East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance

The East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance is a minor political party operating in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. They presently have two councillors on East Dunbartonshire Council: Charles Kennedy who is one of three councillors representing Campsie and Kirkintilloch North, and Jack Young who is one of three councillors representing East Kirkintilloch and Twechar.

Both Kennedy and Young were elected as Labour councillors in 2003.

Charles Kennedy was forced to sit as an independent on being expelled from the Labour Party in June 2004 accused of actively supporting an independent Scottish Parliamentary candidate [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=782&id=747112004] . Jack Young then resigned from the party in support of Kennedy but chose to sit as an independent councillor without contesting a by-election.

In November 2004 these two individuals announced the formation of the Strathkelvin People's Independent Labour Party with the intention of campaigning on issues such as displeasure with council tax, and the closure of the local Stobhill Hospital and their intention to try and win support from people disillusioned with the way in which East Dunbartonshire council is being run.

An inaugural meeting was held on 6 December, 2004 with it being announced beforehand that the party's name may be changed from the Strathkelvin People's Independent Labour Party. However, the name East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance had already been registered with the Electoral Commission and it is this name that the grouping (which largely seems confined to Kennedy and Young themselves) has continued to use, with the more unwieldy Strathkelvin People's Independent Labour Party not seemingly having been used at all, beyond the outset of the party's formation and early days.

During the 2007 Local Elections, the East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance fielded six candidates across East Dunbartonshire. They ranged from Donald Macdonald, a community activist, to Jim Gilmour a successful business man who was an unsuccessful Labour local government candidate in 2003.

Two East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance councillors were returned at that election on May 3rd 2007; Charles Kennedy and Jack Young.

External links

* [http://www.kirkintillochtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=956&ArticleID=884976 Kirkintilloch Today]

* [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=782&id=747112004]

* http://www.voteindie.org
* http://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk