By-election circus draws to close

By James Shaw
BBC News

The east end of Glasgow is not used to the kind of attention it has had over the last few weeks.

Some voters said they were fed up with party campaigners

And as this by-election gets closer, the blandishments of party campaigners and questions from the journalists are becoming a whole lot more intense.

Labour boasted it had visited 20,000 homes over the last weekend of the campaign, and there will be no let-up for any of the nine candidates contesting the seat until polling day on Thursday.

Some eastenders have become pretty fed up with the phone calls and knocks at the door.

Pensioner Margaret Hammond said she had turned away half a dozen canvassers who had rung her door bell. She said she was too busy visiting her sick husband in hospital to talk politics with them.

Balqes Malik said she would give Labour one more chance, but wanted to send a message to the UK Government on behalf of hard-pressed families throughout the country that everyone was struggling to afford higher food and fuel bills.

They're all in it to line their own pockets Alexander Law Glasgow East resident

Georgina Close said she had yet to decide between Labour and the SNP. She said she wanted action on the crime and drugs that were blighting her neighbourhood.

"They're all the same. They're all in it to line their own pockets," said Alexander Law, a pensioner.

He said he was angry about the lack of public money invested in the east end - and cynical about the motives of politicians.

Mr Law said he would vote Labour, because that was the party his family had always supported.

The main parties have been using a wide variety of tactics to try to cut through voter apathy and cynicism.

SNP councillor Billy McAllister, just one foot soldier among the warring armies of activists, reckons his party has had more than 100 campaigners piling into the constituency every day of the campaign.

His focus has been on trying to show voters that the SNP could make a practical difference to people's lives.

In Garthamlock, just north of the M8 motorway, he has been trying to help residents whose homes were demolished as part of a regeneration programme.

Relative weakness

They have been prevented from moving into their new houses by a bureaucratic cock-up.

"We are on it," said Mr McAllister.

"Hopefully, in the next seven to 10 days, I've been promised that there will be a resolve to it."

Elsewhere in the constituency, Liberal Democrat campaigner Katy Gordon has been trying to persuade people to sign a petition to save a local fire station.

She said her party had been energised by the demands of the campaign, adding: "What's been really exciting here is the amount of people that have come from across the country to help."

Manpower has been an issue for the Conservatives. Councillor David Meikle said the party had got round its relative weakness in the area by using the networking website Facebook to get people involved.

Parties have campaigned on several different issues

The party with most to prove is Labour. It is defending a huge majority in a traditional heartland and facing SNP threats that it will be overturned.

Scotland Office Minister David Cairns made no bones about the challenge they faced.

"I have always predicted this would be hard and this would be tough," he said earlier in the campaign.

Just how hard and how tough, no-one yet knows. But ordinary voters will continue to be bombarded by political propaganda until the polls close at 2200 BST on Thursday.

Some people said they were angry about the way the area had been portrayed. A lot of coverage has focused on the east end's poor health record and the high numbers of people living on benefits.

But coping with the attentions of politicians and journalists has not been the real problem in Glasgow East.

The question many voters have asked is whether anything will be done in the long term about health and unemployment, gang crime, poor housing and drugs after the by-election circus has left town.