Back to polling stations for seventh time in three years

Neil Gray will be back out on the campaign trail from next week, setting out to retain the seat he won just two years ago.

Mr Gray became the MP for Airdrie & Shotts in the SNP’s landslide win of May 2015, defeating Pamela Nash with a 30 per cent swing to earn a majority of 8779, and ending eight decades of Labour representation in a previous safe-seat heartland.

In Monklands’other Westminster constituency, Phil Boswell took the Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill seat which had been held by Tom Clarke of Labour since 1982 with a swing of nearly 40 per cent – giving him a majority of 11,501 in a constituency which 10 years earlier had been the safest seat in the whole of the UK.

Although there have been only 763 days since that general election, Scotland’s voters have still managed to fit in another three trips to the polls in that period.

June’s general election will be the seventh time in just three years in which voters across Airdrie and Coatbridge have been issued with their polling cards, politicians have dusted down and pinned on their rosettes, and schools, community centres – even a museum and mobile library – have been transformed into polling stations. There have been 12 polling days on 14 different issues in the past decade, with 2008 and 2013 being Scotland’s only years without electoral events . May 2007 – Scottish Parliament AND Council elections held on the same day (the two polls were moved to separate times after this election due to the high number of rejected votes amid confusion about the different electoral systems involved). June 2009 – European Parliament. May 2010 – Westminster. May 2011 – Scottish Parliament AND referendum on introduction of Alternative Vote system. May 2012 – Council election. May 2014 – European Parliament. September 2014 – Scottish independence referendum. May 2015 – Westminster. May 2016 – Scottish Parliament. June 2016 – Referendum on European Union membership. May 2017 – Council election. June 2017 – Westminster.

There have also been four council by-elections in Coatbridge during that period, including three in the same ward, making it 15 invitations to vote for electors of Coatbridge North.