 | 'THE Glasgow East by-election was a disaster for Labour from day one. It started with first choice candidate George Ryan deciding he wouldn't stand and ended with fifth choice Margaret Curran being humiliated by the SNP. Party leaders' faces should be as red as Ms Curran's outfit last night when they analyse the reasons for the defeat.' Brian Currie in the Evening Times, 25 th July 2008. |  |
THE Glasgow East by-election was a disaster for Labour from day one. It started with first choice candidate George Ryan deciding he wouldn't stand and ended with fifth choice Margaret Curran being humiliated by the SNP.
Party leaders' faces should be as red as Ms Curran's outfit last night when they analyse the reasons for the defeat<.br>
Suddenly they're saying they have to listen to voters, which is just as well because if last night's swing was repeated at a General Election Labour would only have one Westminster MP from Scotland.
Scotland Office minister David Cairns, who managed Labour's campaign, said: "We have now got to hear what the people have said, we have to reflect on that.
"The people have spoken and we need to demonstrate very clearly we are listening."
And Paisley MP Douglas Alexander, one of PM Gordon Brown's closest allies, said: "We will, of course, reflect long and hard on the result and try to understand the message that has been sent by the voters of Glasgow East."
Unfortunately for Ms Curran and potentially for the Prime Minister, they didn't listen early enough.
Labour's farcical start to its campaign ended with another farce when organisers decided they didn't need staff at polling stations to greet voters and point them in the right direction.
That would have reinforced the difference between Margaret Curran (Labour) and Frances Curran (Scottish Socialist Party).
But that decision was partly the reason for the demand for a recount because Labour claimed there had been an unusually high number of votes for the SSP candidate - she got 550.
After the recount, Labour had a dozen fewer votes than it had on the first tally.
Perhaps the most foolish risk for Labour was that it didn't need to have the election.
David Marshall resigned on health grounds but another Scottish MP, John MacDougall, who represents Glenrothes, is very ill and is seldom in the Commons yet there's no sign of a by-election there.
Then there are the gaffes which could be laid directly at the London strategists.
Chancellor Alistair Darling's decision to scrap the 2p a litre fuel duty increase planned for October allowed Alex Salmond to claim credit for it because of SNP pressure, while planned rises in vehicle licensing and low-key visits of top ministers to the constituency didn't do them much good either.
Neither Mr Brown nor Mr Darling were anywhere to be seen supporting Ms Curran while Alex Salmond seldom seemed to be away from his candidate's side.
Just as Holyrood ballot forms read Alex Salmond for First Minister, the ones for this campaign could have read Alex Salmond for Glasgow East.
The loss of its third-safest seat in Scotland and its 25th-safest in the UK follows hard on the heels of heavy defeats for Labour in Crewe and Nantwich and Henley.
That means Mr Brown will be facing recriminations today at Labour's policy forum in Warwick.
He and his Cabinet colleagues have repeatedly insisted losing in Glasgow would not force him to step down. But it is bound to fuel discontent among backbenchers and leave him open to greater mockery from Tory leader David Cameron.
However, he is unlikely to step down. Mr Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister without the electorate having a say and it's unlikely the British people would stand for it happening again without a General Election.
But Labour knows its current election prospects are not good and one potential candidate to replace Mr Brown supposedly told his supporters that he's not a "kamikaze pilot".
Meanwhile, Shettleston MSP Frank McAveety said the vote was a message to Labour that it needed to do more "to meet people's aspirations", and he wasn't far wrong.
Nationally, Labour has lost its way. Locally, people can see council initiatives improving areas with big projects such as the Commonwealth Games.
But they can't see what the city's Westminster Labour MPs are doing for the city.
And while the SNP Government at Holyrood is ticking all the right boxes, a growing number of voters no longer know what Labour stands for. It needs an injection of new blood and talent at all levels.
Strategists should take note of Ms Curran's loser's speech.
She said: "I'm in politics because I'm driven to tackle poverty, inequality and to liberate the people of Scotland from those great injustices and my commitment remains as strong as ever.
"For me, fundamentally, Labour is a cause and not a career - and it is a cause I will continue to pursue."
Mason won council vote three times
JOHN MASON is originally from Rutherglen but has lived in the East End for 18 years.
The 51-year-old was elected as a Glasgow city councillor for the Garrowhill ward in 1998 and held the seat in 1999 and 2003.
He has led the SNP group on the council since 1999 and was elected in 2007 as councillor for the new ward of Baillieston.
Mr Mason is the SNP's longest-serving Glasgow councillor but he intends to quit to concentrate on his new job as an MP.
He lives in a tenement flat in Barlanark.
Born in 1957 he was brought up in Rutherglen and became an accountant after leaving school.
He worked for a nursing home group and then for housing associations.
As SNP leader on the council, he is a member of all its committees and sub-committees.
Because there are so many - around 35 - he admits that he can't get to them all.
In his blog he says: "Obviously I have to concentrate on the major committees but I do see it as my responsibility to keep an eye on everything and to be able to comment on any subject."
His hobbies are hill-walking, Scottish history and reading, and he is a member of Easterhouse Baptist Church.
He says: "My faith is really important to me.
"I want to see a healthy relationship between the different churches and other faith groups on the one hand and the city council on the other.
"However, I also believe it would be wrong for the council to be too close to any one group."
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