Health care issues provide common political ground in region dominated by Glasgow

Labour try to limit hospital closure damage

Straddling the Clyde, the West of Scotland region is dominated by Glasgow, and all the more so since much of Argyll and Clyde health board was absorbed into the city's hospitals quango.

The board was one of the few institutions that linked the disparate parts of the region, but hospitals remain a major issue. Labour has sought to take the sting out of the threatened loss of hospital services throughout the area, but the SNP's promise to keep health services local may yet strike a political chord around Vale of Leven and Inverclyde.

All the seats in the west of Scotland region are Labour held, with the notable exception of Strathkelvin and Bearsden, lost to hospital campaigner Jean Turner in 2003. Labour will not want to see anything like that happen again.

It may suffer some consequences from the ongoing party infighting in West Dunbartonshire, where a highly dysfunctional councillor group and warring between Clydebank and Dumbarton have lost some of its activist base and done its reputation no favours.

Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton MSP and former Communities Minister, took the risky route of alienating Clydebank councillors, several of whom have quit or been expelled. She must hope this will protect her against an anti-Labour backlash, but if there is such feeling to be found, it may not help Des McNulty, the deputy Communities Minister sitting on a 4534 majority in Clydebank and Milngavie.

South of the river, Eastwood stands as a symbol of hope for Labour MSPs who fear a national tide running against them. Once the truest of true blue seats, Labour's Jim Murphy won its Westminster equivalent of East Renfrewshire in 1997, and colleague Ken Macintosh took it at Holyrood in 1999. They have jointly dug in Labour defences against any prospect of a Tory revival.

With not much sign of that happening and the SNP not treating it as a target seat, this might be one strange place Labour can feel safe.

The remainder of Renfrewshire is looking a more worrying prospect for Labour, as the SNP has some organisational strengths and activists who bring fundamentalist passion to the cause.

That includes Bill Wilson, who challenged John Swinney for the SNP leadership in 2003, and now hopes to unseat Labour's deputy presiding officer, Trish Godman, in Renfrewshire West.

That is the best regional prospect for an SNP gain from Labour, helping explain why she has pushed hard to be associated with the battle to save Ferguson's shipyard, seeking to link local LibDem Fisheries Minister Ross Finnie to the problems it has had.

With a majority of 2492, Labour hopes it can count on traditional working class Port Glasgow, while the SNP hopes to get its vote out in the villages it represents at council level.

This is home turf also for Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie, who was fighting the seat in 1992. She boosted the Tory vote in 2003, coming close to pushing past the SNP into second place, and may be able to build the Conservative vote on the strength of her media exposure this month. It would help her leadership if she can show others she can win her own seat.

Nationalists are not putting their local effort into beating Wendy Alexander. Her Paisley North seat looks relatively good for Labour, despite an SNP presence in Renfrew. With her Scotland Secretary brother Douglas in Paisley South at Westminster, the former enterprise minister has used her time out of ministerial office over the past five years to work her constituency, and her high profile, in the economic battle with Nationalists which suggests she is ready for a frontline return.

In Paisley South, Education Minister Hugh Henry has more to worry about, with the SNP still eager to continue its grudge match from his combative days in the Renfrewshire Council chamber.

Nationalists are building up votes in Glenburn, Foxbar, and Hawkhead housing estates, while Labour will play on strengths around Johnstone and Elderslie.

The SNP candidate in Paisley North is Fiona McLeod, a list MSP in the Parliament's first term, and Mr Henry has to contend with one of his critics on criminal justice policy, Clive Fairweather, the outspoken former chief prisons inspector.

LibDems are not strong in the west of Scotland, but a traditional pocket of support makes them contenders in Greenock and Inverclyde. This looks on paper like it ought to be solid for Labour's Duncan McNeil, backed from Westminster by Scotland Office minister David Cairns. There was not much movement in the share in 2003, leaving Mr McNeil 3009 votes ahead of Ross Finnie, the LibDem accountant who has been Rural Development Minister for eight years.

But with Labour at risk of slipping, this is one of the seats - the others being in East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, and Dunfermline - where its junior coalition partners pose a risk. Labour is making much of the effects of LibDem local income tax and characterising its colleagues as soft on crime.

In any case, Mr Finnie returns to the top of the LibDem list for west of Scotland, having been his party's sole Holyrood representative for this part of Scotland. He is keen for a change from rural development and the environment, and that could mean a stint as presiding officer, a job that may also attract Trish Godman.

Annabel Goldie tops the Conservative list and has been linked to George Reid's role as well, at least if things go as badly as some fear for Tories on May 3.

Frances Curran has backed away from a return to Holyrood for the Scottish Socialists, with Kirkintilloch teacher Pamela Page topping the list, and Solidarity offers Jim Halfpenny, also a teacher from Vale of Leven.