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Sectarianism in Scotland: The Last Decade (Chapter Two)

© Simon Hill

As we discussed in Chapter One each new scandal or story surrounding sectarianism relaunches the debate. One such scandal was the Monklands by-election on the 30th of June 1994, as Walker suggests 'The impact of Monklands was thus to lead many people to re-assess the significance of religious divisions in Scottish society'(1). The Monklands scandal grew out of claims that the exclusively Catholic Labour councillors (all 17 of them) on the local council had favoured the Catholic inhabitants of Coatbridge over their Protestant Airdrie neighbours in terms of spending. After the death of Labour leader John Smith his seat was to be contested, with the safe Labour majority under threat because of the charges of nepotism and sectarianism against the local council. Helen Liddell stood for Labour and retained the seat by a greatly reduced margin after a dirty campaign which saw the Tories attempt to stir up sectarian discontent and the SNP charged with playing the Orange card. The claims against the council were legitimised when Liddell herself acknowledged that '...expenditure on major projects has been concentrated in one part of the district'(2). The situation was dramatically worsened for Labour when the Labour MP for Monklands West, Tom Clarke, spoke out denying the bias and directly contradicting Liddell's statement. The front page of the Herald on the 28th of June had the headline 'Labour Split by Monklands 'bias'. Labour's embarrassment was complete when another front page story in the Herald printed the opinion of Jimmy Wray MP for Glasgow Provan who fully backed Tom Clarke in the matter. Mr Wray was then taken off to a meeting with the Scottish leadership of the Labour party and shown the figures for spending in Coatbridge and Airdrie, a full recantation in his name was then issued.

The conduct of certain Labour MPs had worsened the situation and the election was held in a dangerous and tense atmosphere. Labour held the seat but the majority was reduced from 16,000 to a mere 1,640. The SNP had been the main beneficiaries with a swing of 19.2% just short of the 21% they needed. The day after the election the Herald reported 'After the count, the bitterness of the campaign boiled over outside the hall and a thin line of policemen had to keep apart chanting Nationalist and Labour factions in a crowd of about one hundred'. The situation escalated when Liddell tried to leave as 'Officers had to force their way through the seething throng with a clearly shaken Mrs Liddell and as they put her into her car she was spat upon and there were jeers and cries of 'scum' from banner waving Nationalists' (3).

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