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.

I'm Out4Marriage - are you?

As part of the Government's consultation process on the advisability of changing the law to allow same-sex civil marriages, campaigns have been started by people who hold opposing viewpoints on the matter. This article is about those who support a change in the law (you can find out about the other side - those who oppose permitting same-sex marriage - for yourself, if you are interested).

I support the concept of same-sex marriage. Period. My only 'disagreement' with what the Government is proposing is that same-sex religious marriage should also be permitted, for those religious bodies which wish to carry out such ceremonies (and there are many) and I fully accept, without any quibble whatsoever, that those religious organisations that oppose such unions should not be obliged to carry them out.

In any case, many individuals have been happy to add their support for same-sex marriage and have recorded video-clips in the support of the Out4Marriage campaign and you can see the play-list of those who have done so, so far, here in the YouTube website. I high-light two of those who have so far added their support:

Theresa May, MP - Home Secretary


Desmond Swayne, MP - Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, David Cameron


So far there are 103 video-clip recorded in this series, many from quite well-known people in politics (of many political view-points), or business, etc.

Equality is for everyone and those who oppose equal marriage rights for same-sex people are on the wrong side of history - I am pretty certain that in fifty years time it will seem just as bizarre to most people that same-sex marriage was once not permitted, just as most today find it difficult to comprehend why equal votes for women were once not permitted, why inter-racial marriage was once not permitted in some places, why equal rights irrespective of race, creed or colour were once not recognised in many countries. It really is that simple.

If you support the idea that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry if they wish, please sign the petition to support this by visiting the website of the Coalition for Equal Marriage here. Finally, to those who say that Civil Partnerships already give the same rights as marriage, the sad truth is that this is not entirely so and that there are important differences between the two which generally disfavour Civil Partnerships; the following video-clip explains clearly some of the disadvantages of a Civil Partnership when compared with a marriage:

Blanket ban on blood donations by homosexual men to be lifted

The blanket ban on blood donations by homosexual and bisexual men is to be lifted from 7th November 2011 in England, Wales and Scotland; not [yet] in Northern Ireland, though.

Whilst this is a definite move in the right direction, there is a big caveat attached to the relaxation of the ban which makes me wonder if it is being made merely to comply with the strict letter of EU anti-discrimination regulations rather than to effect any practical change. The change applies only to gay men who [say they] have not had anal or oral sex with another man in the twelve months prior to the donation. Even those in long-term committed monogamous relationships are not exempt from this 12-month rule. What is really being said is that a man (whether homosexual or bisexual) must abstain from having sex with another male for 12 months, but of course the bisexual man is in no way banned from donating if he has had sex with a woman during those 12 months.

Is this in any way realistic, quite apart from whether it is discriminatory or not?

Nor of course are sexually promiscuous supposedly heterosexual men or women in any way banned from donating blood, however unsafe their sexual practices may be.

Another factor that is crucial, whoever is donating blood, is honesty and truthfulness. How is any verification to be carried out, in a practical sense, of whether a man's declaration (whether homosexual, bisexual or indeed heterosexual) that they have not had sex with another man during the preceding 12 months is factually correct? How has it been possible, until now, to verify a delcaration from any man that they have never had sex with another man, to comply with the current blanket ban.

What really needs to happen is that ALL potential donors should be quizzed about their sexual history, whilst accepting that some people (whether homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, gay, lesbian, male or female) will not be completely open and honest. Who is to know whether a purportedly heterosexual man (or woman) has not had unsafe sex of one kind or another whilst away from home on a business-trip or a vacation? And how likely is it that a purportedly happily-married person will admit willingly to such unsafe behaviour unless there is compelling evidence which makes it impossible to cover up?

Forgive me, but I think this change is cosmetic and with little real substance in any practical sense.

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)

Welsh ex-Councillor unwilling to stay weaned off public 'teat'

I thought this was some kind of April Fool's joke when I first read it, but it seems that eight local authorities in Wales took part in a Welsh Assembly Government scheme in 2004 to try and persuade (aka 'bribe') long-serving councillors not to stand at elections again, as a way of bringing in 'fresh blood' and 'fresh thinking'; payments of between £16,000 and £20,000 were made to Councillrs who applied for grants under the scheme. One of those who applied and received money was a Carmarthernshire councillor called Eunydd Thomas.

However now Mr Thomas has decided to stand for election again, citing pressure on him by his supporters who wanted him to. Amazingly a Welsh Assembly Government spokesman is quoted as saying:

"The assembly government made it clear when it launched the Past Service Award Scheme that only councillors retiring at the 2004 elections, and who had no intention of seeking public office at this level again, should apply for an award. "However, for legal reasons it was not possible to include in the regulations a provision which would prevent a recipient of an award from standing in a future election."

What that last sentence states, in terms, is that the Welsh Assembly Government embarked on a scheme to use public funds to achieve an objective (itself of dubious merit, in my view) in the knowledge that it did not have to legal power to enforce the terms of the scheme. Instead the scheme was to rely on the honesty and integrity of those applying for pay-outs under the scheme. I ask you! We're talking about 'politicians' here, even if they are of the relatively-lowly status of councillors! One might think that such people are, as a category, more honororable than people who stand for higher levels of government, being mostly amateurs known personally to many of the people who elect them. However, the truth is that they are just fallible human beings like the rest of us.

The real problem with this whole scheme is that it was ever dreamed up in the first place. The only criterion that matters about who should sit as a councillor, MP, MSP, AM, etc, is for the electorate to be able to choose from amongst those who wish to stand for election. I fail to see how it is within the remit of the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), or any other government, to try and 'pre-select' those who should stand, based on some notion of bringing in 'new blood' or fresh thinking'! I can certainly understand that the WAG's (in the circumstances a curiously apt abbreviation!) legal advisors advised it of the difficulty of barring persons who accepted pay-outs under the scheme - after all, they are not criminals or prisoners or otherwise barred from standing for election and any attempt to enforce such a ban would undoubtedly contravene the Human Rights Act. However, if this bizarre scheme was decided upon, I don't see why a clause could not have been added to the rules to provide that anyone who took a payment, but who then subsequently stood for a similar elected position, would have to pay the money back, possibly plus interest. No-one's legal rights to either be elected or to elect whom they choose would be affected, but the public purse would have been protected from being squandered ineffectively.

Confusion in Wales over 'public safety' and 'commercial interest'

Something about the first few lines of this story made me wonder just what lay behind it - a little further down the page it became a lot clearer, and (in my humble opinion) it's not at all pretty. The community of Betws-y-Coed is located in Snowdonia.

Consider what Mark Edwards, Chair of the local tourism association and operator of a local Bed & Breakfast, is quoted as saying:

"So far we've been very lucky, no-one has got hurt, but what people forget is that swift water is very unpredictable. It is a dangerous occupation, and for everybody's safety and peace of mind it needs to be stamped out."

The 'it' in question is the practice of (presumably younger) people jumping off a local bridge into fast-flowing water and posting videos of their exploits on websites such as YouTube; not something that I, even in my youth, would care to have done - but let that pass. However, to say it is inherently "dangerous" when in his own words "no-one has got hurt" does seems like "making a mountain out of a molehill", one of the inadvertant pieces of self-knowledge that Marion Bettoney, chair of the community council, reveals in her comments:

"To other people in the whole of Wales it might seem that we're making a mountain out of a molehill, but we're not, because it actually stops the flow of traffic. "It is also bringing in a different calibre of people to the village, and they're not people who come in and enjoy our village."

Ah, it all becomes clearer. It think this has little to do with 'safety' , it seems to be a measure to try and improve traffic flow, which may of course have implications for safety, although slow-moving traffic is probably kess likely to cause accidents than fast-moving traffic, other things being equal, I'd have thought. But there is more. When she adds that the practice is bringing a "different calibre of people to the village, and they're not people who come in and enjoy our village" - I presume she does not mean a 'better' calibre. It think it probable that she means they dress differently than visitors they are used to, are noisy (or at least boisterous) and don't spend [enough] money in local establishments - that's the "enjoy our village" bit.

To summarise, visitors to a local (presumably) 'beauty spot' do things which locals don't like and, to add insult to injury, don't even allow the locals to profit [much] out of it. It sounds just like a typical plot-line out of The League of Gentleman, except I hope and presume that these 'bridge jumpers' are allowed to leave the village afterward and don't end up as road-fill or in the local butcher's meat pies. On reflection, the local squire in The Vicar of Dibley is probably a better analogy. In any case Betws-y-Coed sound like a really inward-looking place and I doubt if it's worth adding to the list of places I wish to see before I die.

L'Entente Cordiale takes on new meaning

As expected the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has appointed François Fillon as Prime Minister. Monsieur Fillon is a Senator from the Sarthe region in north-west France. He and his Welsh wife, Penelope, have been married for twenty-seven years and have five children. Unusually, her sister Jane is also married to M. Fillon's brother Pierre, an eye surgeon.

François Fillon is apparently considered a 'moderate conservative' in French politics and is said to possess great conciliatory skills, which will undoubtedly be of great value if Président Sarkozy is to push through the economic reform policies France so badly needs.

"Tories talk coalition with Plaid" for Welsh Assembly

Politics seems to be moving into even more uncharted territory in Wales than it has already done in Scotland, as the Conservatives there have confirmed they have held coalition talks with Plaid Cymru to consider the possibility of forming an administration there; Nick Bourne, Conservative leader in Wales, said "his party was only interested in a coalition with Plaid and the Lib Dems, ruling out a 'stability' pact" and would insist on places around the cabinet table as the price for their support.

Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones confirmed talks had taken place, "but stressed that discussions continued with Labour".

As a reminder, the make-up of the new 60-member Welsh Assembly is as follows:
- Labour (26)
- Plaid Cymru (15)
- Conservatives (12)
- Liberal Democrats (6)
- Others (1)

It seems a lot can change in one week!

Welsh election results

Results for the Welsh Assembly are much further advanced than those for the Scottish elections.

52 out of 60 seats are declared, all 40 constituencies have declared and only 2 of the 5 regions have yet to declare. Overall movement so far: Labour -3, Plaid +3. No other changes so far.

Bill blogs the election

Friday 03.56 - OK, no more procrastination, I'm off to bed. See you all sometime (much) later this morning.

Friday 03.45 - OK Bill is definitely off to bed now! However, before I go Nicola Sturgeon gains Glasgow Govan for the SNP from Labour! Majority 744. For those nighthawks amongst you may I suggest you give Mr Eugenides, doctorvee and inquisitor a visit - they and some others seem still to be blogging. Oh, before I go, the LibDems have taken Dunfermline West from Labour.

Friday 03.38 - Bill is off to bed. However, before I go I give the latest overall positions as shown at present on the BBC Election pages:
- Scotland: Labour -3, SNP +4, LibDem -1 (23 of 129 seats declared)
- England: (Council elections) Conservative +201, Labour -131, LibDem -43, Others -27
(110 of 312 councils declared)
- Wales: Labour -2, Plaid +1, Others +1 (21 of 60 seats declared)

Friday 03.35 - I hear they are going to stop the count at one count (Bishopbriggs) and start again tomorrow. It is being said there will be 100,000 spoiled votes across Scotland - this new local government voting system has simply been a shambles.

Friday 03.29 - Stirling - SNP gain from Labour. 9.4 per cent swing from Labour.

Friday 03.21 - Amusing comments at Tartan Hero about the reaction by the BNP person to what the Labour victor at Glasgow Anniesland was saying when he switched from criticising the heckling from SNP (or Solidarity?) supporters to voicing his view of the need to support asylum seekers. Priceless!

Friday 03.14 - Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn & Lochaber) being interviewed at the Inverness count about Alex Salmond's win in Gordon. Is criticising the postal vote shambles. Although I got my postal vote quite normally it seems that many others did not, right across Scotland. One wonders whether it will have a material effect on the result, if it turns out to be close.

Friday 03.04 - Gordon - Alex Salmond wins seat! He's now doing his 'statesman' speech - ugh! To be fair to him, though, he is being very gracious in his comments. Is criticising the STV voting in local elections; I agree with him! Also the completely inadequate postal voting mechanisms; again I agree! Turnout 54 per cent. Majority 2,062. Salmond has unquesitonably increased his profile with this result. Unionists like me must tremble; he is now more likely to be able to push through his separatist agenda.

Friday 02.56 - Fife Central - Idiot (*) BBC anchor insisted on speaking over the results announcement with some stupid, pointless, discussion about Gordon and Salmond! Idiot!! I don't swear in this blog, but I'd have used a different word otherwise. SNP gain from Labour. Turnout 46.3. SNP +14 per cent, Labour -2 per cent. (*) - Actually this anchor is usually quite good, but he has obviously got carried away with getting to anchor a major programme, probably for the first time

Friday 02.45 - Reactionary Snob highlights the rowdy behaviour amongst the Glasgow 'neds' of Baillieston; I watched the good lady giving her acceptance speech for Labour; I would imagine she could wield a broken bottle handily (is this libellous?) so I wouldn't like to meet her in a dark alley - lol.

Friday 02.38 - Dumfries - Labour hold. Conservative Murray Tosh fails in his bid for an FPTP seat (and it is unlikely he will get a List seat either as he is 4th on their list) - their share has actually gone down! SNP up 7 per cent.

Friday 02.36 - My view since I returned home from Spain a couple of weeks ago is that the 'hype' for the SNP was much exaggerated; this seems to be being borne out. I don't think they are going to have a landslide tonight; Labour are probably safe(-ish).

Friday 02.33 - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch - Labour hold. Turnout 53.6 per cent. Labour have done well to hold on to this one.

Friday 02.30 - Glasgow Baillieston - Turnout 43.1 per cent. Labour hold.

Friday 02.26 - Talking heads on the Beeb say Alex Salmond is believed to have won Gordon; no official declaration yet; this seems to be confounding other parties' soundings, so perhaps it is quite a close-run thing. It will certainly increase Salmond's personal prestige and credibility if the SNP does do similarly well overall tonight.

Friday 02.12 - Wales - first results declared - Labour hold Islwyn with a reduced majority, swing to an Independent. In Blaenau Gwent Labour lose to an Independent with a swing of 46.5 per cent!!

Friday 02.07 - SNP hold Dundee East. Turnout 49.9 per cent. Majority 4,524. SNP +10 per cent, Labour -7 per cent.

Friday 02.06 - SNP hold Moray easily.

Friday 02.03 - English locals - BBC is reporting 72 Councils (out of 312) declared.
So far Conservatives +86, Labour -37, LibDems -28, Others -21.

Friday 01.52 - Airdrie and Shotts - Labour hold. Turnout 49.77 per cent. Majority 1,446 - Labour down 13 per cent, SNP up 17 per cent! Still no upsets, but perhaps this may start to have an effect when the List results come through.

Friday 01.46 - East Kilbride - votes having to be rescanned. Same nonsense in Fife, where the screens have gone blank - I had that problem tonight myself, or at least one of the external hosting systems on which my blog depends (blogrolling.com) was down for a while, but thankfuly has come back to life.

Friday 01.42 - Glasgow Anniesland - Labour hold. Turnout 45.8 per cent. Majority 4,306. Labour up 2 per cent; SNP up 10 per cent!

Friday 01.27 - no results yet from Wales. Perhaps our Welsh friends are more pre-occupied with their sheep than counting the votes? (Will this earn me a slap on the wrists for impugning the good name of the leek-eaters?)

Friday 01.24 - On a much more important topic than the election I must report that the bottle of Chapel Down English 'sparkling wine' (aka 'champagne') which I opened about an hour ago, to follow on from the bottle of Prosecco I polished off throughout the evening, is drinking very well; it has a really nice dry biscuity, toasty flavour with quite a long finish.

Friday 01.13 - Dundee West - SNP gain from Labour. They're now discussing on the Beeb the risk that Alex Salmond may suffer in the List if there are too many SNP constituency MSPs in his region - sweet irony - Gordon requires a swing of 7+ per cent from the LibDems for him to win it.

Friday 01.02 - Glasgow Kelvin - results in - very low turnout 42.7 per cent. Labour hold (majority 1,207) against SNP. Labour down 2.2 per cent, SNP up 7.6 per cent. Absence of SSP may have helped Labour, or at least slightly disadvantaged the SNP - the Greens did pretty well there, too.

Friday 00.59 - I've just popped the nifty code about who is 'blogging tonite' (a bit like 'chicken tonite' I suppose) kindly supplied by doctorvee.

Friday 00.41 - Mr Eugenides keeps up a lively and pithy running commentary, only slightly laced with profanity.

Friday 00.38 - Motherwell & Wishaw - SNP votes up 7 per cent, Labour down 6.6 per cent. Could be significant later in the night in other areas, specially as this is such a strong Labour area.

Friday 00.31 - Motherwell & Wishaw declared - Jack McConnell 12,574 - re-elected - healthy majority (5,938). No surprise there really. 48.5 per cent turnout - pretty low.

Friday 00.28 - First Scottish declaration - Wishaw - Jack McConnell seems to be happy - baited breath...

Friday 00.24 - English locals - I'm not going to post further info. about these until at least 2am - the best updates seem to be on Sky News bottom-of-screen results tables - BBC News24 seems much less timely. Hopefully by then we will also have had at least SOME of the Scottish declaration!

Friday 00.16 - Edinburgh - torn ballots - being stuck - together with sellotape!! How did this happen? Sabotage? Just an 'accident'? (Some 'hunky' looking counting staff - gotta introduce a more important aspect to this whole boring phase of the evening - lol!)

Friday 00.14 - English locals - LD hold West Lindsey - Conservstives hold Broxbourne.

Friday 00.06 - English locals - Conservatives hold Tamworth and Brentwood.

Friday 00.04 - three arrested in Peterborough near a polling station for electoral offences, thought to relate to the theft of polling cards.

11.59pm English locals - Kingston upon Hull - LD 30 - Labour 20 - Conservatives 2 - Others 7.

11.52pm I've just seem Jack McConnell walking into his count - presumably the result there will be out soon.

What a jerk Tommy Sheridan is - and why is he wearing a bizarrely defaced sunflower? I've had to soften the screen to prevent sunburn from the orange glow.