Over the next four weeks, Tom Shields will be mining the rich seams of the election fringes for spin-free information. First up: pensioners, showbiz and Raith Rovers �

THESE are exciting times for John Swinburne as he and his fellow "grey power" candidates contemplate the possibility of being involved in a coalition government. But, as you might expect of the man who put pensioner power into Scottish politics, Swinburne is taking a measured approach.

He says: "We don't want to peak too soon. We will leave the early frenetic activity to other parties."

Swinburne, who won a Holyrood regional seat last time around after being in politics for only 11 weeks, is confident he will be joined by more Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party (SSCUP) MSPs after May 3. "Some people are in for a shock," he says. "I think the SNP in some areas might lose as much on the regional lists as they win in the constituencies."

He estimates his own party's potential number of seats as "somewhere between zero and 12", but fully expects to be in a position to "offer our services in government".

There will be a certain piquancy if Jack McConnell has to rely on a handful of pensioner MSPs to retain power; especially as Pat Lally, first on the SSCUP Glasgow list, could be one of them.

In a previous life as Labour general secretary, McConnell was inquisitor-general as Lally and other Glasgow stalwarts were shown the instruments and suspended from the party over sleaze allegations. Lally went to court and had the suspension lifted.

Lally remained active in Labour politics but "the realisation of how little attention party leaders pay to members' opinions and the invasion of Iraq" took him onto the path which led to joining the SSCUP.

Lally and the senior citizens' party are a good fit. The party's logo, a variation on the Smiley face, bears more than a passing resemblance to Pat, whose own countenance can be as cheery as a City Bakeries Hallowe'en cake.

Lally is known as "Lazarus" for his ability to rise from the political dead. How many comebacks will that be if he is returned as a Glasgow MSP? "Who's counting?" he replies.

At 81, Lally is in slightly more of a hurry than Swinburne to get on with the hustle of the hustings. Retirement from politics was never on the agenda for Lally or his wife Peggy who, although facing serious illness, maintains her high level of encouragement.

However, Lally does foresee the end of his active political life. "If elected to Holyrood," he says, "I definitely will not serve more than two terms."

The SSCUP have grown rapidly from the one-man band of 2003. This time they are fielding 53 candidates from various walks of life. More importantly, Swinburne has managed to surround himself with seasoned Labour activists disenchanted by the direction their former party has taken.

As well as Lally, George Henderson and John Mulvey have joined the senior citizens' cause. Henderson was a national organiser with the Transport and General Workers Union and is well-connected politically; Mulvey was Labour leader of Lothian Regional Council.

Time is on this party's side, with so many voters already having or being about to attain bus pass status.

The SSCUP are a straightforward party. They only have five items on their manifesto, which is probably something of a blessing if some of your candidates are in their 80s. These policies all relate to a better financial deal for pensioners on such issues as council tax, care and means testing.

But these senior citizens are not stuck in the past. On their website, www.sscup.org, they even have a blog. It's called Grey Matters. The blog has a link to a "senior citizen merriment" site which has sections devoted to "Fun with blondes" and "Types of farts". Boring old farts they're not.

WITH hardly an election shot fired, Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity seems to have won at least one victory over the group's former brothers and sisters in the Scottish Socialist Party: Sheridan has managed to take the luvvies and the socialist showbiz faction with him to his new movement.

Thus actors such as Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis, Davie McKay, and Martin McCardie have been working on Solidarity's television party broadcast and stand-up comedians Mark Steel and Glasgow's own Des McLean have been treading the boards at fund-raising events. (Sheridan's adventures with the News Of The World naturally provided a rich vein of material.) Steel, of the TV lectures fame, marvelled at the fact the Solidarity comedy show had been going for three whole hours and there hadn't been a single split or schism.

Sheridan said it was brilliant socialism and laughter could go together - though this theory was tested when McLean's skit on neds was interrupted by an irate socialist accusing him of "demeaning the proletariat".

GORDON Brown will be relieved Marvin Andrews, the player he persuaded to re-sign for Raith Rovers, will not be working against Labour in the elections.

The born-again defender made a keynote speech at the annual gathering of the Scottish Christian Party (SCP) last year. But Andrews will not be taking an active part in wooing voters away from un-Godly parties such as Labour.

"He will not be campaigning, but he will, of course, be praying for us," an SCP spokesperson said.