Cathcart - this might be fun...

The Herald digs out some splendid quotations by Charlie Gordon in order to liven up the launch of Labour's campaign in the Cathcart by-election (here):

"Examples of Charlie Gordon's "old-fashioned debating style"

On community planning "I don't give a rat's arse about community planning."

On New Labour "We're the most modern council in Scotland. It doesn't suit me to use all the New Labour bullshit, because it doesn't go down well in this town, so what we're doing is pragmatism."

On Jack McConnell and the relationship between central and local government "One day you're up, the next you're down. I'm not clear if we're in a four-year war, because Jack might change tack again."I was going to say, 'Jack's a pragmatist' – but that's to impute to Jack a degree of sophistication.""Whether it's a case of him being influenced by the last person who sat on him, or it may be more Blairite than that and he looks at the headlines and says, 'they say we should do X'." "I hope I'm wrong because he's running the country here."

But there is also space for The Herald to have a dig at the Tories:

"A short walk away, Richard Cook, the battered-looking Tory candidate, launched his campaign by standing quietly outside the Victoria Infirmary in the rain. His day job is in waste. Sometimes the symbolism in Cathcart can be merciless."