Many highs and few lows for Nationalists

IF THE SNP don't pull off a self-styled "political earthquake" in Glasgow East today, it won't be for want of trying.

Candidate John Mason, as he did in an interview with The Herald last week, was talking about the privilege of fighting a winnable seat, which still sounds a strange boast in territory Labour holds by more than 13,500 votes.

Labour's final event yesterday was a speech to the party faithful outside an empty bingo hall. Last Friday, Alex Salmond and his candidate had a captive audience inside the venue. SNP strategists saw this as a metaphor for their respective campaigns.

Alex Salmond has been out campaigning publicly 10 times in support of the candidate, calling it a battle of ideas and a contest between two governments.

The Herald put it to him yesterday that if his party came up short he might feel his authority as First Minister was damaged.

"We are predicating this campaign on victory, but I would rather be a political leader who was able to support his candidate in a contest, rather than one who was forced to stay away or send other party leaders into the constituency incognito," he said.

There have been plenty of highs and very few lows in the Nationalist campaign. From the beginning Labour was in disarray over the reasons for the resignation of David Marshall and the disastrous selection process that followed.

When Margaret Curran emerged as candidate and launched in Shettleston she made a crucial slip, saying she had lived and worked in the east end all her life, when it was well known she lived on the city's south side.

After that Ms Curran made few slips, but her campaign team did. Little things, like accidentally writing to the SNP candidate or phoning up the SNP deputy leader, but enough to bolster Nationalist confidence.

The newspaper mole inside Labour's campaign told of disillusion and disarray, while the SNP had floods of activists which Labour has only begun to match in the final days of the campaign.

The SNP claims to have knocked on 120,000 doors, each one three times; to have conjured up 4700 activist days, with many individual days peaking at well over 500 individuals.

To keep them happy there were burgers and curry and 17,000 cups of tea, so they put out more than half a million leaflets or letters and they were backed up by a cabinet secretary every day.

There was one gaffe, when a leaflet came back from the printers and police officers in a photograph with Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill were much more identifiable than expected. The leaflet was withdrawn, but Labour spotted the error and an apology had to be issued through the police federation.

Other times when Labour scented blood, its Nationalist opponents were relaxed. A week out from polling day Labour seized on remarks by Mr Mason that he could see little difference between Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

There was much cranked-up indignation in Labour ranks and a leaflet stating: "Whose side is he really on?"

It was in black and yellow, SNP colours, with a photo of the SNP candidate. It broke all the rules which say you should never put out a leaflet which punters will simply mistake for one of your opponents'. It served simply to put a spring in Nationalist steps.

Did the Thatcher/Brown issue hurt the SNP? If it did, then they themselves could scarcely have choreographed a better finale, with the Conservatives at Westminster leaking proposals of a government welfare reform green paper because they said it was chock-full of Tory ideas.

Then there was yesterday's revelation that when Gordon Brown invited Margaret Thatcher to 10 Downing Street he also gave her a gift of silverware worth £140. Was an SNP mole at Whitehall making this stuff up?

It meant that the final batch of half-a-million leaflets showed the photograph on the steps of No 10 with a quote from Clydeside legend Jimmy Reid: "Any doubt I had that Labour has lost touch with its roots was cast aside forever when I watched Gordon Brown cosying up to Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street last year."

Mr Reid was there yesterday for the SNP's final press conference in Easterhouse. "How ya' doin' son," he said gruffly, delighting the First Minister.

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