We were quite taken aback by this tweet from Barrhead Boy:
He was responding to this:
This is just embarrassing.
It could be that Labour HQ issued a directive to all members to use that text and fire it all over social media asap to take full advantage of the publicity surrounding the results. Or it may be that Shanks, still flushed with success, acted off his own bat. In either case, it might be a better idea for him to keep his head down and not draw too much attention to the heart-rending picture of loneliness which is him and Ian Murray in the House of Commons.
We aren't great with numbers but we did recall that the Rutherglen & Hamilton West by-election was remarkable for the low turnout of only 37.19%
Michael Shanks won the seat with 58.6% of votes cast.
So, if we're getting this right, that means he was elected with only 21.78% of the constituents voting for him.
We're not so bad with numbers that we can't observe that 21.78%, even if rounded up to 22%, is still closer to a fifth than a quarter.
In real terms, this means that if you stood on Rutherglen Main Street, only one-and-a-wee-toty-bit out of every five people who passes you will have voted for him.
Not much to crow about.
Yet again, we are confronted with evidence that what passes for 'democracy' in modern Scotland is not fit for purpose.
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