Heartland

The battle for Glasgow North East

From George Galloway to the BNP, John Harris talks to the many players in this week's Scottish by-election

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... byelection

(video)

the BNP will be sent packing

I fookin' hope so!

we did the right thing

just

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009 ... north-east

Boost for Brown as Labour takes big victory in Glasgow vote

• SNP suffers second defeat in three byelections
• Protest vote blamed as BNP takes fourth place
• Labour candidate Willie Bain captured 59.4% of the vote

Quite a majority! I'm vaguely surprised.

And how annoying was the Tory candidate in that video? You can tell she'll be really successful one day though.

I would imagine the SNP have taken a battering recently. With the "Arc of Prosperity" and Scotland's big banks bankrupt, the independence thrust of their argument must look damned unattractive right now. Add to that a dash of 70's style Socialism and a very smart, but rather oily leader..

But what was "the right thing" in peoples minds? Labour lose and hopefully Brown quits/is forced to call an election? He won't. Although I begin to seriously pity the man in many ways (The Sun really are sinking f*cking low now. A near-blind man writes a handwritten letter and you criticise the spelling?? He doesn't bow "low enough" for your liking?), he's not going to concede failure out of pride. I begin to think if he wasn't such a rotten PM, I'd have a lot of respect for him as a person.

BNP: Is anyone surprised any more? The same constitution and voting fascist. I feel so European..

Yeah I like Brown as person too and think he really does know his stuff, but as a PM he really leaves a lot to be desired.

I rather dislike 'tory gurl', oh yes I'm sure she'll go far

DeWinter wrote:(The Sun really are sinking f*cking low now. A near-blind man writes a handwritten letter and you criticise the spelling?? He doesn't bow "low enough" for your liking?)

Well said.

A digression about the "journalistic integrity" of the Murdoch rags might be called for, but I'd be here all week

i'd just like to say that if it were me, i'd actually be quite touched to receive a hand written letter from the PM, even if written in a hurry, because it showed he took the time. which he probably has very little of.

emilystrange wrote:i'd just like to say that if it were me, i'd actually be quite touched to receive a hand written letter from the PM, even if written in a hurry, because it showed he took the time. which he probably has very little of.

i completely agree but am still confused how the letter got sent without one of his staff proofing or checking it first!

at the end of the day it's a communique from the prime minister in an official capacity and those kind of sloppy mistakes (blindness and time notwithstanding) should have been picked up by someone there...

yes, true. but does that not make it even more of a personal missive?

i guess, but it still feels like an easily avoided faux pas

Quiff Boy wrote:i completely agree but am still confused how the letter got sent without one of his staff proofing or checking it first!

at the end of the day it's a communique from the prime minister in an official capacity and those kind of sloppy mistakes (blindness and time notwithstanding) should have been picked up by someone there...

What!?! A letter from him

James Blast wrote:the BNP will be sent packing

I wish They came 4th out of around 14 candidates - only just behind the tories and getting over 3 times as many votes as the greens. Even taking into consideration the amount of non-contenders in this election, I find that a shocking but not surprising result. North East Glasgow has a high non-white population and more than enough angry arseholes to give the BNP a foothold.

Look on the bright side Andrew, they lost their deposit and with voter apathy running high and an extremely split left-wing vote it hopefully bodes well for the future, also face it - the groundswell feels that we are Scottish not British.

I do wish more people would get off their lardy asses and vote, I have raved on in threads passim about how it's a right that had to be fought for. Take the vote away and see what happens, as long as it's announced on Tricia.

James Blast wrote:Look on the bright side Andrew, they lost their deposit and with voter apathy running high and an extremely split left-wing vote it hopefully bodes well for the future, also face it - the groundswell feels that we are Scottish not British.

True.

James Blast wrote: I do wish more people would get off their lardy asses and vote, I have raved on in threads passim about how it's a right that had to be fought for. Take the vote away and see what happens,

Not getting involved in the politics on this thread but that statement Mr. Blast is a wish that I also wish for, not only in Scotland but all over the world!
Take any vote away and we go back instead of going forward!

"One man one vote"...the voice of the people.

it's a right not a privilege and people died to make it this way

as Jon Rotten said on So It Goes
"Get off your arses!"

I kick everyone all over the world to vote when they have to.

My own mum let it slip this year as she didn't want to get off her arse!
I reminded her that my grandfather fought for her to have that right too.

And I still can't vote in this country to this day because of my passport being foreign although I have all the same rights next to the common Dutchman.

I thought the BNP would have done better in the land of the weegie.....................it's about all most weegies can spell

Get Bent!

scotty wrote:I thought the BNP would have done better in the land of the weegie.....................it's about all most weegies can spell

You forgot about RFC!