Retiring MSPs (Updated)
I wrote a post in June listing the MSPs who had announced they would stand down in May's Scottish Parliament election, along with a list of those who may be considering it. The list of those who had announced their retirement by that point was:
Jamie Stone (LD, Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross - 2 June 2010)
Ian McKee (SNP, Lothians - 29 May 2010)
Bill Aitken (Con, Glasgow Region - 19 May 2010)
Robin Harper (Green, Lothians - 13 September 2009)
John Farquhar Munro (LD, Ross, Skye & Inverness West - 2008)
Chris Harvie (SNP, Mid Scotland & Fife - 2007: one term)
Subsequently, the following MSPs have announced they will also stand down:
George Foulkes (Lab, Lothians - 18 August 2010)
Ted Brocklebank (Con, Mid Scotland & Fife - 4 August 2010)
Trish Godman (Lab, West Renfrewshire - 4 August 2010)
Rhona Brankin (Lab, Midlothian - 7 July 2010)
Andrew Welsh (SNP, Angus - 10 June 2010)
Jim Mather (SNP, Argyll & Bute - 5 June 2010)
Alasdair Morgan (SNP, South of Scotland - June 2010)
Cathy Jamieson (Lab, Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley - 17 May 2010)
Margaret Curran (Lab, Glasgow Baillieston - May 2010?)
That, by my count, makes 15 MSPs retiring. Of those 15, I'd suggest age to be the predominant factor in 11 of the cases, with 3 leaving to pursue politics in other places (London) and one (Rhona Brankin) hoping to do something similar.
I still think there are a few more who may be considering giving up their Holyrood salary (as I mentioned in my previous post) including:
Jack McConnell (given peerage 29 May 2010)
Nanette Milne (Con, North-East Scotland - age 68)
Mary Scanlon (Con, Highlands & Islands - age 62)
Jamie McGrigor (Con, Highlands & Islands - age 60)
Helen Eadie (Lab, Dunfermline East - age 63)
Nicol Stephen (LD, Aberdeen South - family)
And, I assume, with boundary changes, there will be some, ahem, "enforced" retirements in the sense that some MSPs will not be re-selected by their branches. I have heard some rumours of this happening already, but no confirmation as yet. And there will be the inevitable scramble for list places as well, a favoured bloodsport of political journalists.
1 comments:
Malc, you may wish to know that Nanette Milne will certainly be standing in Aberdeenshire West, while McGrigor and Scanlon will be standing in Argyll & Bute and Inverness & Nairn respectively, so it's now a question of their List rankings.
Of course, eyebrows might be raised that the 'New Bonnie Fechter for Moray' might stand next door, this time around, but in actual fact, the 2006 By-Election and the 2007 Election were the aberration (they count as one, as she had already been selected as 2007 candidate before Margaret Ewing passed away): in 1999 and 2003, she'd stood in Inverness East, Nairn & Lochaber.
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