Clydesdale
Labour hold

Clydesdale is yet another seat in industrial central Scotland where the result is predictable: Labour first, SNP second, the rest nowhere. This seat is based on the old Lanark, and its politics shaped by the former coalmining area around Lesmahagow and Douglas, along with Carluke and Stonehouse, although Lanark itself has more the area of a county - and almost country town -and the seat stretches across over 100,000 hectares of thinly populated countryside and moorland as far as the isolated little town of Biggar. Carstairs Junction, where the train lines from the south for Glasgow and Edinburgh diverge, is also in the seat. But Clydesdale is on the main and direct line for another scheduled Labour win.

Jimmy Hood, low-slung, barrel-chested and built like a bouncer, is about as wide as he is long, and a collector’s item as one of only 12 ex-NUM-sponsored MPs in a PLP of 418 (in 1997). Born 1948, locally schooled at Lesmahagow and Motherwell Technical College (and later day-release at Nottingham University), he worked for 23 years as a miner, mostly on the Notts coalfield. As a pro-European Commons chairman he has allowed his Campaign Group membership to lapse.

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 9.46% 14.99% 63.11 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 3.82% 2.13% 179.86 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 1.76% 2.49% 70.87 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 5.11% 4.43% 115.52 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 13.89% 7.27% 191.01 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 0.95% 2.56% 36.90 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.19% 2.04% 9.07 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 0.32% 3.94% 8.11 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 6.71% 13.04% 51.46 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 6.47% 12.70% 50.93 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 8.04% 8.14% 98.69 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 0.85% 4.02% 21.07 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 5.98% 3.19% 187.75 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 26.76% 11.31% 236.60 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 4.60% 3.06% 150.37 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 4.92% 2.52% 195.26 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.17% 0.06% 268.58

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 9.45% 9.41% 100.39 £5-10K 16.30% 16.63% 98.03 £10-15K 16.51% 16.58% 99.60 £15-20K 13.82% 13.58% 101.77 £20-25K 10.75% 10.39% 103.48 £25-30K 8.11% 7.77% 104.38 £30-35K 6.05% 5.79% 104.47 £35-40K 4.50% 4.33% 103.85 £40-45K 3.35% 3.27% 102.69 £45-50K 2.51% 2.48% 101.14 £50-55K 1.89% 1.90% 99.31 £55-60K 1.43% 1.47% 97.31 £60-65K 1.10% 1.15% 95.21 £65-70K 0.84% 0.91% 93.07 £70-75K 0.65% 0.72% 90.94 £75-80K 0.51% 0.57% 88.83 £80-85K 0.40% 0.46% 86.77 £85-90K 0.32% 0.37% 84.77 £90-95K 0.25% 0.31% 82.84 £95-100K 0.20% 0.25% 80.98 £100K + 0.95% 1.34% 70.64