Labour wins Glasgow North East ...

... is a bit like saying the Pope's a Catholic, but they were a bit worried for a while up here. They needn't have been, the Labour candidate saw off the SNP with an 8,000 majority.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/8355282.stm

This will make the general election more interesting in Scotland. Everyone has been expecting a big showing for the SNP which a future Tory Government, reliant on wins in English constituencies, would have to deal with carefully. Maybe it won't happen like that, who knows.

One thing I do know, for a few moments that smug grin will have been knocked off Alex Salmond's face, and for that we must be grateful.

[Derek]

And the BNP were getting uncomfortably close to the Tories.

Still the Lib Dems were way, way down the list which is always nice.

Brian Taylor's blog is always entertaining on occasions like this. There's a hard-core of SNP zealots who patrol his postings, adding mouth-foaming nationalist commentary to everything he says. At the moment they are painting this as evidence of massive electoral fraud but a good night for the SNP nonetheless. Aww, bless.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport...yelection.html

[Derek]

If they had 8000+ new postal voters then maybe. As it was even if every single postal vote was fraudulent then they still won comfortably.

Amazed the Tories got 3rd place. For that part of Glasgow I'd normally expect them to be somewhere below the lunatic independants.

[BBKing]

And the BNP were getting uncomfortably close to the Tories.

I thought you meant in policy terms for a moment there. Tchah.

Amazed the Tories got 3rd place.

On an appallingly low turnout (8000 less than 2005 with the three main parties standing this time). The Tories have never contested this seat before, so we've no idea how many is a good score for them in the area.

Any vote for the Tories in Glasgow is a success. Many believe that this is the only Tory voter in Glasgow:



... and he only did it because he felt sorry for the candidate.

[BBKing]

It's a bit sad that the fascists got four times as many votes as John Smeaton though.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Derek S

And the BNP were getting uncomfortably close to the Tories.

Still the Lib Dems were way, way down the list which is always nice.

The British Nazi Party has always been uncomfortably close to the Tories, on many levels.

Originally Posted by BBKing

It's a bit sad that the fascists got four times as many votes as John Smeaton though.

A real pity, especially as Smeato got a good chunk of media coverage around here. However that's not unexpected in our system, where you have either to be identified with a party or with a very strong local issue to stand any chance of being elected. John Smeaton is just an all-round good bloke, but unfortunately these days being a good all-round bloke isn't high on the checklist for potential MPs. Truly, the people get the government they deserve.

[Flyboy]

Labour actually increased its share of the vote. The Tories weren't expecting that, I'd wager.

I doubt the Tories had much expectation at all, as they are quite irrelevant in Glasgow. The SNP certainly weren't expecting it though.

[BBKing]

The Tory Party is less popular than heroin. That - if anything - is the lesson from the Glasgow North East by-election result.
The Tories got 1075 votes. The best estimate (table 3 of this pdf) is that there are over 13,000 “problem drug users� in the city of Glasgow - defined as users of heroin, methadone or benzodiazepines. If we assume Glasgow North East contains one-seventh of these - Glasgow NE being one of seven of the city’s parliamentary seats - then it has just under 1900 problem drug users.
It’s likely, then, that there are more smackheads than Tory voters in Glasgow North East.

http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad....mackheads.html

[sollp]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

The British Nazi Party has always been uncomfortably close to the Tories, on many levels.

Oh of course they have. And the Labour party has been uncomfortably close to the Communist Party

[BBKing]

And the Labour party has been uncomfortably close to the Communist Party

?

Don't see many Communists fervently supporting neo-liberal laissez-faire economics or invading Iraq or occupying Afghanistan...

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by BBKing

?

occupying Afghanistan...

No because they had already tried that