Everyone loses

I've taken a few days to reflect on the election results - particularly the one I was closest to.

I'm just gutted that Labour's campaign of fear has resulted in the loss of a fine, hardworking MP, and replaced him with a part-timer. While Alex Salmond used this election as an opportunity to correct the dual mandate situation, Labour have used it to back up their MSPs from seats which are to be abolished for the Scottish Parliament next year.

I fail to see how the new member for Glasgow East will be able to fulfil all of her duties in two hung parliaments and still make time for her constituents. As she doesn't even live in Glasgow East (John does!), I expect she'll be there pretty rarely. Glasgow East deserves better than that.

Labour ran a campaign based on scaremongering and fibs; their "vote Labour to keep out the Tories" message seems to have failed, since we're likely to have a UK Tory government regardless. Now, they even refuse to work with the SNP, out of sheer pettiness and tribalism.

I'm hugely disappointed not just by John Mason losing his seat, but by the margin of the defeat. We ran the best campaign we could, and in truth I'm not sure there's much more we could have done with the resources we had. The by election saw hundreds of activists from across Scotland and beyond beat a path to Glasgow East - we always knew that replicating that effort on polling day was impossible.

I'm very grateful to the many people who did leave their own campaigns, both last Thursday and in previous weeks and months to help John. Your efforts were appreciated.

I would like to share a few anecdotes from Thursday:

- after we opened the campaign rooms at 6.30, people weren't long in popping in to tell us they'd voted for John. This included a chap from a trade union, and an Evening Times newspaper seller. Goes to show, they don't all believe what they read in the papers!

- I ran quite a few people to the polling station. One particular elderly lady as delighted to be voting for John, and had supported the SNP and the independence cause her whole life,. She had signed the National Covenant, a petition for the Scottish Parliament, in the 1940s.

- a couple, who wanted to proxy vote for their son in service overseas, were denied as they couldn't find the paperwork. A man whose father had died six years ago complained to me that the Election Office hadn't yet taken his name off the electoral roll. His daughter, who had moved house but not yet changed her details, was able to vote using her out-of-date details and no polling card.

- Two ladies I ran to the polls in the evening had been helped by John, and wanted him to continue as an MP, as he always tried his hardest for people.

- By contrast, another woman was so disappointed and let down by Margaret Curran's indifference to the anti-social behaviour she had suffered that she would never vote Labour again.

John is an incredibly committed and principled person, and a great role model for anyone getting involved in politics. He was well-known on the doorsteps, and his easily-accessible office on Shettleston Road was a boon for constituents. I am certain that the loss will be felt by those who need help the most. He's taking some time to reflect on what he wants to do - I dearly hope that he will find a role that keeps him in politics.

Clean Glasgow

Fun filled day today, meeting constituents, gathering myself some more casework, and trying to snap suitable pictures of John Mason and Alex Salmond.

The last task was made slightly trickier by the hoardes of professional media types who came to capture the 'fishel opening of our campaign office in Glasgow East.

In a big election campaign, there needs to be some kind of stunt every day to capture the flighty interest of the media. If you're lucky, it'll make it onto the news, and a few people might find it thought provoking and/or amusing. A lot of effort goes into thinking up these events, so I hope that you do get something from them!

Today's was pretty good - John and Alex cleaning up Glasgow. This took some window cleaner, a nifty SNP branded label, and the cooperation of our neighbouring shopkeeper (well, who wouldn't want the First Minister round to do a spot of cleaning?!).

It's an appropriate metaphor for the difference between SNP and Labour in Glasgow - us trying our hardest to shine light into those cobweb strewn corners, Labour mired in the grime of generations of one-party domination in the city.

After the press had finished their lengthy interviews, we took to the streets with Alex, chapping doors, and discussing among other things, the intricate tactics of how to get the birds to eat the slugs off your strawberries but not the actual fruit. It's not the first time I've seen Alex surprise a voter with his bafflingly wide knowledge, but it never fails to be impressive.

Working for Glasgow East - come rain or shine!

Utterly glorious weekend, with a lot of time spent campaigning for John Mason in Glasgow East. It's always nice to work on a sunny day, chatting to people in their gardens and out on the street. Not that the rain stops us, as you can see from the photos from last Monday! There's always plenty of work to be done.



SNP Housing Minister, Alex Neil joined us on Saturday, and visited just a few of the areas currently balloting for housing stock transfer from the GHA to local housing associations. Nearly 2000 homes in six areas have already transferred under the SNP Government so far, with more set to transfer and more tenants to vote soon.

The five LHOs which will go to ballot next month are among 29 local communities in a timetable for SST which could see up to 16,500 homes transfer in 2010 and 2011.

So far, Six Second Stage Transfers – involving 1929 homes - have gone ahead.

These involved Ardenglen (285 homes); Cassiltoun (Castle Stuart) (526); Parkhead (Crossview) (68); Shettleston (728); Glasgow West (Hyndland) (127) and Provanhall (195).

At the end of last year a majority of tenants who voted did so in favour of transfer to Queens Cross HA (Hamiltonhill) (604 homes) and Cernach HA (420 homes). The transfers will happen in March.

This is a significant achievement - SST stalled under Labour, and the GHA empire grew. Local control is important, and I have seen first-hand the positive benefits it can bring for tenants and whole local areas.

If you would like to help John's campaign, the office is now open at 891 Shettleston Road, Glasgow, G32 7DB. Contact dlinden@glasgowsnp.org or call 07807214394

In case you missed it....

In case any of you missed it earlier, here's a link to the C4 political slot video featuring John Mason MP... enjoy!

Political Slot

Channel 4 are running their 'political slot' feature all this week after the news at 19:55.

Tonight's features John Mason MP, and I hear it's well worth watching.

Work and play

I was out campaigning with John Mason this morning in Carntyne. We've all been working hard to get John re-elected, and weekends are no exception!

I was out speaking to people on the doorsteps, and I got a pretty warm response. Lots of people knew who John was, and several had already been helped by him. One woman, who John had helped to get new windows, was absolutely delighted by the service she had received from him and I could see John has got a fan for life!

It's really nice to get to listen to people, find out what makes them tick and what they want to see in their area. I'm not sure yet what John can do about the number of cats roaming about the area (I got followed by one around several doors!), but he's on the case!


After campaigning, I headed out to Fir Park to catch the Lanarkshire derby. The snowy conditions over the new year have played havoc with the surface of the pitch, so there was little scope for a stylish passing game. Nevertheless, Motherwell ground out a win, and I'm pleased to see we're up to a decent 5th.


Tonight, I'm off to the 30th birthday party of a good friend. I'm looking forward to it!


Tomorrow... more campaigning I think!

Glasgow East in the snow

Bain proves a point - not the one he means to!

I had to laugh when I saw this daft wee article in the Evening Times. To get to Westminster (on what appears to be a day trip) Willie Bain got the bus to airport, thereby proving that a perfectly adequate service already exists and Garl isn't strictly necessary.

I live in Glasgow North East, in Dennistoun near Alexandra Parade Station which is on the Springburn branch line. If Garl existed and I wanted to get to the airport, I'd have to haul my suitcase down the street, down the stairs to the platform, up the stairs or into the lift at Queen Street, wait for the wee connecting bus to wind it's way down to Central, or haul my case down Buchanan Street (probably in the rain, always seems to happen that way!). Makes me feel tired just thinking of it.

By contrast, the award winning airport bus service stops right outside Queen Street Station. Very handy.

It's also an interesting point to note (picked up by a Herald letter writer) that plane travel over short distances is one of most environmentally damaging ways to travel. John Mason travels to London, that first time and since, by train allowing him to get work done on the way and being far more eco-friendly.

P.S. Mr Bain seemed very lonely waiting for the bus with his wee rucksack (a contrast to John's rousing send-off!), but it seems he's found some fine upstanding friends to see him right in London. Sure he'll fit in just like the rest of them...

Working hard in Glasgow North East

I thought I'd share a couple of snaps from the weekend - on Saturday we had around forty activists out working hard to get David elected. Not bad considering the sun was splitting the sky and the Glasgow River Festival was on! You can never get people in the SNP to stand in the one place for very long, so the photo here shows a few of the activists who were there at 3.30.

People came again from various parts of the country, keen to work and bring about change in Glasgow, and we certainly made the most of the good weather.

David visited the Springburn Gala Day and spent a long time meeting local people and organisations. There were great performances from the Maryhill Integration Network, showing off the diversity of the North East of Glasgow.

I notice from Wardog's blog that Labour are setting a new record in anti-democratic behaviour by leaving the people of Glasgow North East unrepresented for 114 days.

This past weekend also marked the first anniversary of John Mason's epic win in Glasgow East. The best way to celebrate is with cake - and although I arrived back too late to get a chunk, I hear it was very tasty!

Labour smears on my doorstep

Daft wee article in the Herald today with mock outrage from assorted Labour people after an unconfirmed number of John Mason's Parliamentary leaflets strayed into Dennistoun.

"One of the newsletters was received by Labour councillor Elaine MacDougall, who said: "I couldn't believe it. My whole street had this leaflet delivered."

I stay in the same street at Elaine McDougall, just across the road. I often see her emptying her dogs on the grass outside my flat, ensuring no one can actually use that area without risk of Toxocariasis. Anyway, it seems unlikely that she would get one of John's leaflets and I didn't. And I didn't.

I know of other people who live in Dennistoun who also didn't receive a leaflet, all of which suggests that Labour are (of course!) blowing this whole thing out of proportion. If some leaflets did get get delivered it's simply a mistake on the part of the distribution company, who should have had details on the Parliamentary boundaries. Some boundaries are a bit weird, and the Glasgow East ones are odd in places; they don't work strictly to logic or postcodes and G31 does cover a wide area. It's hardly a big deal, and certainly not the conspiricy Labour's fevered imaginations are leading them to believe.

As mistakes go, it's not even in the same league as Margaret Curran's, which actually did hit her constituents directly in the pocket - her unstamped unsolicited mail cost each constituent who recieved it £1.30. People turning up at the sorting office to pick up this mail were rightly angry that they were having to pay to collect something they never asked for in the first place. At the time, a Labour spokesperson said: "This is a typical SNP smear story." And it's not as if they would ever do the same...

This article did make me think though how jealous residents of Glasgow North East must be to recieve a newsletter from a hard working MP. I have lived here for two years, and have never had a newsletter from Michael Martin. Which leads me on to the real scandal.

It has been reported that the people of Glasgow North East are to be left unrepresented until November. People who vitally need assistance on tax, benefits, asylum and passports, or wish to influence Westminster on issues like Trident renewal, ID cards, welfare reform or the future of the Post Office will have no representative and no voice.

I am disgusted that Labour see fit to use smear tactics to distract from the reality that John is a hardworking MP doing his best for his constituents, while in a neighbouring constituency Labour are too feart to go to the people and ask for their vote. I don't wonder why.

How some MPs live

I've been out delivering leaflets in the past week or two, and have been mulling over a comment one of my constituents made. It's been bothering me.

I'd put a leaflet through a door, and moved on to the next house in the street. A guy came out of the house, scrunched up the leaflet and, for dramatic effect, put it in the bin.

He said "when youse live like us, then you can come back and speak to us".

I didn't take the bait to go back and argue with him, because he clearly hadn't bothered to read the leaflet. The front of the leaflet was an update from John Mason. The back was a wee bit from me. John's side features a FAQ section, letting people know some details of his life as an MP. It mentions his home address, a flat in Sandaig Road Barlanark. Pretty modest. Certainly not a £350,000 house on the south side.

John gives an honest account of what Westminster requires of him - four days in London, three in Glasgow. I know this is odd to him, being so used to daily life in his ward. He's doing his utmost to be there for his constituents despite this, employing staff in the constituency, opening a highly visible shop on Shettleston Road, holding regular surgeries, visiting local groups. When Parliament's in recess, he's out leafleting and getting seen around the constituency. He works incredibly hard.

It upsets me that people think all politicians are the same, that we all have our noses in the trough. It's clear that the continual expenses scandals from London don't help combat this. It's a real shame that the badly behaved few manage to smear the rest of the hard working public representatives in this country.

I'm sure I've probably said it on here before, but I favour a move to the Scottish Parliament's open, accountable system, where all expenses are available for everyone to see. The Council isn't open enough either, and I'd like that to change. The register of interests isn't enough. Something like this would be a start.

PS - I realised I mentioned John's home but not mine - for info, I live in a flat on Roebank Street, between Ally Parade and the M8. It's small, comfy, and conveniently placed.

Throwing out traditions

It's nice to see that Gordon Brown will be making his own personal contribution in this time of flux by dispensing with old traditions which have lasted... oooh, since about 1999. Because, as we all know, Prime Ministers haven't campaigned in a by election since Uxbridge, Eddisbury, or Hamilton South.

It's up to each individual Prime Minister whether they want to campaign in a by election. There are quite a lot of by elections over the course of a Parliament (12 Westminster by elections since 2005), and I guess it's not feasible that they'd have time to come to them all. Most aren't even that close and the incumbent doesn't face much of a challenge. Perhaps a convention did grow up through this frequency - the BBC article on Uxbridge refers to a thirty year tradition of Prime Ministers not appearing at by elections, but internet links to back this up are a bit scarce previous to '97.

Things have changed dramatically in those thirty years. The reaction of the media to by elections can be incredible, and it's increasingly important for the parties to get a piece of the action. Why else would smaller parties bother with the expense of fielding candidates? I caught a wee bit of the 1964 General Election coverage on BBC Parliament the other day, and it's a world away from the media circus now surrounding elections.

The claim that Glenrothes is different has some merit. The Prime Minister's own constituency is next door; having lost Dunfermline and West Fife as recently as 2006, Mr Brown won't want to lose the constituency to his East. This is probably the most compelling reason for his appearance. Unlike Glasgow East, it is his back yard. Furthermore, it's a bit cruel but probably true that both the new Leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament and Secretary of State for Scotland are still too anonymous to make any kind of impact on the good people of Fife.

While Glenrothes might be a campaign Gordon Brown can't shy away from, I wonder whether the suggestion in the Sunday Herald Editorial from during the Glasgow East campaign still stands, and what the implications will be this time around;

"He is being kept away from Glasgow, not because prime ministers don't do by-elections, but because this Prime Minister can't do elections.

A tale of two Johns

I was out with a group of activists at Central Station today to cheer Scotland's newest MP off to Westminster. Although the Glasgow East by election seems so long ago now, Westminster has been in summer recess all this time. The break hasn't meant John has had time to twiddle his thumbs, but it's about time he got sworn in and made his maiden speech!

There was a good turnout of supporters at the station to wave him off - a fair number of slightly bemused passengers too! One woman, who turned out to be a constituent of John's, was delighted to meet him and have a chat. Another passenger, however, wasn't quite so polite.

I'm not sure what brought former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to Glasgow for the weekend, but he certainly didn't seem to be happy to see us. Perhaps he didn't see the BBC camera, or perhaps being on his way out means he doesn't care. With the wave of two fingers, he managed to upgraded our wee photo call to a high billing on the BBC Scottish news!

Bye bye David Cairns

I'm very disappointed. No more Cairns on Newsnight endlessly defending the indefensible; instead, we're being inflicted with Ann McKechin. It's interesting that while failed Glasgow East candidate Margaret Curran is incredibly gifted an important gig as Labour in the Scottish Parliament's policy development guru, her Campaign Manager feels he can no longer handle being in the same cabinet as his boss...

I do wonder - is this a more about arrogance and bitterness on Cairns' part? Does he believe Labour lost Glasgow East because of Gordon Brown, rather than due to the campaign that never quite got off the ground?

Reflection following an absence

Blogging has been non-existent of late for two reasons - catching up with case work after the stunning Glasgow East By Election and the relentless whirl of satin, net and glitter involved in preparing for my wedding day tomorrow.

The 24th of July was phenomenally exciting - I couldn't quite believe what was unfolding before my eyes, and my stomach was doing flips. I didn't want to take my eyes off the ballot papers, even when John Mason arrived at the count! I found myself fixated by the boxes where the ballots were stacking up, trying to discern exactly how many bundles were in the Curran, M and Mason piles. When the result came, I couldn't have been happier and more relieved (as many people saw from my reaction on various news programmes!).

The pub afterwards was sweatier than... I can't describe how sweaty it was actually, but bear hugs for those returning victorious from the count were still mandatory. You could've lit up the city from the energy in the Barrachnie. So many deliriously happy people, basking in the knowledge that all their hard work had been worth it.

Glasgow East By Election

Apologies for the lack of updates - I've been incredibly busy juggling work and the by election, as well as trying to throw together a wedding!

As Indygal so nicely reported, I also spent two nights in hospital after a dog bite went nasty. It was a disruption I could have been doing without! After a lot of IV antibiotics, the infection stopped tracking back along my hand and my finger returned to it's normal size. The staff at the Royal Infirmary were great, and made sure I was fighting fit before they let me go.

I'm not the only one who's been bitten during the campaign - four of us were swapping stories yesterday afternoon - so you could surmise it's a risky business delivering leaflets! I've had a lot of narrow misses during the campaign so far, so I'm certainly wary when I'm out working.

I wish more dog owners would think of the risks posties and activists take just a wee bit more and install an external letter box. We don't get our fingers chewed, people get their mail in one piece. I could put a picture of my finger up to make my point, but I don't want to put you off your dinner...