For whom shall we vote?

From - Son of Schism Schasm

Glasgow North East Electorate- for whom shall we vote?

1) Let's agree that we will vote for someone. Not voting isn't a protest, in exactly the same way as simply not showing up for work isn't the same as going on strike. The only message you send is that of indolence.

2) And let's also agree that we won't vote for the hateful, moronic racist pictured above. Again, a vote for the BNP isn't a protest or expression of disillusionment. The other big parties don't care about us? Well, neither do they. They don't have to. The BNP know they can't win and aren't pretending they will. Their stated aim is third place in this by-election. Why? Because accepting that they cannot and never will govern anything, they prefer the louder, less responsible role of ascendant common sense alternative to "politically correct madness". A respectable showing in an election outside of their English heartlands would feed that narrative. Don't buy into it; the BNP received less votes in the 09 Euro elections than four years previous. Their two victories were down to extraordinarily low voter turnout, not a swell of support. Deny these dribbling fools further oxygen.

3) Is Glasgow being "ripped off"? No more and no less than usual. Let's not vote Labour in a Westminster election even if we're pissed off about decisions taken by the SNP at Holyrood and hold our fire until 2011. And let's not vote SNP just because we want to "send a message" to the Labour government in Westminster. For all Alex Salmond's speculation about a rump of SNP MPs holding the balance of power in a hung parliament, Scottish MPs generally and SNP ones especially will be utterly ignored by a David Cameron government, even one with a small minority. Their English base feel hard-done by after a decade of governance that they perceive as having been by Celts, for Celts. To concede an inch to any Scottish demands just won't play to the Tunbridge Wells WI.

4) Indeed, if we really want to spook Labour then we should vote for the Conservatives. Ruth Davidson is arguably the most impressive of the candidates. But we won't, because... Well... She's a Tory. Brrr.

5) Let's not vote for Tommy Sheridan. He's very likely to be in jail before the general election. Turnout in another by-election between now and then would be so poor as to risk the nightmare scenario at 2.

6) Let's not vote for Kevin McVey or Louise McDaid. We may agree with their principles but until the Left can get their act together and present a united front they'll be using water pistols to fight house fires.

7) We won't vote for Mev Brown, Colin Campbell, Mikey Hughes or John Smeaton, for obvious reasons.

8) Two boxes left. Should we vote for Eileen Baxendale? Maybe... Ideas like raising the income tax threshold to £10k would help every family in the constituency. But the Lib Dems have been exhibiting entirely too much of their old disease of late. They are clearly riven over the issue of the UK's future and this may well be the undoing of the party in Scotland.

9) Let's vote David Doherty. He's the most prematurely aged twenty four year old I've ever seen, but sending a child (pure, unsullied, a bit scared) to Westminster would seem appropriate after decades of grey, corpulent, over-comfortable Labour representation (to think there was a time when our MP was Keir Hardie's brother). And as an added bonus he's from the only party whose principles are compatible with a future in which elections, not not hand-to-hand combat over half-empty petrol cans, are still the mechanism that shapes society.

Willie Bain will still win tomorrow night, but, despite his lousy campaign and because of sentimentality, witlessness and inertia. Yah, us.