SPRINGBURN: THE LABOUR BACKLASH
By Tom Gordon, Scottish Political Editor

WITHIN hours of Michael Martin's ungainly departure from the Speaker's chair last week, the resulting by-election in his Glasgow North East seat began with a moment as rich in symbolism as any Westminster pomp.

As Radio Scotland's breakfast show broadcast from outside the Springburn Shopping Centre, a miserable bunker that passes for an amenity in one of the UK's most deprived corners, a group of rats emerged next to the presenter and his stunned reaction went out live on air.

It said a lot about the constituency, and a lot about the contest to come.

After years of returning Labour MPs, MSPs and councillors, Glasgow North East is still broken, a place where the rats feel safe to gambol in broad daylight.

According to the Office of National Statistics, Glasgow North East is also where 25.4% of the working age population has a "limiting long-term illness" keeping them on benefit, the worst level in Scotland.

Added to Scotland's second highest claimant count for Jobseekers' Allowance, it means 30.6% of adults are "economically inactive".

The seat also has the highest level of people without any kind of educational or vocational qualification in the UK, at 52%. The result is inter-generational poverty and all its ills.

Compared to the rest of Scotland, smoking rates, cancer deaths, crime, and drug and alcohol abuse are higher, while incomes and life expectancy are lower.

It's a legacy Labour must now try to defend in the arc lights of a by-election, and one its opponents can't wait to destroy.

The last time the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats fought this seat was in 1997, when they polled 6% and 4% respectively.

Following Martin's elevation to Speaker in 2000, the two parties followed Westminster convention and sat out the the next two general elections, and they enter the by-election as rank outsiders. Given Martin was one of their MPs for 21 years, Labour also sat back in 2001 and 2005.

The SNP, however, had no such qualms. They fought the Westminster seat both times, and are now in a two-horse race with Labour.

Working on the basis of votes cast within the constituency in the Holyrood election of 2007, Labour reckons it is defending a nominal majority of around 7000 - not comfortable in the best of times, and decidedly vulnerable in a by-election at the fag end of a government.

Last year, the SNP toppled a 13,500 Labour majority in neighbouring Glasgow East in a by-election that briefly put Gordon Brown's jacket on the shoogliest peg in Westminster.

If such figures give Labour the jitters, they can always take solace from Glenrothes.

Although just 15 weeks after Glasgow East, that by-election ended in a comfortable win for Labour and a slap in the face for Alex Salmond, who had rashly predicted a back-to-back victory ahead of polling day.

But Glenrothes contains another lesson, one not so cheering for Labour. What won the seat was an unremittingly brutal but effective attack against the SNP's Peter Grant, who as leader of Fife Council had hiked home care charges for the elderly.

Labour savaged him for it, yoking him to the SNP's local income tax for good measure.

This time, local income tax issue is dead, and it is Labour who are the council incumbents. Last month, the Labour-run city voted to close 11 dilapidated and under-used primary schools in the north of the city, sparking a wave of parent protests, including a two-week sit-in.

Four of the schools are in Glasgow North East. The issue is a godsend for the SNP, who plan to convert a 10,000-name petition against the closures into a database of angry voters.

One school for the chop is Barmulloch primary, just to the north of the Red Road flats, the vast Soviet-style people coops which dominate the constituency's bleak skyline.

Once Europe's tallest high rises, they are now Europe's biggest asbestos removal site.

After Barmulloch closes this summer, its 180 pupils must walk 0.7 miles to a new school past the asbestos removal at Red Road, a journey that also takes them into alien gang territory, adding to parents' fears.

Standing outside the school, Grant Thoms, 44, the local SNP councillor who is currently favourite to be his party's candidate, says Labour can expect to feel the backlash.

"In terms of the UK context, the whole expenses scandal will be an issue, but also local government and the choices that Steven Purcell the council leader has made.

"Glasgow North East does not get the resources the council gives to the rest of the city." The other big campaign issue will be the prime minister and the economy, he says.

"That will be the backdrop without a doubt. For Gordon Brown to tell us one minute we can't run our own economy and then for him to make such a mess of justs seems hypocrisy. People see through the spin now."

Despite the political tide running against Labour, Thoms expects a hard fight. "It will be no mean feat to win. It's not the same as Glasgow East. It's different. The factors are different to last year - the economic situation, the numbers of people unemployed - but they're also worse."

At the gates of Barmulloch primary, the fury against Martin and Labour is palpable. Margaret Henry, 67, whose grandson is at the school, says the school closure is part of a long and dismal pattern of neglect.

"The whole area has gone down. They shut our learning centre. They took away our college. We have no church now. We've had two swimming pools removed. Now they want our school."

She says she hasn't decided who to support in the by-election, but knows who it won't be. "I have voted Labour for 30 years, but I will vote for them no more. I will encourage everyone to vote, but not for Labour."

Susan Rowan, 43, a single parent on benefit whose 10-year-old son should have entered his final year at Barmulloch in August, says the whole area is suffering.

"No one goes into the Springburn centre. It's all loan sharks and junkies. Excuse my language, but it's a shitehole.

"The area's got a Labour MP, a Labour MSP and Labour councillors, but that's what it is. They've sold out the working classes."

Just a mile and half away, councillor Gerry Leonard, chair of the Glasgow North East Constituency Labour Party (CLP), is keen to show there is more to Springburn than grim stats and Red Road.

To illustrated the point, he chooses to meet in the impressive new £20m North Glasgow College building, which was last week shortlisted for an architectural award.

Hard evidence, he says, that while much is still to be done, improvements are happening. He cites the nearby Petershill Park sports centre, new social housing, a new walk-in medical centre at Stobhill, and millions invested in new schools as further proof.

But he is in no doubt about the difficulty presented by the by-election for Labour. "I think it will be tough," he says.

"Because of the expenses scandal people are not happy, quite rightly so. I was not happy myself. It will be tough. It will be a challenge, but we're up for the challenge.

"Glaswegians in general look at the cup being half-empty, I look at it being half-full. "There is still work to do. There is regeneration needed within the area, it's not finished yet. But that regeneration will gradually come through."

"The Shopping Centre is a disgrace. I agree with people entirely about that centre. "Unfortunately it's a private shopping centre. "There was rats across the road because it's a park, and rats live in parks, don't they? It happens."

Labour hopes Michael Martin's personal popularity will help them out their spot.

The SNP putting up an inexperienced outsider, like Grant Thoms say, wouldn't hurt either. "The school closures will be a difficult one for us. It was a hard decision that had to be made. I understand why Grant, being new to the constituency, would try and align himself with campaigns and single issues.

"But we can always show the new schools that the city council have built within the area." Labour won't pick a candidate until after Martin resigns as an MP at the same time he gives up the Speaker's chair on June 21.

The early favourite, and the one who in truth has been teed up by the party for years for the seat, is constituency secretary Willie Bain, a law lecturer who lives in the seat but commutes to London to teach.

"I would prefer somebody born and bred within the constituency," says Leonard, taking another coded potshot at Thoms. "Not somebody parachuted in from other parts of Scotland. Willie lives and breathes politics."

Leonard is less sure about that other political junkie, Gordon Brown.

Asked how he feels about going out to defend the prime minister's record on the economy and the rest, he says: "We'll be going out to defend the Labour Party and it's policies, because no matter who the prime minister is, the policies go on.

"As regards Gordon, he's going through a very difficult time and it would be a lie to say he's the most popular of prime ministers, but it's difficult times throughout the world. He's not the only leader that's under a bit of pressure."

Does he want him to come and campaign? "I don't think it's necessary he comes to Springburn to campaign," he says tellingly. "We've got enough local campaigners that know the needs of the constituency and know what the constituent feel about it." Does that mean he doesn't want him? "It's not a case of not wanting him. The protocol is that you don't usually go on a by-election. He did the last time in the Glenrothes by-election, and that was a bit different. To be honest, I don't think it's necessary he appears here."

He sounds like he would rather the prime minister stayed away.

"Not really," he says. "I honestly believe that we could win the campaign without him being here. We don't need the big high-profile person to come up and win it for us. The people of Springburn know what we're about. What we need to do is be chapping doors again, talking to them about what matters to the area, and we will win it on that." The cool attitude to Brown is in contrast to his feelings about Purcell, despite the toxicity of the school closure issue.

"I would be delighted if Steven campaigned in the area. He's an asset to the city and he would be an asset to our campaign."

Brown and the school closures are already dividing Labour.

Willie Bain, secretary of Glasgow North East CLP since 1999, and the early favourite for his party's candidacy, takes a different line from his chairman on both subjects.

Raised in the constituency, the 36-year-old commutes three days a week to lecture in public law at London South Bank University.

He says the big issues of the campaign will depend on the timing, with the expenses scandal fading if, as expected, the poll is in September. "I think the main issue is going to be the economy and who's got the best policies to grow out of recession, whether we stimulate the economy or, as some of the other parties say, have a reduction.

"The job for the new MP is first of all to make sure we get jobs and investment in business in the area.

"We were making a great deal of progress on the unemployment issue until the downturn. "Obviously it's risen in the last 18 months or so since growth slowed and we entered this recession.

"That's why we need to redouble our efforts." Unlike Leonard, however, he would be "very happy" if the man many voters blame for the state of the economy were to visit.

"I would say that the vast majority of people of people in the constituency have admiration for the prime minister.

"The prime minister would be most welcome in this constituency."

In terms of regeneration, he says parts of Springburn remain "works in progress", but new facilities are coming.

He lists the new college building, a new library and a forthcoming police station next to the shopping centre.

In truth, it's a short list. Bain also knows the schools closures will loom large, but has a defence ready.

"I was opposed to the closures. I'm opposed to the closures still. I think Steven Purcell and the Labour group are doing a great job in the city, but we will an honest disagreement about that issue.

"I did not support the proposals at all. "My view is that the savings could have come in other ways. But I put most blame on the bad settlement that came from the Scottish Government. If Glasgow had had the settlment that it deserves as a metropolitan area then we would perhaps have not had to have those very painful decisions."

The anti-establishment, clean hands' approach might work for him.

If selected, this would be his first run at public office - something of an advantage in the current climate - and he is untainted by the council's schools decision.

However he has been at the heart of the local party machine for more than a decade, helping re-elect Labour's MSPs and councillors. The SNP will not allow him to wriggle out that one so easily.

Bain has also been an organiser in a time and place of plenty for Labour, when backing the party was a reflex reaction for thousands. This contest will be very different, a nasty scrap for every vote, where a streetfighter may well feel more at home than the academic. Is he up for it?

"This one will be extremely fiercely fought. We're confident we will make a good argument. In a by-election it's very strange to say that anyone are favourites. Traditionally it has been a Labour seat. We shall see. We live in exceptional circumstances. I'm confident that we have good levels of support in the constituency. I hope we can grow those in the months to come and the voters will decide."

If Leonard and the rest of the local Labour party detect a souring of public attitudes towards Brown and the rest of the government, they are not be alone.

Katy Gordon, 43, is convener of the Greater Glasgow Liberal Democrats and candidate for the neighbouring Glasgow North seat.

Her party is still coming to terms with the practicalities of the unexpected by-election, and doesn't even have a contender in mind, but the issues are already pretty clear cut.

School closures, the economy, decades of deprivation and Gordon Brown top the list. "In Glasgow in general I would date disillusion with Labour from the abolition of the 10p tax rate. That's when we started hearing traditional Labour supporters on the doorstep say they'd never vote Labour again.

"Nothing has happened since to allow Labour to come back, either nationally or in the city.

"That has been compounded in the last three or four months by the school closure programme.

"The primary school issue has disillusioned those Labour supporters voters who still actually clung onto the belief that Labour was there to help. Then you have MP expenses on top of that and the Speaker's role in that.

"The public anger is huge." She says Martin's local legacy is scant.

"You might say his one legacy is to show a working class Glaswegian can make it to the third most important political position in the country. But I wouldn't say there's much of a legacy when he got there."

Danica Gilland, a LibDem activist working in the constituency, says previous pride in the local boy done good' has evaporated.

"Since the expenses scandal, people say, We put our trust in him, and we supported him to get into that position, and look what they've done, they've thrown it back at us."

Across the road from the Springburn Centre, past the rats' playground, John Aitken is leaning against the funeral black wall of Thomsons pub and treating himself to a smoke.

"I can't wait till he goes if I'm being honest," he says of Michael Martin, who he went to recently over a little local housing problem - two snap-happy pit bulls next door.

"The feeling in Springburn is the quicker he goes the better. A lot of people classify him as a white collar gangster, untouchable. But we are not allowed to express our views."

Inside the bar, a fellow drinker starts murdering The Killers on a karaoke machine.

"Are we human or are we dancer?" he howls. It sounds like a cat in a well.

Perhaps accustomed to strange noises during frequent stays at HMP Barlinnie, the 51-year-old carries on with his theme.

"I think the SNP will take the seat this time, especially with this Michael Martin carry on. People want someone they can trust. So far, we have not had anyone we can trust.

"Michael Martin has done nothing for the vulnerable of this area, especially the youngsters. That's who my heart goes out to. There's no real community centre here."

He gestures down the hill to a glass box. "There's a sports centre, but who can afford that? Everyone's feeling it in their pocket right now. I'm on a £10 budget today. That's why the politicians are in business here. They're only in it for the money."

***

'GORBALS MICK': NOT TRUE, NOT FUNNY
By Tom Shields

IF there was any element of sympathy for Michael Martin, the fallen speaker of the House of Commons, it was because of his cruel treatment at the hands of some London media. They chose to refer to him as Gorbals Mick because of his Glasgow accent and working-class origins.

Sitting in the sun on the doorstep of his smart town house, Gorbals resident Stephen says the nickname, which was coined by Daily Mail parliamentary sketch writer Quentin Letts, misses the mark on more than one count.

"It's not accurate because Michael Martin comes from Anderston on the other side of the Clyde. It's not new because when Charlie Wilson from Glasgow was editor of The Times they called him Gorbals, even though he was from Shettleston," says Stephen.

"The nickname is not even funny. It's Old Etonians with an out-dated perception of Gorbals. We've moved on from the tenements of No mean City. It's regenerated and very smart.

"There's houses here that are fit for members of parliament or even snobby London journalists. You would need an MP's wages and expenses to afford them."

Standing beside one of the new Gorbals' many items of street art, in this case a group of bronze statues of three urchins trying on their mum's high heels, Vivienne pauses to complain about the discomfort of a new pair of shoes. Vivienne is a cross-dresser and is wearing a nifty little black dress.

So, before getting down to politics, what's it like being a man in a frock in Gorbals? "I get chatted up a lot but there's no hassle. Gorbals is like anywhere else. Most people are the salt of the earth, others would sell their granny for a tenner," she says.

"I'm not happy about Gorbals being used in that derogatory sense. It's a very negative attitude based on a previously disadvantaged era. As for Michael Martin, I've got no sympathy. He abused his position. He did everything in his power to keep the information about MPs' expenses from being outed."

In one of Gorbals' two rose gardens Scott and his partner Ashley are sitting in the sun while their three young children play. Like most residents of the area, they say they have never heard of Gorbals Mick. But they are well clued up on the issue of MPs' spending. "Thirty quid for a tin opener?" says Scott. "How can they no just go doon the pound shop like the rest of us? Anyway, they should be paying for their own tin openers."

Ashley says: "Thirty pounds is nearly as much as I have to spend on food for my family." Scott and Ashley were unaware that members of parliament get a £400 monthly allowance to buy food. "That's unbelievable," she says. "Scandalous," he says. "They're stealing our money."

In Queen Elizabeth Square, a village-green setting where Basil Spence's monstrous tower blocks once stood, four ladies who decline to be named take umbrage at the name of Gorbals being taken in vain. "That Martin. He's no even from here," one says. Another adds that Gorbals is full of good people. "You can leave your key in the door. You can get a cup of sugar at any door."

One of the ladies explains to a friend who is not up to speed on the Commons furore that Michael Martin has been forced to resign and move out of his grace and favour apartment. "He's lost his hoose as well as his job?"

"He's got another one in Bishopbriggs, all paid for wi taxpayers' money and free and clear," the woman reassures her friend. After a discussion of the highlights of the expenses controversy, from toilet seats to packets of ginger biscuits, the ladies unanimously agree: "They're all damn chancers."

Should the Daily Mail's Quentin Letts chance to visit Gorbals, perhaps the Citizens Theatre in another capacity as drama critic, he might appreciate the poster on the venue's gable end, advertising the current production of Ibsen's Ghosts with the quotation: "Let's bring this grotesque lie to an end."

We know what the denizens of London's gentlemen's clubs think of Mr Speaker. But what of their Glasgow counterparts? Sadly, the tradition of working men's clubs has all but died out in Springburn, where Martin is MP, in Anderston his birthplace, and Gorbals where he is not from.

There is the Reform Club in Govan, an institution founded by shipyard workers as a place for drink and debate. The club shares the political origins if not the luxurious setting of its more famous cousin in London's Pall Mall.

Debate is not as fierce as in the days of the UCS sit-in or the miners' strike, but the Govan Reform Club is still a location for firm political opinions.

"There were a lot worse than Michael Martin," says Bert. "I don't see why he was singled out. I don't think it's anything to do with him being Scottish, or working class or a Catholic.

"Maybe if he had been English upper class he'd have been better at ducking and diving. And maybe a bit better at speaking. Even before he came under pressure, he wisnae very good. He didnae control things like that Bernard Weatherill or Betty Boothroyd."

Dick, a Reform regular in his eighties and a veteran trade unionist and Labour Party campaigner, met Michael Martin in his days as a shop steward in Hillington. He says: "I always found him a straight enough person. But the stuff we're reading about what's going on in parliament is an absolute outrage. A lot of them should get the jail."

Alex expressed anger at "being conned by someone who said he was a socialist. We see Martin, a man who had been at the tools, spending £4000 on taxis for his wife to go her messages. Michael Martin's done well for himself but not much for us".

Dave, glass of sauvignon in hand, says: "I have a small amount of sympathy for him. He inherited a tradition and he's getting the blame. It's like when a window gets smashed at a greenhouse and everybody scarpers except the one wee boy who's left to get caught. I'm sure with his £1.4m pension pot and his £40k a year tax free attendance money for the House of Lords, Martin will be able to cope."