Local Government election - Highland Council - 4th May 2017 - results

( please see the ADDENDUM at the end)

Overall an excellent result for the Conservatives throughout Scotland and in my local government area - Highland Region - a pretty good result too, in fact an amazingly good outcome from a very low starting position for the party in Scotland.

In Scotland overall, though, let's not kid ourselves, the SNP retains the largest number of seats, albeit suffering a small loss in numbers of seats (-7). However, and pleasingly, it is Labour that has lost the most (-133), as have "Independent" (-26) and the Liberal Democrat (-3). Two groups have gained seats - Conservatives (+164) and Green (+5). The Conservatives have gone from 4th place to 2nd place in numbers of seats, overtaking both Labour, quite extraordinarily, and "Independent". You can see full results for Scotland here.

As for Highland Council, where I live, there are 74 seats in all, and the Conservatives have increased from a standing start of "zero", to take 10 seats, really very good indeed. You can see summary details with changes in the BBC website here.

In the Highland Council website you can see full summary seat holdings after all results have been declared, plus details for each Council Ward of which candidates have been elected - visit its website here.

In my own Council Ward (Ward 18 - Nairn and Cawdor), which has 4 of the 74 seats, the four councillors who have been elected are:
- FRASER, Laurie ("Independent")
- HEGGIE, Tom ("Independent")
- MACDONALD, Liz (Scottish National Party [SNP])
- SAGGERS, Peter (Scottish Conservative and Unionist)

With the remainder being unelected and eliminated:
- CUNNINGHAM, Ritchie (Scottish Liberal Democrats)
- FULLER, Stephen (Scottish National Party [SNP])
- GREEN, Michael ("Independent")
- MACKINTOSH, Andrew (Scottish Labour Party)
- MCINTOSH, Louis (Scottish Socialist Party)
- MCIVOR, Paul ("Independent")

More detailed voting information for Ward 18 - Nairn and Cawdor is available in the Highland Council website here, from which two .PDF files may be downloaded, yielding what to me is the extraordinary and pleasing result that, looking at 1st Preference Votes alone, the Conservative councillor Peter Saggers was second only to one of the Independent councillors Tom Heggie, both newly-elected at this election. The other two councillors elected were both re-elected, having been councillors in several previous councils. What is even more extraordinary, and pleasing to me, is that the re-elected SNP councillor Liz MacDonald in fact came 4th in 1st preference votes, whereas the other re-elected Independent councillor Laurie Fraser came 3rd in 1st preference votes. The two councillors who were not re-elected, but had been councillors upto now were Stephen Fuller and Michael Green.

Turning to the way in which the preference votes worked out in Ward 18, only one councillor was elected at Stage 1 and that is Tom Heggie who received 1,144 at this stage, because he exceeded the required quota of 1,061 votes. One councillor was elected at Stage 7, Liz MacDonald (647 1st pref votes). The remaining two elected councillors were elected at Stage 9, namely Peter Saggers (816 1st pref votes) and Laurie Fraser (694 1st pref votes). (Please also see the ADDENDUM at the end.)

Finally, for the parts of the UK which had local elections yesterday (much of England, all of Scotland and Wales), you can see full results here, but although all results have already been declared in England, Scotland and Wales, there are parts of England for which there are different procedures so are not incorporated into the linked BBC page because they now have Mayoral elections instead, and you can find those results here, however results in two Council Mayoral elections are shown separately in two separate pages - these are Doncaster (result here) and North Tyneside (result here). NB/ Please remember that there are parts of England where the election-cycle did not fall this time, as is the case with the whole of Northern Ireland.

ADDENDUM (Friday 5MAY2017 23.56 BST) I have now re-visited the Highland Council page already linked to above, but for the sake of convenience I repeat it here, where there is now another very interesting document in .PDF format to download, entitled "Candidate Votes Per Stage Report" which details how eligible votes evolved stage by stage until the quota of four elected councillors was arrived at. There is a further report also in .PDF format called "Transfers Report" which analyses in detail how this process evolved. Finally there is another report in 'raw' .CSV format called "Preference Profile Report Ward 18 Nairn and Cawdor" which provides further detail for those interested in a further level of analysis (if you haven't already thrown away your "Poll Card" you can see how your own votes were recorded in the system by checking against your own "Number on Register" by scrolling down the 4-digit reference in the left-most column of this .CSV report, although I suspect that the digits which follow have been further 'randomised' for added security, after re-examination of my own preference votes).

UK and EU; should we stay or should we go (*)

(* - with a hat-tip to 'The Clash')

Tomorrow 5th May we will be having elections of one kind or another in every part of the UK - regional parliamentary or assembly elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and local elections in England, plus of course the mayoral election in London, not forgetting also a bumper crop of elections to select 41 Police & Crime Commissioners across England and Wales - and by Friday we will know what the immediate fallout is. The BBC has a dedicated 'homepage' for all of these elections here. I've written several blog articles recently about the Scottish parliamentary elections in my immediate area; please scroll down if you wish to refresh your memory.

However, not much more than a month from now, the UK will hold a referendum which is arguably at least as important if not more; whether to remain a member of the European Union, or not. There are two 'official' campaign groups, supporting the 'remain' and 'leave' sides respectively and you can visit their website here (for 'remain') and here (for 'leave').

Over coming weeks in the run-up to the referendum, I shall undoubtedly be writing more on this topic in this blog, but meantime I have started the ball rolling by writing brief news updates in my own personal website here in the 'homepage', with a slightly more detailed (but also completely neutral) brief section in its dedicated EU page here (nb/ this page has existed in my personal website more or less since I began the website in its current form in 2002). In that latter page I have included a couple of relevant links which I repeat here, because they will undoubtedly be mentioned regularly in passing in media reporting as the referendum date of 23rd June 2016 draws closer:
- Lisbon Treaty Article 50;
- HM Government official EU Referendum website.

The referendum question will be:
"Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"

The only other remark I wish to make at this stage is that whilst HM Government's official position is to recommend that the UK remains a member of the EU and its website linked to above reflects this, the level of 'objectivity' of the arguments advanced for this position is hotly disputed by some and I myself tend to share some of that scepticism, although I have not yet made up my mind finally how I will vote.

Scottish Parliament votes overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage

(Please see UPDATE at end)

Today, 4th February 2014, is an historic day in Scotland, because today the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage, or more colloquially for "equal marriage". The negative amendments proposed for the 3rd reading of the Bill (formally known as the "Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill") were all rejected and the Bill, once it has been given Royal Assent, will become law.

With this vote, Scotland becomes the 17th country in the world to legislate for same-sex marriage.

As mentioned earlier, the vote in the Scottish Parliament today was massively in favour of this legislation, with 105 voting for and only 18 against (* - see below).

In a post-vote video-message the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing welcomed the vote:

- according to what Alex Neil MSP said, the Scottish Government will now be working with the UK Government at Westminster to ensure that the first same-sex marriages can take place in Scotland before the end of 2014. It will be recalled that the UK Parliament at Westminster has already legislated for same-sex marriage in England and Wales and it is likely that the first such marriages will take place there during the first half of 2014; Royal Assent for this legislation was granted during July 2013.

Unfortunately the Northern Ireland Assembly has not so far proposed similar legislation for Northern Ireland and from what I can gather has no current plans to do so, but at least in the other three parts of the United Kingdom (England, Wales and now Scotland) this welcome legislation is now almost in place - Royal Assent has already happened for the England and Wales legislation and I expect similar Royal Assent will be granted for Scotland quite soon. I mention Northern Ireland not to be negative on this joyous day, but simply to highlight that the job is not yet finished and that efforts must continue to ensure that all parts of the UK legislate for equality.

* - Once I have full details of the "105 for / 18 against" votes I will add an update at the end with relevant information.

See also:
- Equality Network: Scotland Legalises Same Sex Marriage;
- BBC: "Scotland's same-sex marriage bill is passed"

UPDATE (Tuesday 4FEB2014 22.35 CET) I now have full voting information for today's vote in the Scottish Parliament - please see full details here. The 18 who voted against the Bill were as follows:
Dr Alasdair Allan (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)
Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con)
Roseanna Cunningham (Perthshire South and Kinross-shire) (SNP)
Fergus Ewing (Inverness and Nairn) (SNP)
Alex Fergusson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con)
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con)
Richard Lyle (Central Scotland) (SNP)
Angus MacDonald (Falkirk East) (SNP)
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Michael McMahon (Uddingston and Bellshill) (Lab)
Siobhan McMahon (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con)
Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con)
Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab)
Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Dave Thompson (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP)
(SNP - 7, Conservatives - 8, Labour - 3)
- seemingly there were 6 out of 129 MSPs who did not vote or who abstained;
- see some reactions to the vote here.

Sir Chris Hoy to carry the Union Flag for GB at Olympics!

Sir Chris Hoy is to carry the Union Flag for Great Britain this coming Friday at the Opening Ceremony of the XXXth Olympiad in London. He is a very worthy recipient of this honour, just as he was when he carried the Union Flag at the Closing Ceremony of the XXIXth Olympiad in Beijing four years ago. London will become the only city to host the Olympic Games three times so far - it hosted the Olympic Games previously in 1908 and 1948.

Whilst I do not want to introduce 'politics' into this article, nor am I going to shy away from an article I wrote here in August 2008 about the participation of Scottish athletes in the Great Britain team, which referred to comments made by the then Chris Hoy, awarded his Knightood in the New Year Honours for 2009.

I hope that all of us in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland will get behind the Great Britain team, wherever in the United Kingdom individual members of the Great Britain team come from - not forgetting of course that as host nation this time around I hope that the athletes from all the participating countries here will have an enjoyable and successful time in London and the other venues where Olympic sports will be taking place.

Who should you vote for?

Uncertain for whom you should cast your vote in the coming UK general election? A new quiz permits you to find out, depending on whether your vote is being cast in England, Scotland or Wales (it doesn't cater specifically for Northern Ireland, unfortunately). It is one of the first quizzes I've seen that does however cater specifically for a British audience, rather than making one answer questions designed for another country, usually the US.

Although I shall not be voting myself, because I'm at present in Spain and don't have a postal vote (and my vote is irrelevant in my particular constituency), I found it interesting to do the [Scotland] quiz. My results are pretty much as expected, except that I'd definitely have put LibDem above UKIP, but having said that, it doesn't make much difference because the likelihood of me voting for either is negligible.

Take the Who Should You Vote For? Scotland quiz

Conservative				75
UK Independence				26
Liberal Democrat				13
Green	-8
Labour	-9
Scottish National Party	-23

You expected: CON

Your recommendation: Conservative

Unfortunately, rather too many of my fellow-Scots squabble about whether to vote for Labour or the SNP, rather than make the sensible choice by voting Conservative; it's really 'tribalism' dressed-up as an alternative to an intelligent assessment of the options, based on what would be in the best long-term interests of the country (whether you define that as 'Scotland' or the 'UK') - which would certainly be to vote Conservative. You see, I'm really not partisan - irony alert.

(Somewhat bizarrely, the place where I saw this quiz is almost as far away from the UK as you can get on the planet, a New Zealand-based blog put 'em all on an island)

Iris Robinson - says it all really!

PS/ Personally it bothers me not in the least that Iris Robinson had an affair with a young man 40 years her junior; both were adults and NO laws were broken in this regard. Good luck to both of them. On the other hand the lady is an unmitigated hypocrite because her own personal beliefs certainly would not condone her 'adultery'. As for the rest, her homophobia, well her personal beliefs are hers and she has the right to hold them - except that her being a legislator (as an MP and an MLA) does concern me a great deal. Then there's her financial probity, or more correctly her lack of it - that I do take GREAT exception to.

Hope she gets better soon ... then she can serve her prison sentence, which is certainly something she deserves.

What are the odds, do you think ...

... that Peter Robinson will return to his role as First Minister of Northern Ireland after six weeks, as stated in his 'standing aside' statement today? Anyone's guess, I suppose, but I tend to believe it's not a completely foregone conclusion. Let's see where we are on 22 February 2010, shall we?

Iris Robinson and the NI political fallout

I had begun to prepare a lengthy article about the recent 'revelations' relating to Iris Robinson, MP MLA and her financial and personal arrangements several days ago. However, I have decided to hold that article in abeyance for the present.

Basically, and not to put to fine a point on it, even though I have no religious faith and certainly do not consider myself a 'Christian', whatever else I may be, I prefer to show more sensitivity and understanding at this difficult personal juncture for Iris Robinson and her husband Peter, currently First Minister of Northern Ireland, than she and some of her co-religionists have shown toward the 'gay community' of which I am a part. I have grown quite tired of hearing over the years the excuses of and for religiously-motivated bigots such as Iris Robinson toward homosexuals and others whom she considers morally deviant, and she is merely the latest in a lengthening number of such people whose own moral failings, according to their own standards, both in the UK and in the US, have been brought by their own behaviour into the public domain, not to mention in this case her own apparent flouting of the law in regard to matters of financial probity.

However, because I do have some human decency, unlike these odious hypocrites, I am not going to write more at this time. I hope very sincerely that the psychiatric treatment that Iris Robinson is said to be undergoing at this time has positive results for her and that she will recover her mental stability in the course of time.

If there are major constitutional developments in Northern Ireland flowing from this in coming days/weeks as seems at present to be a distinct possibility then I will obviously have to write about it, but will endeavour to do so in as sensitive a manner as I can - because I am a decent person, unlike Iris Robinson and those who think like her.

Dodgy expenses claims infect academia, too

We've been hearing a lot in recent months about the, ahem, 'padding' of expenses by certain MPs, now I come across what seems to be questionnable claims by an academic.

Professor Peter Gregson is vice-chancellor at Queen's University. For anyone who doesn't, by chance, know it this is located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It seems the university is funding his membership of the Athenaeum, an exclusive private member club in London; it has bedroom accommodation bookable by members, just like an hotel, when rooms are not already booked.

Anyway, accepting for a moment that Professor Gregson requires to visit London on a reasonably frequent basis in connection with his university employment, perhaps the membership is justified, given that room costs in a private club tend to be more reasonable in cost, particularly when compared with hotels in similar parts of London's clubland. Some clubs [traditionally] have mediocre dining arrangements, but others maintain fine tables and from all that I have ever heard, the Athenaeum is certainly amongst the latter. Passing on, though.

This matter has come to light as a result of a 'freedom of information' inquiry by the Irish News newspaper. Professor Gregson has, according to the information revealed about his expenses, however, also made claims for 'at least two out of five recent visits to the capital city when he stayed in a[n] hotel'. And not just any old hotel either. No sirree! Professor Gregson likes to do things in style. For example on 23rd October last he claimed for a night at the 5-star Mayfair Hotel (part of the Radisson Hotels group). I certainly don't begrudge the man his 'perks' within reason, but it does look a little as if he is going slightly over the top - I think there are perfectly comfortable, but somewhat less epxensive, hotels in that part of London where he could stay should the Athenaeum not have a room available when he needs to be there for professional purposes - but on that point his expenses claim seem to be silent, making one wonder just what is the necessity for these regular visits; do they not have telephones or video-conference facilities at Queen's? Or are these visits, in reality, purely 'social' in that they permit him and other academics to swan around the swankier parts of the capital city at public expense, whilst enjoying fine dinners together? Just asking ...

Tragedy averted on Stranraer-Belfast ferry

How close was this from turning out like this? On this occasion the passengers and the shipping company have been pretty lucky, I'd say.

Signs of hope for tolerance of gays in Northern Ireland

I may not particularly like the messenger, but I have great pleasure in acknowledging the efforts of Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness MP, to show solidarity with the gay community of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has an unfortunate history of homophobia, but recent efforts to tackle this, it would seem with some success, are extremely welcome. The Belfast Telegraph has a second report on the Gay Pride week in [London]Derry.

What is specially heartening about this development is that it seems to indicate that the recent outbreak of peace in Northern Ireland is establishing genuine roots. It is notable that First Minister, The Rev. Ian Paisley MP, is not quoted in the linked articles; he is undoubtedly (I would imagine) as opposed as he ever was to the 'evils of sodomy', but is keeping schtoom for the sake of the peace process he has helped to bring about, along with Martin McGuinness; I don't under-estimate the significance of this. Whilst Paisley's son (who works in the Office of the First Minister, his father) has not resiled from the anti-gay comments he made recently, his father would seem to have decided that maintenance of the recent agreement between the two major opposing wings of NI politics is more important than a reversion to doctrinal posturing. Maybe the Northern Ireland peace process really is for keeps, this time.

Northern Ireland - a new beginning

I'm just watching the speechifying at Stormont; I heard Ian Paisley make a very good, firm and conciliatory speech a few moments ago. Currently Martin McGuinness is making his speech, equally firm - but equally conciliatory and positive. This is such a startling thing to be able to write in relation to Northern Ireland and in relation to these two men in particular.


BBC picture

Earlier I watched the four men (Paisley, McGuinness, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern) sit down in First Minister Paisley's office to have tea together; the chemistry between all four seemed pretty good and for the first few minutes we were able to listen to their small-talk (until, I suspect, it was remembered that the microphones were 'live' and they were switched off) which seemed to be conducted in a very friendly manner.

This is the first time in the past almost four decades that one has grounds for hoping that Northern Ireland may have a genuinely peaceful future - I hope very sincerely that it all works out. It will cost us, as UK tax-payers, some more money - but if it works it will be money well spent.