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!

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.

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…).

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

That he was promoting the SNP candidate in the by-election is neither here nor there, of course: not only was he breaking the law but he was also putting at risk the lives of pedestrians and other drivers.

This little anecdote reveals a truth so far overlooked by the media: SNP activists aren’t nearly as numerous on the ground as they claim. Why send a single person out on loudspeaker work in the first place, knowing that in order to do the job single-handed he’s going to have to break the law and risk generating bad publicity for the campaign if he gets caught?

And I’ve yet to encounter an SNP canvasser who was accompanied by a single other activist.

The Labour campaign, on the other hand, has been extremely well-supported by activists, as well as enthusiastic and motivated.

Oddly enough, when the lone driver/loudspeaker user drove past today, I was in the company of Alan (now Lord) Haworth, with whom I did some loudspeaker work in the Kincardine and Deeside by-election in November 1991. The campaign was nearing its end, there was no more press work to be done (I was still employed by the Labour Party as its press officer in Scotland at this point) and Alan, unable to sit still for long, asked if I wanted to take microphone duties in one last tour of the Aberdeen end of the constituency. So he drove while I ranted.

Soon, we passed Winnie Ewing campaigning in a local street. I decided, probably rather unwisely, that my Sean Connery impression was called for. Now, I am the first to admit that my Sean Connery voice sounds more like me than Sir Sean, only more nasally and slurred. Still, it amused me to shout “This is Sean Connery – I’ve changed my mind and decided to support the Labour Party…” as we passed Winnie’s entourage.

We came fourth. Anyway, the point is: how desperate must the SNP be if they’re willing to tolerate one of their volunteers risking lives – and his licence – to promote their candidate?