Posh Harriet Harman right at home amid Balornock bourgeoisie

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 21:27

IT SOUNDED like a good concept for a TV reality show. Get a posh, southern, public-school educated woman with impeccably politically correct views and dump her in the middle of the roughest, toughest part of working-class Glasgow. You could call it "Life Swap".

Dressed in a chic black coat with a fake fur lining, and with the sound of explosions ringing all around (fireworks, don't get paranoid) Harriet Harman entered the streets of North East Glasgow.

Initially, the omens looked good for a first-rate TV car crash. Harman's Labour minders chose a Balornock cul-de-sac called Birdstone Road for Labour's deputy leader to meet some real people. After arriving, Harman held court on the merits of the candidate, Willie Bain.

"Ahead of the vote, we are having a positive campaign about how Billy is …sorry, Willie, I'm getting that the wrong way round … how he is going to stand up for the local area."

Not only getting the candidate's name wrong, but changing it to "Billy" in what is widely regarded as one of the most Catholic constituencies in the UK, was perhaps not on the spin doctors' agenda.

The photographers pressed around. But Harman declared she wanted to meet some real voters. The choice of Birdstone Road for her appearance began to become clear. A cosy residential street, with houses looking out on to a central green, it would not have looked out of place in any middle-class suburb in Britain. The residents say their main complaints centre on the youngsters who hang around the green at night. Recently they took away two benches to discourage them from spending time there.

Brilliantly, Labour had found a part of Balornock that was forever bourgeois for Harman to see.

One young couple peered out to see what the fuss was all about. Harriet Harman's here, they were informed. Who, they replied? But with Labour outriders having singled out some easier prey, Harman pressed on.

George Gray, 74, was waiting at his front gate, looking not a little confused by the sudden influx of photographers and prominent national politicians who had suddenly appeared at his house. Harman began to get a little irritated by the snappers invading Mr Gray's privacy. "Can we have a chat behind the hedge?" she asked him. His eyes widened. "You get my vote," he declared.

Harman went into a woman's house for a minute, and then spent another two minutes in the flat of another Labour voter, Nan Coyle, on the other side of the street. "We didn't get the chance for much of a chat," Mrs Coyle said afterwards. "But she seemed very nice."

Harman's minders then told her she needed to move on. With photographs duly taken and less than half an hour after arriving, the Harman caravan moved on elsewhere.

As with much else that has gone on in the campaign ahead of voting day next Thursday, the voters of Glasgow North East appear to be little impressed by the influx of politicians heading their way. Outside a nearby chemist, David Hannah claimed 90 per cent of locals wouldn't be bothering to vote, having been turned off by the expenses affair. "They're all the same, aren't they? All got their snouts in the trough. I'm not going to bother voting for them."

That sense of disillusion may have been increased because both the main rivals, Labour and the SNP, are in government, with their fair share of disappointments behind them.

One grandmother, picking up her children from school, declared: "I'm not voting Labour because they closed the local school. But I blame the SNP as well. I'll probably end up voting for Tommy Sheridan."

However, most of the residents of Birdstone Road appeared to believe Labour was still heading for victory. "The roots run so deep here," said pensioner Alexander Gentles.

After a week in which Westminster has unveiled plans to clean up its expenses system, Harman, who is Leader of the Commons, claimed there was now a fresh start for people. "I know how angry people are, but we are taking the action so that people can be confident again in the political process," she said.

Today, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is due to visit the constituency.