A Dash for Safety: Scottish Voters, Gordon Brown, and Labour

Abstract

Because of his unpopularity, Labour's campaign managers did not encourage Gordon Brown to mingle with the electorate during the 2010 general election campaign. On 27 April, Glasgow's Buchanan Street was one of the few places where caution was thrown to the wind and he did a 'walk-about', getting a warm response from passers-by.' Glasgow's main pedestrianised thoroughfare appears to be sacred Labour turf. At die top, there is a statue of Donald Dewar, the main architect of Scotland's devolution scheme, while very near the bottom is the site of the former St Enoch's railway station. It was from here that the first contingent of Labour MPs in Scotland departed for London in 1922 with the avowed aim of toppling a social order based on narrow privilege and replacing it with one shaped around justice and equality.