Henry McCubbin looks at how MSPs voted over the last four years on the crucial issues and asks “who’s worth re-electing”?

When in that House M.S.P.’s divide,

If they’ve a brain and cerebellum, too,

They’ve got to leave that brain outside,

And vote just as their leaders tell ‘em to.

But then the prospect of a lot

Of dull M.S.P.’s in close proximity,

All thinking for themselves, is what

No man can face with equanimity.

Then let’s rejoice with loud Fal la–Fal la la!

That Nature always does contrive–Fal lal la!

That every boy and every gal

That’s born into the world alive

Is either New Labour, Liberal

Or else a little Conservative!

Fal lal la!

(Thanks to G&S)

When I set out on this search for voting patterns in our brand new 21st Century Scottish Parliament I had no idea what my search would throw up apart from the occasional rebellion by the usual suspects. To try and search and process the actual voting behaviour of MSPs is not aided by the otherwise excellent Scottish Parliament’s web site. As always the way that information systems for an institution such as this are constructed reflects not only the nature of the information handled but also the needs of those inside the system. In fact these systems can even reflect the administrative culture of the organisation. The questions asked during the design usually follow the lines of the needs of the MPs and the civil service but more subtly what they don’t want ready open access to can be barred by making it nigh on impossible to manipulate data in a meaningful way. In the case of computerised data the non-separation of data capable of statistical and mathematical manipulation and descriptive text is a giant hurdle.

My excuses aside I decided to extract data from votes that I saw as significant in that they have been recognised as touchstone moments for defining the political culture of our new parliament. The four votes I chose were the School Meals (Scotland) proposal from the SSP; the Debt Arrangement and Attachment Bill proposed by the Executive after they were forced to by a previous rebellion; the vote on Iraq as this was not to do with legislation within the Parliament’s powers but the expression of the opinion of Scotland’s new political elite on a pressing topic of the day; and the strange affair of a late amendment to the Local Government (Scotland) Bill.

The Debt Arrangement and Attachment Bill was brought forward after the Parliament had decided that the peculiarly Scottish punishment of Warrant Sales, which had devastating effects on the poorer members of society, should be eliminated as a method debt collection. I need not go to far into the nature of this sometimes cruel and intimidating form of debt recovery but the class nature of this system is laid bare by the fact that companies can be limited in their liability but by exercising poinding, bailiffs can undervalue the goods to be sold and to all intents and purposes look on individuals as having unlimited liabilities. Labour, through the years, at annual conference after annual conference, has expressed its disgust at this system yet in power found it extremely difficult to separate itself from it. The vote at the end was on an Executive motion that still had the sale of goods as an allowable method of recovery. All that had happened was that some other steps had been put in the procedures to reach this situation. The outturn, as you can see, sets the pattern for other key votes in the parliament. Here is a radical proposal, eviscerated by the executive, but with support from what I will call, not without some irony with reference to Tony Blair’s CBI speech, the ‘forces of conservatism’ or FOC Party. Stand up and be counted and there you have the Conservatives taking the Labour whip! The vote itself was atypical in that the SNP did not oppose but abstained. They may have sounded as though they opposed but at the end of the day it is their voting record that counts.

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Bill For Against Abstentions

School Meals (Scotland) Bill – For 37 (SNP, Grn, SSP, 2 Lab, 2LD, Ind) Ag 74 (Lab, Con, LD) Ab 0

Debt Arrangement and Attachment For 80 (Lab, Con, LD) Ag 4 (2 Ind, Grn, SSP) Ab 29 (SNP)

Amendment Local Government Bill (to remove the present appeals procedure on the closure of fire stations.) For 56 (Lab, LD) Ag 56 (SNP, Con, Grn, 4 LD, 3 Lab, SSP 2 Lab) Ab 2 Lab

Iraq For 66 (Lab, Con) Ag 51 (SNP, LD, Grn, SSP, 1 Lab, 2 Ind) Ab 3 Lab

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Next we go to the School Meals (Scotland) Bill proposed By Tommy Sheridan of the SSP. Initiative after initiative, report after report to solve the dietary problems of Scotland and here was a chance to put substance behind the task forces and working groups. The proposal was supported by several NGOs and the Scottish Trades Union Congress, but alas all to no avail. Since this vote we have had an endless stream of photo opportunities by ministers all chomping away in school canteens. In this vote the SNP did deliver but so too did John McAllion and Elaine Smith (Labour), and Donald Gorrie and John Farquhar Munro (LD); the independent was Dorothy Grace Elder. But once more the solid phalanx of the FOC Party stood firm to their slogan of the week ‘Let them eat sound bites’.

My next choice is Amendment Local Government Bill (to remove the present appeals procedure on the closure of fire stations). I have to admit that serendipity as much as science has been applied to this choice for reasons alluded to above but serendipity can sometimes be kind. This vote should have carried banner headlines ‘RULING FOC PARTY SPLIT’. For, believe it or not, our forces of conservatism found themselves in different camps. How could this possibly have happened when they were getting on so well together?

It all came about from the decision of these nice LibDems to allow New Labour to sneak in an amendment to the Local Government Bill in order to ingratiate the Scottish First Minister with the leader of the British New Labour Party by stuffing the firemen when no one was looking. Unfortunately he also stuffed one of the forces of conservatism and offended their collective ego by not telling them. Bad enough stealing their ideology but not giving then credit is another magnitude of felony altogether. As appears to be the way of things today the Tories did the right thing by voting against this sordid little act but for entirely the wrong reasons. Robert Brown, Donald Gorrie, Margaret Smith, John Farquhar Munro (LD) deserve mention in dispatches for standing firm and John McAllion, Elaine Smith and Kate Maclean for Labour. Kate Maclean must have sussed that the headquarters of Tayside Fire Brigade are in Dundee West and that there are many more people work there than she has as a majority over the SNP. The two Labour abstentions, and these are new to the charts of the free thinkers, were Bill Butler, (rush of conscience, almost) and Cathy Peattie (finger trouble) who couldn’t even think up a good reason. As it was, the whole vote rested on the casting vote of the Deputy Presiding Officer who restored dignity to the Parliament by voting down the amendment.

And so to Iraq. Well, not physically. You don’t expect politicians to vote for war and then actually go to the war zone do you? The real surprise this time was that the FOCs were again split with the Liberal Democrats, whose members were suffering severe nose bleeds from having to hold them so tight, as Jim Wallace made them swallow obnoxious smelling compromise after compromise, broke out in to the fresh air of independent thought. For in this one momentous vote we saw a frightening glimpse of a ‘falange’ with its cross class support in which the religious and national identities are claimed to be vastly more important than mere economic status differences. Once again John McAllion voted with his conscience an act historically condoned by the Labour Party since Keir Hardie. Hence the reason why one should never whip a decision to go to war.

The three Labour members who abstained and therefore were willing to let the others make up their minds for them were Gordon Jackson, Pauline McNeill and Elaine Smith. I merely observe that the two Glasgow members have an interesting ethnic mixture in their constituencies. Not so much a case of giving the inspectors time as giving themselves cover.

Scotland’s 19th Century novelist John Galt wrote a book titled The Member in which he quotes Mr Jobbry the eponymous member in question as saying, on being told that the Tories are likely to rule the roost for some years, “I daresay they are but between the Whigs and the Tories I can make no distinction – a Tory is but a Whig in office, and Whig is but a Tory in opposition, which makes it not difficult for a conscientious man like me to support the Government”. Plus ça change!

I look down the list of the Mr and Ms Jobbrys that vote with the governing coalition in the Scottish Parliament and I think of how many of them I can personally identify as having attended peace rallies, pickets and marches supporting the causes of the powerless and impoverished. Yet here, and at last, they sit with the precious right to cast their vote on behalf of those disenfranchised from daily participation in democracy, because they have surrendered their vote through our representative democratic system and they do not have the economic clout of a Mittal, Murdoch or Ecclestone to name but three.

It is time to sum up and as with that other chart pop pickers let’s look and see whose Top of the Holyrood Pops. Tommy (SSP) and Robin (Greens) have not hidden behind the cover of their size to avoid votes. They stayed on the radical side of the line, as has latterly Dorothy Grace-Elder when set free. Denis Canavan also has a high radical count. The Labour loyalists (that are loyal to socialism not social-ism) that deserve a gong are John McAllion and latterly Elaine Smith who is moving up through the charts with School Meals and Support the FBU. The SNP’s behaviour has been akin to that of a Boys’ or Girls’ Band in that they occasionally indulge in laddish behaviour such as their revolutionary abstention on debt collection. I hope Sir Sean doesn’t bring his furniture back to Scotland with him. So no meteoric rise up the charts for them but I have to say that some of their band have done well by going solo.

How can I rate the FOC Party people? I have thought hard about this and I have concluded that it would be unfair to leave any of the culpable out, as the excuse that some were only carrying out orders is not an acceptable alibi. To the leaders of the FOCs I have to say, in the non-threatening manner of Peter Mandelson, “WE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE STANDING”.

So here’s SLR’s List of dishonour, complete with the constituencies whose MSPs gave succour to Bush and Blair’s warmongering amongst other things.

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The following FOCs (Forces of Conservatism) gained entry into this roll of dishonour by supporting the Executive motion on Iraq

Aitken, Bill (Glasgow) (Con) Alexander,Wendy (Paisley North) (Lab) Baillie, Jackie (Dumbarton) (Lab) Barrie, Scott (Dunfermline West) (Lab) Brankin, Rhona (Midlothian) (Lab) Butler, Bill (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab) Chisholm, Malcolm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab) Craigie, Cathie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (Lab) Curran,Margaret (Glasgow Baillieston) (Lab) Davidson,David (North-East Scotland) (Con) Deacon, Susan (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab) Douglas-Hamilton, Lord James (Lothians) (Con) Eadie, Helen (Dunfermline East) (Lab) Ferguson, Patricia (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab) Fergusson, Alex (South of Scotland) (Con) Fitzpatrick, Brian (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Lab) Fraser, Murdo (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Gallie, Phil (South of Scotland) (Con) Gillon, Karen (Clydesdale) (Lab) Godman, Trish (West Renfrewshire) (Lab) Goldie, Miss Annabel (West of Scotland) (Con) Grant, Rhoda (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) Gray, Iain (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Lab) Harding,Keith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Henry, Hugh (Paisley South) (Lab) Home Robertson,John (East Lothian) (Lab) Hughes, Janis (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab) Jackson,Sylvia (Stirling) (Lab) Jamieson, Cathy (Carrick, Cumnock,Doon Valley) (Lab) Jamieson, Margaret (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab) Kerr,Andy (East Kilbride) (Lab) Lamont, Johann (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab) Livingstone, Marilyn (Kirkcaldy) (Lab) Macdonald, Lewis (Aberdeen Central) (Lab) Macintosh,Kenneth (Eastwood) (Lab) MacKay, Angus (Edinburgh South) (Lab) Maclean, Kate (Dundee West) (Lab) Macmillan, Maureen (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) Martin, Paul (Glasgow Springburn) (Lab) McAveety,Frank (Glasgow Shettleston) (Lab) McCabe,Tom (Hamilton South) (Lab) McGrigor,Jamie (Highlands and Islands) (Con) McIntosh,Lyndsay (Central Scotland) (Con) McLetchie, David (Lothians) (Con) McMahon,Michael (Hamilton North and Bellshill) (Lab) McNeil,Duncan (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab) McNulty, Des (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab) Monteith,Brian (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) Morrison,Alasdair (Western Isles) (Lab) Muldoon, Bristow (Livingston) (Lab) Mulligan,Mary (Linlithgow) (Lab) Mundell, David (South of Scotland) (Con) Murray,Elaine (Dumfries) (Lab) Oldfather, Irene (Cunninghame South) (Lab) Peacock, Peter (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) Peattie, Cathy (Falkirk East) (Lab) Scanlon, Mary (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Scott, John (Ayr) (Con) Simpson,Richard (Ochil) (Lab) Thomson, Elaine (Aberdeen North) (Lab) Tosh,Murray (South of Scotland) (Con) Wallace, Ben (North-East Scotland) (Con) Watson, Mike (Glasgow Cathcart) (Lab) Whitefield, Karen (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab) Wilson, Allan (Cunninghame North) (Lab) Young, John (West of Scotland) (Con)

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Henry McCubbin is a former Labour MEP