Constituency Profile
Constituency: |
Na h-Eileanan an Iar |
| Current MP : | Angus MacNeil |
| Current Party : |  |
| Majority 2010(%) : | 38.23 |
2010 Results: |
||||
| Candidate | Votes | % | % change from '05 | |
 | Angus Brendan MacNeil | 6723 | 45.68 | +0.78 |
 | Donald John Macsween | 4838 | 32.87 | -1.62 |
 | Jean Davis | 1097 | 7.45 | -0.47 |
 | Sheena Norquay | 647 | 4.4 | -0.01 |
Winnability |
|
| Swing req for LAB gain | 6.4042% |
| LAB winability* | 6 |
| Swing req for LD gain | 19.1139% |
| LD winability* | 28 |
| Swing req for CON gain | 20.6428% |
| CON winability* | 41 |
| * This is the rank of each seat according to marginality by party | |
Na h-Eileanan an Iar Candidate Profiles
|  Angus Brendan MacNeil Angus is a native Gaelic speaker from Barra. He went to School in Barra and to the Nicholson Institute in Stornoway. He studied Civil Engineering at Strathclyde University and then worked as a reporter at the BBC in Inverness for 2 years before becoming a Primary Teacher. In the 2001 general election Angus was the SNP candidate for Inverness East Nairn and Lochaber. He was elected as MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) on 5 May 2005 and is a member of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster. Angus was the MP who placed the orginal complaint which lead to the police investigation into the 'cash for peerages' scandal. |
|  Jean Davis Jean Davis spent her childhood in Liverpool and attended Manchester University, before embarking on her medical career and training as an occupational physician. She has worked within a number of different industry sectors including the service, chemical, bioscience and explosives industries. In June 2000 Jean relocated to the Western Isles and has since worked as an occupational physician on a part time basis. In the local community Jean has worked with a variety of voluntary groups and is currently Chair of the Western Isles Rape Crisis Centre and a Director of the Western Isles Association for Mental Health. She also previously worked as a volunteer advisor at the local Citizens Advice Bureau and for SSAFA Forces Help. She has also served as a member of Laxdale Community Council. Jean was the Liberal Democrat candidate at the 2005 election and is currently convener of the Western Isles Liberal Democrats. |
|  Donald John Macsween Donald John MacSween, Labour Party candidate for na h-Eileanan an Iar, is the Director of Sgailean, a young people's housing charity in Stornoway, and a local councillor. He is also board member of Young Musicians Hebrides. He takes a keen interest in community development and is chairman of Point and Sandwick Development Trust, the largest community owned renewable energy project in the UK. Donald John is also a member of Unison and the Co-operative Party. |
|  Sheena Norquay Sheena was born in Aberdeen in 1987. While being educated at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, she was employed by the Church of Scotland Board of Social Responsibility, working with children with special needs. In 2005 Sheena moved to St Andrews to undertake a degree in International Relations. While there, she has been involved in community outreach work, including work with the Free Church of Scotland. She has also served as an appointed carer with the children's charity, Barnardo's. During her period as a student Sheena has been employed by a bank with global presence, and is due to graduate in the coming summer. Sheena's professional and academic background, as well as her voluntary and community work, have equipped her to enter the domain of domestic politics and stand to be representative for the constituents of Na h-Eileanan an Iar. The islands are the home of her family, where Sheena spent many of her childhood days. She seeks to highlight the uniqueness of the island communities, and to see this preserved. She is conscious of the industries that are lifelines to these remote communities, believing that a Conservative government would provide for their survival and future prosperity. |
Posted Comments
(4)
1
John MacLeod
April 6, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
Formed in 1918 and held until 1935 by assorted Liberal factions, a nascent SNP intervention that year threw the Western Isles to the 22-year old Malcolm K MacMillan, Labour's Glasgow University undergraduate candidate who held it for many years, holding off a serious 'Liberal Unionist' challenge by future broadcaster Donny B MacLeod in 1959. MacMillan himself finally fell to Donald Stewart and the SNP in 1970 and the seat has been a Lab-SNP fight ever since. Stewart retired undefeated in 1987; the Western Isles promptly fell to Labour (thanks to the intervention of a popular local broadcaster as the SDP/Liberal Alliance candidate) and it was eighteen years before the SNP, who had long struggled to find a credible local candidate, won back with Angus B MacNeil. Five years ago, MacNeil's election caused widespread comment as the genial, Barra-reared Roman Catholic had triumphed in a seat dominated by a particularly robust Presbyterianism. But he quickly made his mark by a semi-successful campaign against a new Scotland-minimising BBC weathermap and, more notably, in his doughty pursuit of the Blair Government over 'cash for peerages', triggering a Mdetropolitan Police investigation and collecting a Spectator award as Backbencher of the Year in the process. Parallel SNP success in the Western Isles in 2007, the election of an SNP Government in Edinburgh and the generally toiling fate of the Brown administration down south should have bolstered MacNeil's prospects here for re-election. But he has been badly embarrassed by revelations of inappropriate behaviour with schoolgirls in an Orkney hotel (for which he promptly apologised), some eyebrow raising, and eyebrow-raising claims for Parliamentary expenses (including drink, a Toblerone bar and wellie-boots). His handling of local issues has also been contentious, most notably some flip-flopping on the hot question of industrial-scale windfarms, rather too studied neutrality on bitter controversy on the imposition of Sunday ferries by Caledonian MacBrayne and the Scottish Government, and the recent threat to the Qinetiq missile-tracking range in the Uists - an important local employer and when some felt MacNeil cared more about its value as an election issue than the vital jobs in what is historically a low-wage economy. Angus MacNeil, though, is lucky in his opponents: a noisy but lghtweight incomer, Dr Jean Davis, for the Liberal Democrats; a young 'paper' candidate for the Conservatives, Sheena Norquay, who has yet to show face in the seat and whose solitary interview featured curious concern for a harbour-wall in what is the Isle of Lewis's only land-locked village; and (of most moment) the formidable but abrasive Cllr Donald John MacSween for Labour, whose biggest asset is long and noisy involvement in the local council, and whose biggest weakness is long and noisy involvement in the local council. SNP games over Sabbath ferries have undoubtedly angered many adherents of the local churches and the main unknown is whether they will largely abstain, take a judicial tack and cynically throw their ballots behind MacSween (a long-term advocate of 7-day sailings) or back a local 'Independent Christian', island businessman Murdo Murray, who seems set to stand but boasts little relevant experience and no evident election organisation. He has, however, apparently scared off the widely disliked 'Scottish Christian Party', one of several right-wing and Europobic Christian Parties headed and bankrolled by the curious Rev. George Hargreaves (who stood here in 2005 whupped the Tories into a distant fifth) , and which made much noise about a renewed bid in 2010. The biggest threat to MacNeil's career is, really, none of the above, but the very real prospect of the seat's abolition in the next decade, probably as part of a wider cull of Scotland's Westminster representation in exchange for further repatriation of powers from Westminster. Its most likely fate is a shotgun-wedding with the Isle of Skye and a dramatic change in political dynamics. Prediction: SNP hold, but with a mildly reduced majority and a mildly chastened MacNeil.2
Ruairidh Iain Moir
April 12, 2010 @ 11:23 pm
Prediction - Angus Brendan MacNeil to retain seat and continue to serve the islands as our SNP representative. New Labour had their chance. And look at the mess they created.3
Lewis Boy
April 18, 2010 @ 4:35 pm
Prediction: Labour win by a handful of votes, but everything to play for at present.4
robert
April 27, 2010 @ 12:50 am
i find it pretty pathetic that there is only 4 out of the 5 candidates for the western isles on this page. The same thing happened at the bbc hustings the other day. they give all the other candidates a chance to speak apart from Murdo Murray. Murdo murray is the only 1 of these candidate that we know will follow through with wot he is says. A B macneil has been in and had his chance, wot has he done for the islands? ...Nothing!! and if ur thinking of voting labour take a look at how the country has been ruined by the labour government. there is no denying that this country is in a state and its all down to labour. there is no point even saying anything about the other 2 candidates. i also hate the way ever1 talks about that it will only be christians voting for murdo. i an not a christian nor do i class my self as religious. but ill be voting for murdo as he makes sense i believe he is the right man for the job. and i wish him all the best.