Glasgow East Countdown

It is just as well for Labour that they have a million percent majority in Glasgow East, because they are trying their best to lose this by-election.

First there was the fiasco over selecting a candidate. Then when one was picked, she couldn’t remember which part of Glasgow she lived in. Now, even at 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when I am staggering from one side of Sauchiehall Street to the other, I still know where I live!

If that wasn’t enough, she tried to pull the wool over our eyes, by getting the endorsement of a “93 year old war hero”. The war hero turned out to be 67 and only 4 at the time of the said war.

Tony Blair ripped up by-election protocol when he used to visit by-election constituencies to lend “support” to the Labour candidate, but where is Gordon Brown on this occasion? Either he is extremely complacent, expecting a Labour landslide, or he is running scared.

Or maybe there is a third option. Maybe he is sitting in Drowning Street, sorry Downing Street, concocting bribes to ensure that the electorate vote in his favour and effectively keep him in a job. Like the freeze on the fuel tax announced this week.

The latest opinion poll showed that Labour had a 47 – 33 percent lead over the SNP. However both Political Betting and ASWAS seriously question the detail behind this poll. Maybe that is why Labour is canvassing the SNP candidate for his support for next Thursday!

I seriously doubt that the SNP will be able to pull off the 20 odd % swing needed to take this seat. But then again it wasn’t that long ago that the SNP came from nowhere to wrestle the reigns of power away from Labour at Holyrood.

So anything is possible!

Dummies Guide Of How Not To Run A By-election

By the time Thursday the 24th of July comes along, Labour will be thinking they have fought an election campaign already. And that is just to get a candidate in place to fight the Glasgow East by-election!

Firstly, Councillor George Ryan pulled out of the selection meeting at the last minute, citing the catch all "family reasons" for his decision. The other two candidates were then told the meeting would be cancelled, effectively saying to them that they will not be chosen to be the Labour candidate.

How Labour can afford to turn away two people who are actually WILLING to stand for the party is beyond me, but that is another story.

So, after the dead cert for the candidate withdrew, Labour apparently were scurrying about looking for someone to stand. The leader of Glasgow City Council, councillor Steven Purcell was apparently asked but he ran a mile.

According to the Sunday Herald, eventually Margaret Curran MSP is going to be asked. And she was fourth choice.

But this is just incredible short-sightedness in my opinion. It is just solving one problem by creating several more.

For one, it would probably mean a further by-election in this area if Curran was to resign her Baillieston MSP seat. How would the electorate take to that?

Secondly, she is one of the likely contenders to replace Wendy Alexander as leader in Scotland. They haven't got many to choose from as it is, so if another one were to go, you'd be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Of course, Labour may have a masterplan up their sleave just waiting to be delivered in the shape of John Reid.

M.P.s Expenses

After the debacle yesterday in the commons when M.P.s showed just how greedy they were by voting to retain their generous expenses, I thought what a life! The amount they are allowed to claim for their second homes, £24,006, is more than a lot of the people in Scotland get paid each year, particularly in Glasgow East. And that is just for their second homes.

If Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting had been about politics, I guess Renton's opening mantra would have been:

Choose a M.P.s life.

Choose a cushy job.

Choose a lucrative career.

Choose not to see your family.

Choose a f______g big John Lewis television.

Choose John Lewis washing machines, ministerial cars, John Lewis compact disc players, and John Lewis electrical tin openers.

Choose crappy health, high cholesterol and life insurance.

Choose the public to pay your fixed-interest mortgage repayments.

Choose a second home.

Choose to back-stab your friends.

Choose a John Lewis three piece suite on taxpayers money in a range of f_____g fabrics.

Choose for the taxpayer to pay for your DIY and wonder which home to read the papers in on a Sunday morning.

Choose sitting on that John Lewis couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing reality TV shows, stuffing f_______g junk food into your mouth at the tax payers expense.

Choose rotting away at the end of it all, when the electorate find you out and crawl back into the undergrowth with a seat in the Lords or some other unearned reward.

Choose a future on the Board of a FTSE 100 company.

Choose a M.P.s life.

But why would I want to do a thing like that? Because I have f______g morals!

Who's Next?

Wendy Alexander last week!

Nicol Stephen this week!

Annabel Goldie next week?

Charlie Gordon - aka Cathcart Comedian

Newsnight was quality last night.

Charlie Gordon, less than 7 months after playing the fall guy role, said that he was considering standing for Scottish Labour leadership.

But that wasn't the most funny part. At the start of the interview asked if Labour were going to win the Glasgow East by-election, he stated that we shouldn't take the electorate for granted. However, asked later about the independence referendum, he said that Salmond would lose the referendum!

Make up your mind. You either take us for granted or you don't!!

Glasgow East By-election

There is nothing like the prospect of a by-election to get the pulses racing in anyone interested in politics.

The Glasgow East by-election likely to be held on the 24th July, has potentially more riding on it than simply returning an MP to Westminster.

Firstly could this be an oportunity for the Solidarity Party to get a foothold at Westminster? The Herald today hinted that Tommy Sheridan may be about to stand.

A more likely, but equally challenging result, is an SNP victory. The SNP have apparently been trying to get people like Elaine C Smith to stand in a bid to secure the 22% swing needed to win the seat.

If the unthinkable does happen, what will happen to Gordon Brown. There are already reports that he will be advised to leave if results don't go Labour's way.

But aren't Labour missing the point (again!).

Sometimes there is just a mood for change. Labour should know it better than anyone after their 1997 result. They are going to lose the next election no matter who is in charge.

Why don't they just see the current term out with Brown in charge and then make the change after the election?

Oh yeah!! Because that would be like common sense!!

Bye Bye Wendy!

Well, Wendy has come to her senses…..at last!

She has finally accepted what most of us have known for some time, that her position was untenable.

However, instead of doing the honourable thing, way back in November, she limped on and allowed the drama to be conducted in the media for a further 7 months, doing the Labour Party irreparable damage.

Salmond and co probably couldn’t believe their luck as each new revelation came along about the expenses for a contest that never was.

Now that she has gone, will the SNP be trembling in their shoes about her successor?

I hardly think so!!

Let’s see who the contenders are likely to be. Andy Kerr? Cathy Jamieson? Margaret Curran? Hardly in the same league as Alex Salmond.

One thing the Labour Party does want this time around though, is an actual contest. This way, at least any dodgy donations will actually be going towards something.

But what will an actual contest do to a Party that already seems to be in decline? Will it launch a civil war that will end in its demise?

As Labour are so out of touch with the voters, perhaps they should be reminded that kind of back-stabbing does not go down too well and with several by-elections coming up, they better watch they don’t suffer a similar kicking to the one they got in Henley.