Whilst in the cinema recently watching the post-apocalyptic action-cum-comedy Doomsday,1 I quipped, as the main characters approached the overgrown, dead-body-ridden, derelict streets of quarantined Glasgow, that not a lot seemed to had changed since I was last there. That’s certainly the impression that the Conservatives and the SNP are trying to give of the place, hoping to break a Labour majority of 13,500 with the phrase “You’ve voted Labour for decades – and what has it got you?”

The by-election is fast becoming a barometer of the Labour Party’s influence beyond Gretna Green, which is unlikely to be particularly strong just at the moment after a year of Wendy Alexander stumbling from one mistake to another and general feeling for the government dropping to an all-time low. The thing that I can’t help but wander, though, is this: Glaswegians fed up with Labour Party already have an alternative party that they are far more likely to turn to than The Conservatives, representatives of the Auld Enemy as they are seen to be. That party is the SNP. I know tactical voting is not extremely helpful for democracy, but if the Tories campaign too aggressively, they risk splitting the anti-Labour vote and handing the seat back to the government. Shouldn’t they sit back a bit and let the SNP take this one?

Or is the plan to help Labour win, to keep Gordo in No. 10?

  1. The film is quite good, if you’re after a British pastiche of the Mad Max movies. Recklessly silly action and the assumption that as soon as a virus is spread around, people instantly get tattoos and bright red mohawks. Also features Malcolm McDowell. [↩]