IN the last ten years, Fife Council has been ruled first by an SNP-led coalition and then by a Labour-led coalition, and while nobody in the Kingdom will admit it, there will almost certainly have to be another coalition after May 4.
Could that coalition even be Labour and the SNP? The stats suggest it is possible, even if the current state of politics in Scotland does not. The varied Kingdom of Fife includes the former capital of Scotland, Dunfermline, the home of golf St Andrews, the mining towns and villages of the former Fife coalfield and the tourism hotspots of the East Neuk as well as the New Town of Glenrothes (home to council HQ Fife House) and Kirkcaldy, the area’s second largest town and birthplace of Adam Smith, the man who defined the science of political economy.
The third largest local authority in terms of its population, Fife Council currently has 78 councillors representing 23 multi-member wards. Following the review of local government wards Fife will have 75 councillors representing 22 wards, with 13 of these wards represented by three councillors and nine by four councillors.
That means any party wishing to take control will require to win 38 seats on May 4, and only the SNP with 45 candidates can do that. Labour’s admission, by only standing 36 candidates, that they will not be able to take overall control is quite staggering in the Kingdom of Gordon Brown and deputy Scottish Labour leader Alex Rowley.
The SNP really are trying to win overall control, and point to the fact that 21 of their 45 candidates are women as proof that they have a modern and positive message in Fife. Yet it would be an astonishing achievement to gain the necessary 38 seats, and already politicians and pundits alike are trying to see what coalition can be formed.
Much will depend on the performance of the Scottish Greens, the other main party in Fife committed to independence. Like the SNP they are standing a record number of candidates – 22, which is 19 more than in 2012 when they polled just 1,030 first-preference votes.
The Conservatives, as they are doing elsewhere, are emphasising the Unionist part of their name and with 22 candidates they are hopeful of boosting their numbers on the council, where they have been in coalition with Labour over the past five years.
The Liberal Democrats will be hoping to boost their numbers ahead of the General Election on June 8, having been wiped out on the mainland in 2015, three years after they lost half of their council seats.
Labour Provost Jim Leishman, the former Dunfermline Athletic manager, has been a popular civic leader and should coast home in his Dunfermline Central ward. SNP group leader Neale Hanvey should also win election in that ward.
Council and Labour group leader David Ross should also win in Kirkcaldy North, while for the SNP Team Bain – husband and wife Alistair and Ann – are hoping to be re-elected in Cowdenbeath.
Ross has pledged that his party will fight on its record in leading the administration over the past five years, and candidates have been stressing that rather than Labour’s national difficulties over Jeremy Corbyn, who was so comprehensively backed by Alex Rowley despite his leader Kezia Dugdale not doing so.
Education has been a key issue on the streets, with Labour denying the SNP’s accusations of cuts, but it is noticeable that the normal enmity between the two parties is being played down by both sides, making their opponents think they are set to form a coalition as Labour and the SNP have done for the past five years just across the Forth in Edinburgh.
Could it happen? Much will depend on how well the Labour vote stands up and whether they will be willing to join other parties to keep out the SNP in the likely event that the latter becomes the largest party.
The election in Fife certainly contains one candidate who, if he is defeated in Dunfermline Central, will have to go “back on the streets” to earn a living.
That is because Deek Jackson is a busker and a comedian, and he almost got selected as a Labour candidate before someone pointed out that he had used a picture of Auschwitz to attack the Conservatives on social media – after which he told the local paper that “all Conservatives should commit suicide and rid the planet of a parasitic life form robbing the rest of us of our birthright, a life free from exploitation.”
He is now standing as an independent, while in Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch, Jamie Donaldson is standing on the “No Referendum, Maintain Union, Pro-Brexit” ticket, despite these issues being outwith the control of any local authority, even one in charge of a Kingdom.
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