 | 'There are some Liberal Democrats, with whom I'd be proud to work, who are good people, working for progressive change. There are others who are complete charlatans, who are taking any passing issue and are having a go at whatever comes along.' Home Office Minister Charles Clarke, 27 th October 2000. |  |
It was certainly one of the few lively moments of the Anniesland double by-election, featuring a dinosaur sporting a red rosette designed to symbolise the Old Labour tendencies of the party's candidates, particularly of Holyrood front-runner Bill Butler as a leading left-winger who has been a Glasgow city councillor for the last 13 years.
The photo-stunt was one of the few wake-up calls in what has been a somnolent campaign, a fact which can get Judith Fryer worked up into a fine old lather. She is her party's Holyrood candidate and the trouble is . . . she likes politics.
"I thought it was going to be a lot more lively and stressful than it has been," she said, making stressful sound like something punters would pay good money for. "I thought there would be more hustings meetings and lots of television interest.
"In the absence of any such cross-party debate, which I regret, the closest we have had was the candidates accidentally bumping into each other in the cafeteria at Safeways. Instead we have had to fall back on old-fashioned campaigning."
Fryer is one of those candidates who never let the lack of likelihood of a winning result get in the way of enjoying the game.
She has enjoyed squeezing in her job as a university press officer, arranging childcare for her daughter and stepdaughter, and still finding time to chat to scores of strangers on doorsteps.
She usually takes one side of the street while her colleague, standing for the Westminster, seat, plies the other side.
Both express delight at the support on the doorsteps for the Lib Dem involvement in the coalition. "I thought that because of the press coverage we got over tuition fees that we would get a hard time, but everyone accepts that we forced Labour to get rid of them," said Fryer.
She revels in the fact that "there are 30,000 doors out there," but not many will house Lib Dem voters.
-Nov 21st
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