
Murray, Grace Alice (*)
Whitelaw, Alastair (#)
Thomas, Anne Katherine (#)
Parish, Steen William (#)

Scottish National Party (SNP) (Make Scotland’s Mark in Europe)
Hudghton, Ian (#)
Smith, Alyn (#)
Ahmed-Sheikh, Tasmina (#)
Gethins, Stephen (#)
Giugliano, Toni (#)
Stephens, Chris (#)

UK Independence Party (UKIP)
Coburn, David Adam (*)
Newton, Kevin Andrew (#)
Inglis, Otto (#)
Baykal, Denise Mary (#)
Hatrick, Hugh (#)
MacKay, Malcolm George-Eric (#)

Some observations:

- the candidates are in list order and MEPs from all Parties will be elected, if any are elected from that Party, in the order in which they appear in that Party's list;

- my perhaps cynical view is that candidates whose listed address is not in Scotland are purely 'paper candidates', certainly when they are placed lower in a Party's list; where such candidates are at the top of a Party's list it is an indication (in my opinion) of their expectation of not gaining a seat. Incidentally in the case of Westminster and Scottish Parliament elections I also hold the firm view that candidates need to have addresses in (or close to) the parliamentary or regional constituencies they hope to represent and regard candidates who don't as 'paper' candidates only, as I look askance at candidates who have quite obviously been 'parachuted in' simply so that a Party has a name or names standing for election.

- at the European Parliament Election in 2009, the 6 MEPs from Scotland, in the order of total votes received by the Parties concerned, represented Scottish National Party (2), Labour (2), Conservative (1), Liberal Democrats (1); none of the other Parties which stood in 2009 received sufficient votes to have an MEP elected (in strict order of the total votes received - Green Party, UK Independence Party, British National Party, Socialist Labour Party, Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship", Scottish Socialist Party, Independent - Duncan Robertson, No2EU - Yes to Democracy, Jury Team). In 2009 there were no changes in Party representation from the previous European Parliament election in 2004;

- the existing MEPs from the 2009 election from the Scottish National Party (2), Labour (2) and Liberal Democrats (1) are standing in the top positions in their respective lists in 2014. The existing Conservative (1) MEP is standing down and is likely to be replaced by the current top-listed candidate for that Party (in my opinion), unless one of the other Parties supplants it;

- in 2009 there were 12 Party/Independent candidates, in 2014 there are 9, which is an improvement given that there are only 6 MEP positions available from Scotland, so there are at least fewer completely ridiculous and spurious candidates, even if there are still 1 or 2 who have little hope of electoral success in this election, in my opinion, but it is those Parties'/Candidates' 'time'/'money' to waste and their 'democratic right' to stand, so good luck to them all.

You can visit the Highland Council main EP election page here, which links to The City of Edinburgh Council website here, as it is they who are coordinating the candidates list for the Scottish Region constituency, and from there one may download the full candidates list (in .pdf format) that I have summarised above. I have also uploaded the same .pdf list to my own website and you may download it here too.

My earlier post about the upcoming European Parliament election is here.