And another thing…

THAT’S it, I’ve had it with Sunday newspapers. It’s not just the ridiculously extended coverage of Glasgow East (although it has been ridiculously extensive). It’s more a realisation that they just spoil the day for me. And they always have.

So that’s it. I hereby resolve never to buy the Sunday papers again. Ever. Probably.

THE NEW Statesman’s website is carrying an article giving my initial reaction to, and thoughts on, Glasgow East, for anyone who’s interested.

A TRIP to the cinema with my 16-year-old son was just the thing to cheer me up this morning, so, at his prompting, we bought tickets to see “The Dark Knight”.

Great film, but take my advice: do not go to see this if you think it’ll be a laugh. Heath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker (genuinely sinister, as opposed to Jack Nicholson, who played it strictly for laughs in Tim Burton’s 1989 version), and Christian Bale is… well, he’s Christian Bale. He’s well enough cast in the lead role, but you can’t help feeling that he’s going through the motions. His “impassive, strong and silent type” acting just comes across as a bit lifeless.

Like its predecessor, “The Dark Knight” tries to be all serious, dark, violent and threatening, and it is all those. But once again I’m left wondering whether making a serious movie based on a comic book superhero is worth the candle.

But I did like it. Honest.

PS. On the way home, having foolishly turned my phone back on, I received a call from a journalist friend. “What are you up to?” he asked. “On my way home from ‘The Dark Knight’,” I reply.

“You talking about last night?” Oh, what a wag!

PRIME Ministers don’t visit by-elections, and the David Camerons of this world are being dishonest by constantly referring to GB’s absence from the Glasgow East campaign.

Yes, Tony Blair went to two by-elections in his first term, and in so doing broke the convention that PMs don’t campaign in by-elections. He restored that convention before his second General Election victory (and rightly so) and it is a convention that GB has continued to honour (and rightly so).

So here’s a question for all those who think GB should have been in Crewe and in Glasgow East: did you also call for him to campaign in Sedgefield or Ealing Southall last year? No? Thought not.

GLASGOW East has a new MP, and I suppose the first silver lining I can think of is that he’ll only be there until the next general election.

Also, last night’s result says almost nothing about Scots’ support for, or opposition to, independence. In this respect, the Glasgow East result was no different from other contests that have taken place throughout the UK from time to time. Voters chose the SNP, not because they’ve had a sudden conversion to independence, but because they wanted to give Labour a kicking and they opted for the party best placed to do that. That’s what happens when governments are (temporarily, I hope) unpopular.

Councillor Mason and Nicola Sturgeon both described the result as “off the Richter scale” (a remarkable coincidence that they should choose the same phrase completely independent of each other even before the result was announced). So has the Richter scale been re-scaled? The swing against us last night was substantial – 22.5 per cent. But it was still significantly less than the swing achieved by the SNP in Govan in 1988 (33 per cent) – the last time we lost a by-election to the SNP (and we won that back at the subsequent general election). It was even less than the swing the nats secured in 1999 at the Hamilton by-election (27 per cent) – two years before our second landslide general election victory in 2001.

Having said all that, the SNP and my new parliamentary colleague, John Mason, won a very hard-fought campaign. They should be congratulated for that (I hope you could hear that through my gritted teeth…).

I’M NOW in a huff. Please respect my raw feelings and post only sensitive, supportive, sympathetic comments. I will get round to approving them at some point, in between avoiding media coverage and ignoring my phone.

I’M GETTING too old for this lark. No way am I waiting up to hear the results of a recount. I’m off to bed.

ONE of the best discoveries I made during the Glasgow East by-election was Daddyo’s, the American-style burger joint in Shettleston Road, less than a minute’s walk from Labour’s Shettleston committee rooms. Having a conveniently located cafe is essential to the troops’ morale in any campaign, and the proprietor and head cook, George, must have done a brisk trade every day of the campaign, supplying formidable-looking burgers to tired and hungry canvassers.

George is from New Jersey (long story) and has brought some welcome US style to the East End. My particular favourite menu item was a Wild Wild West Burger, which was basically a burger with lots of everything, including about half a cow, bacon, cheese and fried onions. A colleague caused some amusement when, having ordered a “triple” burger of some sort, was actually surprised to receive three very large burgers sandwiched between the bread. I would have thought the clue was in the title.

I was about to write that there wasn’t a lot on offer for vegetarians, but he does do a mean cheese and onion roll.

So, thanks to George and his staff, all of whom were brilliant and friendly and caused us to sit there for far longer than we should have. Whatever tonight’s result, we’ll always have the Wild Wild West.

From left: Charlie Gordon MSP, Home Office Minister Tony McNulty MP, George and me

I WOULD be interested in knowing readers’ predictions of tonight’s result (and if your next question was going to be “Result of what?”, you’re on the wrong site).

POLLING day, and it looks like being beautiful, weatherwise. I’ll be blogging latter on after the polls close so if you have an comments to make during the results programmes, fire them in. In the meantime, as before, I’ll try to approve comments in between hassling innocent eastenders throughout the day.