 | 'Labour peer Lord Watson receives a 16-month sentence for torching a pair of curtains which resulted, thankfully, in injuries to no-one. I look forward to a proportionate sentence being imposed on war criminals Blair, Brown and the rest for the torching of Iraq.' C. Corstorphine, 28 th September 2005. |  |
CHARLIE Gordon is supping soup in the Jeely Piece club in Castlemilk, a break from preaching to the converted and distancing himself and his party from acts of willful fire-raising.
He believes it has been advantageous to his campaign to get the Mike Watson "thing" out of the way early. This is because, with an honesty uncharacteristic to modern politics, Mr Gordon believes that Labour's hold on Glasgow Cathcart is no better than "marginal".
Which is why he has been "blitzing" - his word - the doorsteps and phones to persuade people to vote tomorrow and return him as their MSP.
Voter apathy - less than half the electorate turned out in 2003 - the Watson scandal, the Scottish National Party's challenge and, some would say, the entrance into the race of that other former Glasgow lord provost, Pat Lally, have conspired to make Glasgow Cathcart a less than sure thing for Labour, despite a 5,000-plus majority last time around.
On paper, it is a two-horse race. Labour has the advantage over the nationalists of being a sitting tenant, but it was the SNP that brought out the big guns yesterday in support of its candidate, Maire Whitehead.
She was backed up by a flawless performance from the party's leader, Alex Salmond, the dependable Nicola Sturgeon and the inimitable Winnie Ewing, who "senses" a famous by-election victory over Labour as in Govan or her own Seventies' victory in Hamilton.
"I am South-side born and bred and I had my law practice, here," Mrs Ewing said, adding: "I can feel a Govan or a Hamilton."
Which brings everyone nicely to Mr Lally, a former lord provost and still famous enough in this city to be tapped for a quid by a drunk and asked for an autograph in Castlemilk Drive.
The SNP's Ms Whitehead said earlier that Labour were running scared and Mr Lally, although a political force in his day, had seen his time come and go.
However, there are those who believe that he is capable of reducing the votes of every candidate on the electoral card and that could be especially bad news for Labour or the SNP.
In 2003, the SNP came second to Mike Watson, with 3,630 votes. At the same election Mr Lally, one of the architects of modern Glasgow, polled 2,419 on an independent ticket. "You do the math," said a supporter yesterday.
Bill Smith, 83, the chairman of the Castlemilk Pensioners Action Centre, said: "I'll vote for Pat with my heart, but my head tells me he cannot win.
"However, he remains a man with a name and a reputation in not only Castlemilk but Glasgow and he could be a deciding factor in this election."
Mr Lally, 79, believes he has a key role to play in the by-election: "I can be instrumental in how this comes out and, of course, I believe ... I can win.
"The Holyrood voting system has created the day of the independent, the voice of an issue.
"New Labour must appreciate Cathcart is not a sure thing because they are no longer trusted. I am standing because I believe there are injustices which are not being addressed. I should not be dismissed only as a practising masochist."
Mr Gordon acknowledges problems. "I'm fighting a marginal," he said. The former Glasgow City Council leader is also up-front about Mike Watson - now serving a 16-month jail sentence for fire-raising - telling voters that it was Watson and "not the Labour Party that set fire to those curtains".
"I get it out of the way," said Mr Gordon, an astute politician who knows that turnouts in by-elections are usually much lower than a General Election. He said: "I'm working 13-hour days to win back 'doubters'."
Alas, the doubters of Cathcart's Cooper Institute tea dance were less than persuaded when their Labour candidate turned up on the campaign trail yesterday.
"Afraid we can't let you in. We've only got an hour to dance," he was told, an object lesson that, in Cathcart, nothing can be taken for granted.
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