Monklandsgate was the name of a political scandal in the former Scottish local government district of Monklands (now part of North Lanarkshire) which dominated the Monklands East by-election in 1994. [1]
Monklandsgate consisted of allegations of sectarian spending discrepancies between Protestant Airdrie and Catholic Coatbridge, [2] fuelled by the fact that all 17 of the ruling Labour group were Roman Catholics. [3]
Accusations included: £21M spent on capital projects in Coatbridge while only £2M was spent in Airdrie; councillors handing out green job application forms while the job centre handed out white ones; and also accusations of nepotism as dozens of council workers were related to Labour councillors. The accusations were of increased interest to the media as the Monklands West MP was Tom Clarke, former Monklands District Provost and one time Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, while the Monklands East MP was the Labour leader, John Smith. The allegations of sectarianism were never proven. However, allegations of nepotism were found to be true. [4]
Despite the allegations, Helen Liddell narrowly retained the seat for Labour, against a strong swing to Kay Ullrich of the Scottish National Party. [5]
Airdrie is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on a plateau 400 ft above sea level, 12 miles (19 km) east of Glasgow. As of 2012, it had a population of 37,130. Historically part of Lanarkshire, Airdrie forms a conurbation with its neighbour Coatbridge, in what was formerly the Monklands district, with a population of approximately 90,000.
Sir Thomas Clarke, is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1982 until 2015, representing Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill from 2005 until losing his seat to Philip Boswell of the SNP in the May 2015 general election.
Helen Lawrie Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke PC is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2003 and British High Commissioner to Australia from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Airdrie and Shotts, previously Monklands East, from 1994 to 2005.
Coatbridge is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about 8+1⁄2 miles east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands, often considered to be part of the Greater Glasgow urban area – although officially they have not been included in population figures since 2016 due to small gaps between the Monklands and Glasgow built-up areas.
Airdrie and Shotts is a constituency of the UK House of Commons, located in central Scotland within the North Lanarkshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Coatbridge and Bellshill is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) using the first-past-the-post voting system.
University Hospital Monklands is a district general hospital in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves a population of approximately 260,000 people of North and South Lanarkshire council areas and is managed by NHS Lanarkshire.
Monklands was, between 1975 and 1996, one of nineteen local government districts in the Strathclyde region of Scotland.
James Dempsey was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament for Coatbridge and Airdrie from 1959 until his death.
Anti-Irish sentiment, also Hibernophobia, is bigotry against the Irish people or individuals. It can include hatred, oppression, persecution, as well as simple discrimination. Generally, it could be against the island of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, or Northern Ireland. Specifically, it could be directed against Irish immigrants, or their descendants, throughout the world, who are known as the Irish diaspora.
The Monklands East by-election was held on 30 June 1994, following the death of the Leader of the Labour Party John Smith, Member of Parliament (MP) for Monklands East in Scotland, on 12 May.
The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway was an early mineral railway running from a colliery at Monklands to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch, Scotland. It was the first railway to use a rail ferry, the first public railway in Scotland, and the first in Scotland to use locomotive power successfully, and it had a great influence on the successful development of the Lanarkshire iron industry. It opened in 1826.
The Monkland Railways was a railway company formed in 1848 by the merger of three "coal railways" that had been built to serve coal and iron pits around Airdrie in Central Scotland, and connect them to canals for onward transport of the minerals. The newly formed company had a network stretching from Kirkintilloch to Causewayend, near Linlithgow. These coal railways had had mixed fortunes; the discovery of blackband ironstone and the development of the iron smelting industry around Coatbridge had led to phenomenal success, but hoped-for mineral discoveries in the moorland around Slamannan had been disappointing. The pioneering nature of the railways left them with a legacy of obsolete track and locomotives, and new, more modern, railways were being built around them.
The 1982 Coatbridge and Airdrie by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 24 June 1982 for the British House of Commons constituency of Coatbridge and Airdrie.
The history of Coatbridge, Scotland, is one of dramatic change. The town transformed from an obscure group of 18th century Lanarkshire hamlets strung out on the road between Glasgow and Airdrie to a world leading centre of iron production in the 19th century. Development took off at an incredible rate in the 19th century and led to massive changes to the landscape and an explosion in the population.
Though Coatbridge is a most interesting seat of industry, it is anything but beautiful. Dense clouds of smoke roll over it incessantly, and impart to all the buildings a peculiarly dingy aspect. A coat of black dust overlies everything, and in a few hours the visitor finds his complexion considerably deteriorated by the flakes of soot which fill the air, and settle on his face. To experience Coatbridge it must be visited at night when it presents a most extraordinary spectacle.... From the steeple of the parish church the flames of no fewer than fifty blast furnaces may be seen.... The flames have a positively fascinating effect. Now they shoot far upward, and breaking off short, expire among the smoke; again spreading outward, they curl over the lips of the furnace, and dart through the doorways, as if determined to annihilate the bounds within which they are confined; then they sink low into the crater, and come forth with renewed strength in the shape of great tongues of fire, which sway backward and forward, as if seeking with a fierce eagerness something to devour. The Scotsman, 1869
Elections to North Lanarkshire Council were held on 3 May 2012 on the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election used the twenty wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 70 Councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the STV electoral system.
Steven Bonnar is a Scottish National Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill from 2019 until the seat's abolition in 2024. He has been SNP Environment, Farming, Agriculture and Rural Affairs spokesperson since 2023.
Coatbridge West is one of the twenty-one wards used to elect members of the North Lanarkshire Council. Covering neighbourhoods in the south-west of Coatbridge and the separate village of Bargeddie, it elects three councillors. A boundary review in 2017 caused the loss of an area between Langloan Street, the A725 and the A89, with a small decrease in the electorate but no change in the number of seats. The ward had a population of 14,910 in 2019.
Elections to North Lanarkshire Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.