home battle ground region party policy starters and departers local elections news wspa links blog
Constituency : Edinburgh South
Current MSP : Mike Pringle
Current Party :
Majority 2007 (%) : 5.92
2007 Results:
  Candidate Votes % % change from '03
Mike Pringle1139834.99+2.92
Donald Anderson946929.07-2.49
Robert Holland611718.78+4.69
Gavin Brown558917.16+0.56
Winnability
Swing req for LAB gain 2.96%
LAB winability* 12
Swing req for SNP gain 8.11%
SNP winability* 33
Swing req for CON gain 8.92%
CON winability* 14
* This is the rank of each seat according to marginality by party
   
Edinburgh South
Candidate Profiles

Mike Pringle MSP
Deputy Justice Spokesperson for the Lib Dems, Mr. Pringle is also a Member of the Justice 1 Committee and Substitute Member of the Justice 2 Committee. In 2003 Mike Pringle caused a sensation when he defeated ex Minister for Finance & Local Government, Angus MacKay in Edinburgh South by just 158 votes. In September 2006, the Scottish Parliament's Standards Committee banned him for a week from attending full sessions and committee meetings for leaking details of the Shirley McKie case to a newspaper. Prior to his election in Parliament, Mr Pringle was a Councillor on Edinburgh City Council.

Donald Anderson

Donald Anderson is 43. He was the Cllr for Alnwickhill / Kaimes on Lothian Region, and has been Cllr for Kaimes in the City of Edinburgh since 1995. He spent 18 years as a medical scientist at the Blood Transfusion Centre and began his political career on Lothian Regional Council in 1986.

Since 1999 he was the high profile and well regarded leader of Edinburgh City Council until he stepped down to fight this seat in 2006.


Robert Holland
Robert Holland is aged 34, a solicitor in Edinburgh and former footballer for Spartans and Edinburgh City. Unusually he is the nephew of sitting MSP Mike Pringle.

Gavin Brown
Gavin Brown is aged 29 and is a qualified solicitor who started his own business.   He stood in Edinburgh South for the 2005 Westminster election and in Glasgow Rutherglen for the 2003 Scottish Parliament election.
   
 
Constituency Comments

Let everyone know how the party campaigns are going locally. Using the form below you can add your comments about the candidates, their chances of election and how well they are campaigning on the ground.
Name


Email Address


Comment

Posted Comments
Despite all the wishful thinking by all the Tories in the comments below I note that they came third. The Tories were third with half the vote of the winning candidate. Ironically althogth the Tories do not support PR, Gavin Brown was happy to be eleceted on the regional list. The very same hypocritical Tories dotn support PR for Westminster of course.

Posted by the truth on 18/8/2008

Chris, "this seat is now a genuine three-way marginal": maybe, but if so then the Tories are fourth. Let's see Gavin Brown try and persuade anyone that he's in with a chance in the Westminster seat in 2009 from FOURTH place. Well done Mike Pringle, and well done the SNP; goodbye Donald Anderson.

Posted by Blackford Bob on 29/5/2007

Pringles majority here begs the question will Griffiths manage to hang on here at the next general election? I under stand the Lib Dems candidate at the next general election is Fred Macintosh. My understanding is that he is a very strong candidate. This seat will change at the next general election. The Tories are well behind here and the talking up of Brown by Tory Chris was unfounded. By the way your pals in Stirling Perth and co did not fair well. Ash

Posted by on 7/5/2007

LD 34 Lab 26 SNP 20 C 20

Posted by on 4/5/2007

Hey last poster! Ouch! I don't remember posting on North & Leith (perhaps it was another Chris), but yes, I have been doing the rounds somewhat, although only about 8 out of 72! I'm not going to apologise for that. I'm in the position where I have my ear to the ground with a few of the campaigns, I thought folks might be interested, that's all. As for the comment viz Perth, Liz Smith was my teacher at school, I think I passed a light hearted remark there. So what if I'm a fan of a candidate? Edinburgh West was a genuine enquiry. I have tried to be objective and fair handed as possible in what I've said, I've tried never to be gratuitous or personal. As regards the substance of the last comment, I agree with a lot of it; my point is that even if the Labour vote here stalled, a swing from Pringle to Brown could mean this is the only Labour gain of the evening, depending on the Labour to SNP swing. This is a volatile seat, in 1999, the Nats were second, in 2003, the Lib Dems came from third (which is why I was surprised they wrote Gavin Brown off in 2005). I don't think that is an unfair analysis, last poster! As regards the megaphone, I have not campaigned at all in this election, but I don't reckon I would need batteries. My voice is loud enough as it is!

Posted by Chris on 2/5/2007

show all comments [22]
 
     
  ©Weber Shandwick 2007 Legal and Privacy Information Designed and Programmed by Shandwick Design