Kirkcaldy used to be a prosperous town. The birth place of Adam Smith was once a booming hub of industrial Fife. Then Gordon took over as the town’s MP.  His SNP opponent highlights just how bad things have become:

“The claimant count unemployment rate in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is now higher than the Fife average, which in turn, is higher than the Scottish average. The four wards in Fife with the highest rates of unemployment (Smeaton, Valley, Ballingry and Sinclairtown) are all in Gordon Brown’s constituency. And all four have unemployment rates nearly three times the Scottish average.”

Elsewhere in the constituency things are also looking bleak: “Some 9835 Fifers were claiming job seeker’s benefit last month — which is 4.4% of the population and 2263 more than at the same time in November 2008.”

A staggering 45% of Gordon’s constituents are either on the dole or paid from the public purse.