Okay, okay waking up this morning to news of the defeat in Glasgow wasn’t exactly a great start to the day but it’s happened. It was not exactly unexpected and such is life – this is after all what happens in politics. The Nats won by 365 votes out of 25,259 votes cast on a 42.25 turnout.
I’m not going disguise the fact that this is a defeat but it is not unimaginable that Labour could have sneaked in by a similar margin. Then the headlines would have still been bad but the mood music would have been very different.
I don’t think anything in politics is predictable and I do not think defeat for Labour at the next general election is at all inevitable. I am not sure that a change of leader will make any difference, change of policies - yes. There may not have been a local government strike in Scotland in the run up to this election but UNISON are balloting Scottish council staff members over their below inflation (pay cut) offer of 2.5%. I am sure that there were at least 365 council workers in Glasgow East who had received a strike ballot paper in the last week or so.
By coincidence last night in West Ham we had probably our most constructive Labour Party campaign committee meeting I have ever chaired. Despite our difficulties and differences there is still lots of enthusiasm for the Party.
After all it is only just after a year since the stunning Labour victory in Ealing and Southall (19 July 2007). Mind you I won’t go down “a year is a long time in .....
