[Media-watch] Triumph for Radical Left

[iainc2003 at tesco.net]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/elections/story/0,13008,948094,00.html
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Friday May 2, 2003 

The only unqualified successes of the night in Scotland and Wales were independents and the radical left, with significant gains being made by the Greens and the Scottish Socialist party.
Tommy Sheridan's socialist party - of which he has been the sole representative at Holyrood for the past four years - now has six MSPs, but even more remarkable is that the Greens in Scotland have boosted their presence in the parliament to seven MSPs, in comparison with their previous one.

Independents also did well in Scotland, with former GP Jean Turner winning on a single-issue platform of saving Stobhill hospital. She recorded the first big shock of the night when she unseated Labour MSP Brian Fitzpatrick in Strathkelvin and Bearsden. 

Margo MacDonald, who left the SNP acrimoniously in January, also won in the Lothians top-up. And the independent former Labour MP Dennis Canavan held his Falkirk West seat for Holyrood in the first-past-the-post contest.

Joining the Greens' Robin Harper, who won re-election, are Mark Ballard in the Lothians regional list Patrick Harvie getting a top-up seat in Glasgow, Mark Ruskell in the Mid-Scotland and Fife region, Eleanor Scott in the Highlands and Islands, Shiona Baird in Scotland North East and finally Chris Ballance in Scotland South.

Scottish Socialist leader Mr Sheridan was joined by a second SSP member for Glasgow, mother-of-two Rosie Kane. Colin Fox won in Lothians, Frances Curran came through in Scotland West, Ms Carolyn Leckie in Scotland Central, and Rosemary Byrne in Scotland South.

Mr Sheridan told cheering supporters in Glasgow: "What's happened tonight in Scotland is that a new political force has been formed - and that force believes that the wealth of Scotland belongs to the people of Scotland." 

Newly-elected Scottish Socialist list MSP Rosie Kane cried tears of joy today after securing a seat in Holyrood. 

The mother of two warned that both she and party leader Tommy Sheridan would spell "double trouble" in the new parliament. 

She hugged her daughters Susanne and Nicola before supporters threw her up in the air, chanted "Rosie" and sang the socialist anthem, the Internationale. 

She said: "I will be able to pay my phone bill and council tax as my wages were arrested last week. 

"I'm going to bring something different, something colourful to the parliament. 

"It will just be like double trouble, we are going to stir it up a wee bit." 

However, in Wales the Greens, who campaigned on a recycling, anti-airport and pro-public transport platform - failed to make their hoped-for breakthrough seat in South Wales West.

The party had no assembly members in the previous Welsh assembly, and failed to improve on that.

No other minor party candidates won in Wales, although there was one independent: former Labour assembly member John Marek.