Analysis: Nats have a major fight on their hands if they are to wrest control in Labour stronghold

But the SNP would be wise not to raise expectations too high – and thereby run the risk of turning what might still be a notable success into something of a disappointment.

Strictly speaking, winning “control” of a council means winning more than half its seats. That is the position Labour currently enjoys in Glasgow.

Reading between the lines, however, this is not what Mr MacKay is really expecting his party to achieve.

At present the SNP does not have overall control of any council in Scotland. It is, though, either in minority control or part of the ruling coalition on 13. So in claiming the SNP will add Glasgow to the 11 it already “controls”, Mr MacKay is in fact saying the SNP hopes to be able to form a minority administration or be the senior coalition partner on the council.

To have any hope of being in that position the SNP will have to claim at least six seats to end Labour’s majority.

But to be more or less certain that the handful of Tory, Green and Liberal Democrat councillors in the city will accept they have the right to form the next administration, the Nats will need to win more seats than Labour. That will not be easy. Even if the SNP manages to secure a swing every bit as big as the 8 per cent swing from Labour it secured in Glasgow in the parliamentary election last year, the party could still be no more than neck and neck with Labour in terms of seats.

Still, perhaps Mr MacKay thinks the events of the last week, and not least the considerable measure of agreement that has broken out between Labour and the Conservatives on the referendum issue, will be so damaging to Labour that the party will fare even more disastrously than last May.

Perhaps. But the minister might want to remember that between 2007 and 2011 his party’s minority government did a lot of wheeling and dealing with the Tories – and that certainly did not prove too toxic an association.

Meanwhile, we might note too that the first piece of polling to be conducted since the referendum row broke out this week fails to show any marked boost in support for independence. In truth, political manoeuvring might excite politicians but it can often leave voters remarkably unmoved.

• John Curtice is professor of politics, Strathclyde University