WHILE it might be good for the soul, confession is not always the wisest choice in politics.
Gordon Matheson, the Labour leader of Glasgow City Council, may have eased his personal burden by admitting in last week's budget debate to "pain and division" in the party, but he did his electoral fortunes no favours.
Instead he illuminated the chronic infighting which shows why Labour deserves to lose control of Scotland's biggest council in May's elections.
As we report today, those divisions are now so bad they have spawned a new political party, driven by disaffected former Labour councillors, surely the final straw for Team Matheson.
Labour's spin doctors argue that, by securing his budget in the teeth of an enlarged and emboldened opposition, Matheson has proved his mettle, and been left stronger by the encounter – but that is to ignore the bigger picture.
Last week's showdown in George Square revealed a party on the slide, not the up.
Tired, divided, hectoring, Glasgow Labour looks like a burnt-out case slouching toward the exit.
After winning more MSPs than Labour in Glasgow at last year's Holyrood election, if the SNP also takes over the City Chambers, it would be the political equivalent of a mercy killing.
A win in Glasgow could also hand Alex Salmond the keys to independence as his prospects in the referendum depend upon winning the support of Scotland's big cities.
There are other immediate concerns for Labour. As this paper first reported, the epicentre of the Labour infighting in Glasgow is Pollok, the seat held by Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, where most of the rebel councillors are based.
So far we have heard nothing from Lamont on the issue, as she tries to shrug off the crisis.
Her predecessor, Iain Gray, tried to do something similar when his party in East Lothian was suspended over a feud with the county's MP.
Gray's silence betrayed a damning weakness.
The SNP yesterday crowed about the difficulties in Lamont's backyard, but they should not get too carried away with themselves.
Thursday's council meeting also exposed the weaknesses in the SNP group in Glasgow, with its faltering leader, Allison Hunter, particularly poor.
A recent interview in which she admitted she had no new policies to offer voters – indeed, that she "hadn't thought about that yet" –has become justly notorious in both Labour and SNP circles.
It would be wrong if the SNP took Glasgow City Council by default by relying on Labour to fail.
It needs a new prospectus – and a new leader.
Labour deserves to lose the City Chambers, but the SNP have not yet shown why they deserve to win.
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