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| Seats to Watch Lothian: Edinburgh Central Edinburgh CentralThe capital's city centre has only a small amount of the prosperous New Town, and lots of unpredictable student votes south of the Old Town. It includes poorer estates such as Dumbiedykes and, of course, the Scottish Parliament itself. But it also has new-build flats going into every spare space, and the political behaviour of new occupants can be hard for campaigners to read.Labour's Sarah Boyack, recently returning to the environment minister's office after five years as a backbencher, sits at the more liberal and green end of her party. As with neighbouring Malcolm Chisholm, she has also made it known she is against renewal of Britain's nuclear deterrent, which adds to the Iraq war as another reason for disaffected Labour identifiers to stay at home or switch, and which risks demoralising the activist base on whom candidates such as Ms Boyack depend. The LibDems have replaced the SNP as main challengers, having slashed her majority to 2666, and requiring a 5% swing to take the seat from her. However, their campaign has not gone ideally. They chose to put their resource into Edinburgh North and Leith until changing candidate at a late stage to former public affairs consultant Siobhan Mathers. The Tories have not been helped by their aristocratic candidate quitting in frustration at his party. 12:01am Tuesday 10th April 2007  Print  Email this  | 
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