‘No friends to the oil and gas industry’: Aberdeen South, the byelection where one topic dominates

The contest for Aberdeen South, a constituency that spans urban social housing and detached homes with sculpted gardens, has been dominated by one topic: the future of North Sea oil and gas. The drama gripping the Labour party at Westminster and Andy Burham’s nascent leadership pitch in Makerfield barely affects this byelection, which also takes place on Thursday. The vote is touted as a straight fight between the Scottish National party and the Conservatives , and one in which energy policy dominates. Aberdeen South includes the port where vast oil rig support vessels tower over the quayside, and to the west borders the River Dee as it winds past plush villas in outlying villages through the city into the docks. Richard Thomson, a former MP and council leader who is attempting to retain the seat for the SNP, puts it this way: “If you don’t work in the energy industry, you will know plenty of others who do – your family and your friends.” Richard Thomson, the SNP candidate for Aberdeen South. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA double quotation mark If you don’t work in the energy industry, you will know plenty of others who do – your family and your friends. The cost of living crisis and questions about the SNP’s fitness for government after the scandal of Peter Murrell’s theft of £400,000 in party funds flare up too on the doorstep. But with oil and gas jobs being shed at a significant rate, the byelection is largely a contest between oil fundamentalists and oil pragmatists. …