Welcome to Bo’ness SNP’s monthly update for May 2021.
Following a sensational election victory for our candidate Michelle Thomson and the extremely busy campaign that preceded it, you’ll understand why we’ve been slightly quieter this month, compared to last.
So let’s start by welcoming a new member this month. A warm welcome to Raymond who has transferred from another SNP branch to Bo’ness branch.
The first week of May 2021 was an extremely busy one – as a branch, we completed a comprehensive ‘get out the vote’ exercise of speaking to and leafletting supporters in the week before poll.
To ensure we were COVID compliant, sticking with the guidance regarding campaigning, this took a bit longer than usual. So through a mix of traditional door knocking and leafletting throughout the week prior to and on polling day, we ensured we reached everyone we wanted to. Well done to everyone involved, and to everyone we spoke to, thank you for your time. There are too many pictures from the week before to do this effort justice, so please look at some of the below.
Then when polling day came, we made sure we had an active presence at polling stations to welcome voters and ensure due scrutiny of the democratic process. While it was a shame that the other parties didn’t have the same presence at the polling stations, the election went forward in Bo’ness in an extremely positive manner and we commend everyone who took part.
Of course, the story of the day was that the number of the people who did take part was extremely large – the greatest turnout of any Scottish election thus far. 63% turnout in Falkirk East – the highest the constituency has ever had in a Scottish election. It became clear that this would be the case early on in polling day, and Bo’ness branch SNP hope this continues in future.
Then there was the count. This made clear the size of Michelle’s majority. 18,417 – the highest number of votes counted for any candidate in a Scottish Parliament election in Falkirk East ever. You can read more about this in detail here.
You can also watch Michelle’s excellent speech at the count below.
“We are delighted that Michelle Thomson has been elected as MSP for Falkirk East, with an overwhelming backing of the people of Bo’ness. Michelle ran a very positive and energetic campaign which looks to have captured the attention of the constituents of Falkirk East. Michelle will be an asset at Holyrood and a strong voice for Falkirk East. She was ably backed by the hardworking Bo’ness SNP campaign Team, led by our Branch Organiser, David Mitchell. I’d like to also put on record our thanks to outgoing MSP, Angus MacDonald, who served Falkirk East with distinction during his two terms at Holyrood.”
— Bo’ness Branch SNP Convener, Alan Gilbert
It was great to see Michelle entering Parliament for the first time a few days later.
Since this stunning election result though, the Bo’ness branch has been busy preparing for next years Council elections. We’ve recently created a linktree account. This allows you to share all of our links with your friends and family in the one place. We’ve embedded this into our social media channels as well. You can find this here.
Further to this, we are aware that Falkirk District SNP is looking to further develop their following ahead of the Council elections in 2022. If you haven’t already, please consider following them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.
That’s all for this month – we look forward to the further lifting of lockdown, and hopefully in person events beginning to go ahead in the near future. We’ve learnt a lot from this years election – and we are looking to learn from and build upon what worked for next year.
Bo'ness SNP 