Saying "Thank You"

I think the result stunned all of us. Since about Friday I had thought I had probably won, but on polling day itself it is impossible to tell what is happening - the effort is just to get the vote out and that is what the team was still doing at one minute to ten. The best success was persuading a man in his slippers in Dunbeg to leave the house just as he was !

I then went and "did" television and radio in Glasgow, coming back to Glendaruel through torrential rain. But of course I couldn't bring myself to go to bed and ended up having only an hour nap, which was ended by a phone call from Roseanna Cunningham who was as astonished as I was at the scale of what was taking place.

We left for the polling station, driven by Dr Jamie Hill who has been a fantastic friend and help over the past few days, at around 9.00 just after a call from my Campaign Manager Ron Simon to say that initial samplings had my vote at over 50%. I thought that must be an exaggeration but when we arrived at the count it was quickly clear that it was accurate.

The result eventually came just before 2.00. This is the moment I started to say thank you for the support of 13,390 people and pledge myself to work for everyone in the constituency.

From left to right - George White (Liberal), Mick Rice (Labour), Alison Hay (Liberal Democrat), me, Jamie McGrigor (Conservative) and the Returning Officer, Council Chief Executive Sally Loudon. George Doyle (Independent) did not attend the count