In Aberdeen, the Progressives (Tories) chose to fight the election on the boycott issue, and fared slightly worse than they did in most other Scottish townse In spite of a lot of publicity and a special leaflet, there was one Labour gain and a general improvement in the Labour vote. Councillors Bowyer and Lamond, who have been very active boycott supporters, both increased their majority. Bowyer in a very marginal ward.
Congratulations, then, as far as it goes. But I would have preferred to see the Labour Party choose to fight the Progressives on their own terms in this case. Instead, it left the boycott issue to individual candidates - a fact, which revealed, I think, a certain lack of f&ith in the power of their case among some of the Party elders.
As it is, there is no firm evidence that the boycott issue positively affected voting. The swing to Labour is probably not significantly greater in Aberdeen than elsewhere in Scotland. Perhaps if the Labour Party had presented the pro-boycott case with more confidence they would have done even better. Certainly, the failure of the anti-boycott campaign indicates that would not have done any worse, and the party would have had the satisfastion of knowing that it haddne everything in its power to present the case for the boycott to the people of Aberdeen - something which has not yet been done adequatelys