The Sunday Whip

In which I go through the voting records at Holyrood. Let's see how long this feature lasts!

What the voting lacked in quantity this first week, it more than made up for in significance. The PO and DPO votes were, of course, secret, and the vote for FM was entirely predictable: all the SNP & Green MSPs voted for Alex Salmond, all the Labour MSPs voted for Jack McConnell, Margo MacDonald abstained, while all the Tories and LibDems voted for Annabel Goldie and Nicol Stephen respectively, then abstained on the second round of voting.

We now come to the Ministerial votes on Thursday morning. It looks like Helen Eadie (Lab, Dunfermline East) wasn't in the chamber then, and neither were Liam MacArthur (LibDem, Orkney) and Margaret Smith (LibDem, Edinburgh West). George Foulkes (Lab, Lothians) was at the House of Lords so he has an excuse.

The Tories proposed - then withdrew - an amendment to remove Richard Lochhead from the list of Ministers. The LibDems proposed an amendment to remove John Swinney, and would have withdrawn it until Margo MacDonald insisted on voting for it. She was the only one who did. The entire SNP and Green group opposed the amendment, while 44 Labour MSPs, 15 Tories and 14 LibDems abstained. Ted Brocklebank (Con, Mid Scotland and Fife) appeared to miss the amendment altogether.

For the final vote on the list of Ministers, and the vote on the list of Deputy Ministers, things were simpler. All the SNP and Green MSPs voted in favour, of course, while the remaining Members present (44 Lab, 15 Con, 14 LibDem, Margo MacDonald) all voted to abstain. No rebellions.