Glasgow East Verdict

In some ways Glasgow East has been a very old-fashioned by-election. Contrary to what many people expected (including myself), there haven't been swarms of MPs dragooned up here by the whips, certainly not on the scale of some of the big by-elections I've visited in the past, where party whips sometimes arranged coaches to bring their troops up from Westminster. Media stunts and photo-opportunities have been fairly limited; few cabinet ministers have been seen, and all parties have concentrated on time-honoured campaigning methods - meeting people out on the streets, leafleting and knocking door-to-door - and this has been such a formidable Labour stronghold for so long that many voters here have probably never been canvassed by a political candidate in decades. Labour has made much of the personality of their candidate... [read full story]