Ross Lydall's by-election blog

Published on Friday 18 July 2008 11:15

Friday, 1015hrs

NEVER mind there being two Currans in this by-election fight, there are also two Margarets - Labour candidate Margaret Curran and Labour nemesis Margaret Thatcher.

The noble baroness may have left Downing Street almost two decades ago but her legacy on Scotland - and in particular the East End - remains potent.

No wonder, then, that Labour has been so keen to seize upon remarks made by SNP candidate John Mason suggesting there is little to choose between the records of the Thatcherite Tories and Blair-Brown New Labour.

Ms Curran, who has dubbed Mr Mason the "message boy" of Alex Salmond - like some ginger-haired Granville to the First Minister's Arkwright, perhaps - said he had failed to recognise that "great bitterness" remained in Glasgow's East End after the Thatcher years of mass unemployment and the poll tax.

To press home the point, Labour has dipped into its empty piggy bank to print off some snazzy envelope-size leaflet cards asking of Mr Mason: "Whose side is he really on?"

Asked if she was not getting a bit personal, Ms Curran said: "That is not a personal attack - this is very serious politics. I cannot believe anybody who knows anything about the East End of Glasgow would dare to compare what Labour has done with the wreckage that the Tories left."

It has the makings of what is dubbed "wolf-whistle" politics - namely, sending out a message that will provoke an immediate response from the rank-and-file.

Ms Curran constantly finds herself having to defend Labour's 11 years in Westminster and eight in Holyrood.

It appears that, having recognised she can't win votes easily herself because of Labour unpopularity, the next best thing is preventing any Labour supporters from deserting to the supposedly "Thatcherite" SNP.

It makes for good tabloid knockabout - but will it filter through to the voters and swing them in her favour next Thursday?

Thursday, 1800hrs

There lingers a curious sense of disengagement with the real world after witnessing today's capmpaigning.

The day began with a visit of the SNP's John Mason and First Minister Alex Salmond to the Global Glasgow Youth Project, a voluntary organisation that encouages teenagers to develop their skills and confidence through performance art. They (that's the kids, not the Nats) performed a short play about knife crime and then a dance with tartan scarves, with Runrig's Loch Lomond playing in the background.

Then to a health centre and yoga class in Barlanark with Labour's Margaret Curran. She did a few stretches on the yoga mat for the cameras - expect them to dominate the papers tomorrow - before attacking Mr Mason for his comparison of Gordon Brown to Margaret Thatcher.

"I cannot believe anybody who knows anything about the East End of Glasgow would dare to compare what Labour has done with the wreckage that the Tories left," Ms Curran said.

"Margaret Thatcher is still remembered here with great bitterness."

And finally, to Tesco in Shettleston, where a couple of shoppers took the Tories by surprise by declaring themselves lifelong voters.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, had been lined up as the main showbiz event of the day. But he spent barely 20 minutes there, wandering up and down aisles, feigning interest in the price of beef and spuds, and with the accompanying press pack getting in the way of the afternoon trolley-pushers.

(Asked for any words of welcome for Mr Hague, the First Minister advised: "Don't bring your baseball cap. And if you do, don't wear it the wrong way round.") What appears to be happening is that the by-election is being fought on two fronts: the public one, involving a media stunt each day to allow photographers to get their pictures and journalists the chance to lob a few questions, and the private one of door-knocking and cold-calling of voters.

On the stump today with Ms Curran was Scotland Office minister David Cairns and Labour MP Ann McKechin. Mr Cairns confirmed that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, had joined the phone banks in search of voters.

All sides seem to feel privately that, at present, Labour is likely to secure a narrow victory.

There's also a sense of everybody waiting for a bolt of lightning to strike to add a few fireworks to proceedings and liven things up. On the ground, it's not yet feeling like the voters of Glasgow East are about to deliver a thunderbolt to the Prime Minister.

Ross Lydall is The Scotsman's Political Editor. He'll be blogging from Glasgow East in the run-up to the election on July 24.