All Shall Have Prizes

The result of the Aberdeen Donside by-election to the Scottish Parliament - just goes to show how different Scotland's politics are from the rest of the UK.

For a start, the general rule of politics is that parties of government - in this case the SNP - don't win by-elections because by the mid-term of a parliament the voters are generally none too pleased with the Government - and tend to use by-elections as way of giving the Government a bit of a kicking.

Yet this didn't happen in Aberdeen Donside where the SNP still won the seat pretty comfortably - despite a 9% swing to Labour.    

Now Scottish Labour will say they made progress by cutting the SNP majority - which they did, of course, but on a very low turnout of 38%.

The Lib Dems can claim a 'victory' of sorts because they held on to 3rd place - instead do being humiliated as many people predicted, so the party is far from dead yet.

The Scottish Tories came in front of UKIP which is hardly great news but must count as something of a relief - given the pressure the Conservatives are under south of the border.

UKIP achieved a modest vote and didn't sink without trace, but gained a huge amount of free publicity for Nigel Farage - mainly thanks to self-appointed idiots who take their protests too far with violence and intimidation.

The Scottish Greens have little to celebrate apart from the fact that they didn't finish up in 7th, 8th or even 9th place - but in politics hope always triumphs over common sense, so Rhonda Reekie will ive to fight another day - in Edinburgh perhaps where the capital city's nickname of 'Auld Reekie' might provide a bit of a boost.

Here are the Donside by-election results in full.       

1. Mark McDonald (SNP): 9,814
2. Willie Young (Labour): 7,789
3. Christine Jardine (Lib Dem)1,940
4. Ross Thomson (Conservative): 1,791
5. Otto Inglis (UKIP): 1,128
6. Rhonda Reekie (Scottish Greens): 410
7. Dave MacDonald (Scottish National Front): 249
8. Tom Morrow (Scottish Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship"): 222
9. James Trolland (Scottish Democratic Alliance): 35