EASTWOOD is a two-horse race between the Tories and the SNP – and Colm Merrick is confident he can oust Jackson Carlaw from his constituency seat. The seat historically elected Labour’s Ken Macintosh as its MSP before Carlaw won the seat in 2016, and there are only 1611 votes needed to swing it to the SNP for the first time. And Merrick, who is an SNP councillor for the area in East Renfrewshire, believes his knowledge of local issues and listening to what voters’ concerns are will bag him the seat. The National met with Merrick in Giffnock to talk about why voters should back him and how voting for any other party than the SNP could let the Tories in.