Glasgow Anniesland By-elections 2000

'Labour is notable for its shyness with the media. This trend was first noticed three years ago when Douglas Alexander won the Paisley South Westminster by-election by behaving as a phantom. By keeping him hidden Labour managed to out-fox the SNP hounds. Something similar happened in Hamilton South and Labour again survived - just - with a low-profile campaign. When Labour did agree to mix it with the Opposition in Ayr it was swamped by both the victorious Tories and the Nationalists.' Murray Ritchie in the Herald, 15 th November 2000.

Phantoms who won't come out to play

By Murray Ritchie in the Herald 15 th November 2000

By-elections are supposed to be exciting, boisterous, tense and above all, they are meant to be fun. But the by-election being fought in Anniesland is none of these and should not be dignified with the name. I blame the media, but Labour is also culpable.

This week I went along to hear what the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Nationalists had to say for themselves. I would have done the same for Labour except that Labour were nowhere to be seen. Ditto the Tories.

The Lib Dem news conference was more a medium than a media event. I was the only reporter. In such moments of journalistic loneliness you can do two things: assume your rivals are chasing a better story which you are missing, or remind yourself that the Lib Dems are no-hopers in Anniesland and assume the real action is just down the road with the SNP. But at the Nationalists' news conference there I was again, solo.

Indeed the Lib Dems and Nats were almost pathetically grateful for the presence of one reporter, someone prepared to show an interest, however fleeting, in what was happening in an event billed as a unique and crucial moment in the political life of a country busy rediscovering its nationhood.

This, after all, is the constituency of the late Donald Dewar, our first First Minister, the post-war giant of Scottish politics, whose untimely death propelled his party into a by-election the like of which we should never witness again.

God willing, all the other dual-mandate politicians - those who serve in both Westminster and Holyrood - will be around until the General Election, leaving Glasgow Anniesland and its two simultaneous contests for both Parliaments as a one-off political curio in Scottish history.

You would think newspapers and broadcasters would revel in it. But their interest so far as been wilfully absent.

What on earth is going on? The one party which supposedly thrives on by-elections is the SNP. There was a time when the Nats prayed for them as a chance to stage one of their occasional two-finger upsets, normally followed by a General Election loss.

You can judge who is exploiting the invisible profile of this contest by measuring the SNP's frustration. "Labour just refuses to come out to play," complains Tom Chalmers, the SNP Holyrood challenger. Yesterday the Nats lost patience and demanding a public hustings. Labour declined.

Labour is notable for its shyness with the media. This trend was first noticed three years ago when Douglas Alexander won the Paisley South Westminster by-election by behaving as a phantom. By keeping him hidden Labour managed to out-fox the SNP hounds. Something similar happened in Hamilton South and Labour again survived - just - with a low-profile campaign. When Labour did agree to mix it with the Opposition in Ayr it was swamped by both the victorious Tories and the Nationalists.

And so Labour has warmed to campaigning away from cameras and awkward questions in seats where a loss would be an affront. It might be dull, even cowardly, but it seems to work.

Labour, in fairness, is not the only culprit. The SNP itself is not exactly invading Anniesland with posters and roistering campaign teams. This is not the precocious SNP of old bombarding the media daily with cogent slogans and getting up the noses of the Scotland's established political order. No, we are seeing changed times in Anniesland where the boring grind of private telephone polling has replaced red-blooded public debate.

Only the Scottish Socialists are putting up a noisy show, albeit of the gimmicky sort. When Henry McLeish blew into Anniesland he was heckled by the SSP's Holyrood challenger, Rosie Kane, wielding a loudspeaker - but even she lost interest after taking a gentle hint from the men with bulging suits.

On the streets there is palpable indifference - at both ends of Anniesland's social spectrum.

On Hecla Avenue in Drumchapel Gillian Booth, an unemployed 22-year-old mother of two whose partner is also jobless, says she doesn't know how she will vote. She never has voted. With only handouts to live on she says "politicians haven't a clue" and there is not much point in voting for any of them.

Her sister is more positive. Angela Booth voted Labour last time but now she is undecided, although if she does vote it will probably be Labour again. She might vote SNP in the Scottish election, she thinks momentarily, but probably not because they are like all the rest of them: "They just say anything they like to get votes."

A world away in middle-class Kelvindale's Manchester Drive a woman who declines to give her names says she voted SNP for both Westminster and Holyrood and will do the same again. For her the issue is simply Scotland's future in Britain and all that entails.

One of her near neighbours, Mrs Margaret Kelly, a telephonist receptionist, says adamantly she was a "Donald Dewar fan through and through" and will be voting Labour again, twice.

All parties appear agreed that in Anniesland there is much still to play for, because the number of don't knows is unusually high.

Whether the moribund nature of this campaign will help Labour keep the seat or backfire on it by deflating the turnout to a level where it becomes dangerous is now up for debate. Well, we need something to talk about. Polling is on Thursday November 23.

-Nov 15th