GAME UP FOR GORDON

In the end I did not stay up to see the result of the Glasgow East by-election. Maybe I knew it already. And what is the poiont of sitting up until the early hours to make yourself miserable. The SNP's victory by 365 votes is quite simply a catastrophic blow from which Gordon Brown will find it very difficult indeed to recover. On these levels of waning support, even he would find it tricky retaining his seat. So Labour has a choice. Change direction - or die. It really is that bad. It won't matter tuppence who is on the NEC , or what amendments we put to the NPF, if we hve no MPs or representation in Parliament. The original Labour Representation Committee, set up a hundred years ago, was exactly what it said on the tin. A group there to promote the interests of Labour. Not capotal, not the bosses, not Middle England. Now even the heartlanders, the core voters, the working-class, see no point in voting Labour. Or. at least, they wanted to hit us where it hurts. At the ballot box.

HIGH NOON IN EASTERHOUSE

Glasgow East is a tough, traditional Labour constituency. The kind of place where a monkey with a red rosette would once have won without blinking. Now it has become High Noon for Gordon Brown. In recent days I have been excoriated for suggesting as much but that is the truth and the truth is something I do not shy away from.
Those still in the bunker hurl the usual insults about the Left being "dinosaurs" and subscribing to outdated ideology. But the truly outdated ideology here is that of New Labour.
Yet, with Armageddon staring him in the face the Prime Minister urdges stern warnings to trade unionists and tells people to eat leftovers as he tucks in to a lavish banquet at the G8 summit.
In a strange accident of timing, "Warwick 2", a gathering of trade unionists and the National Policy Forum, is only two days after the by-election. One ray of hope is that thousands of progressive amendments have been tabled by constituencies on everything from Trident to trade union rights and council housing. Let us hope that many are taken on board and that at least get a hearing at Labour Party Conference.
But this is thin stuff compared with what really needs to be done - which is a seismic shift in Government thinking. I remain pessimistic this will happen.
If Labour fights a good campaign in Glasgow East - then maybe we can hang on to the seat. The fact it should even be in doubt shows just how serious a situation we are in. And, no, it isn't just the usual suspects who are putting their haeds above the parapet to say that.
Manchester Blackley Labour MP Graham Stringer, hardly a serial rebel, says in today's Morning Star "The mood has really hardened against Gordon. Labour MPs, before the Crewe by-election, were saying they didn't want to win because it would prolong the agony and they are now saying the same about Glasgow East.
"The truth is that winning Glasgow won't save Gordon Brown and losing it will probably mean the end is even sooner."