I have been remiss. Mea culpa! I have hitherto failed to comment sufficiently on the Glasgow East by-election.
Curran or Curran? Or perhaps your fancy tends to Mason? Or has Rankin caught your eye? I try to follow the twists and turns of the candidates on Newsnicht (usually on the i-player the next morning), but I find it hard to maintain an engagement. A bit like most of the potential electors in the constituency, then.
Perhaps it is the absence of serious political issues. There has been a little desultory and inconclusive speculation about Ms Curran's (Margaret this time) attitude to an independence referendum but I have yet to see any serious interventions from any of the candidates on matters such as local income tax, the Calman Commission, the Scottish Futures Trust. All we have really had so far is whether Two Jobs Salmond is more reprehensible than a putative Two Jobs Curran (Margaret again). That and Ms Margaret's confusion over her address.
Predictably, Labour is indulging in the game of lowering expectations, so that a narrow win might be greeted as a stunning victory. Equally predictably, the SNP - rather unwisely, imho - is anticipating 'a political earthquake'.
Then there is the significance of the result. If Labour loses - whch it might - then Mr Brown's premiership may be at risk. But both Holyrood and Westminster will be in recess; Ministers, MPs, MSPs and the political commentators will all go off on holiday. Nothing will happen until September when everyone will have cooled down - maybe.
Meanwhile, the boys and girls of the Scottish blogosphere have come out to play. By clicking on any of the links to the right, you can follow the action.
Forgive the world-weary cynicism, but for now I really can't be bothered.
2 comments:
Not that I'm lowering expectations in a cunning way, but I genuinely think the SNP will struggle to put up a meaningful fight here. Good candidate in a Labour heartland. No chance for them so I can see why you're struggling to get interested.
i did find this line interesting though:
'I have yet to see any serious interventions from any of the candidates on matters such as local income tax, the Calman Commission, the Scottish Futures Trust'
Given it's a seat for Westminster, should the campaign not focus on Iraq and 10p tax issues?
Maybe the SNP are in with a shout after all!
A description of "imho" from the urban dictionary:
A rephrasing of imo.
Used in net-speak (read: retarded), it's mainly used to attempt to show that the opinion stated was either godly, true, or was stated by someone with humility. All three of those reasons are what would be simply known as bullshit.
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