MY PREDECESSOR but one is still fondly remembered, both in the constituency and at Westminster. When Labour’s John Maxton took the Glasgow Cathcart seat from Teddy Taylor, the then Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Teddy was deprived of a career in government, even though his absence from the Commons lasted only ten months.

It was after he became the MP for Southend and was getting to know his new constituency (so legend and a Tory whip tells) that Teddy found himself watching a cricket match being played one Sunday afternoon. As he worked the crowd, introducing himself to the locals, Glasgow-born and bred Teddy was heard to ask: “Which is the protestant team?”