VOTERS go to the polls in one of Scotland's most notorious battlegrounds this week in one of the few electoral barometers of the population's mood in the run-up to the independence referendum.
Labour and the SNP are neck and neck in tomorrow's Glasgow City Council by-election in Govan, but while the usual local perennials of dog fouling and anti-social behaviour are cropping up on the doorsteps, both sides admit questions about next year's independence poll are coming up more regularly.
And with the local poll taking place on the doorsteps of Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont and her deputy Anas Sarwar, the outcome will be either a bitter home-turf blow or bellwether brag for the next 11 months.
Fourteen candidates will contest the by-election caused by the death of Nationalist stalwart Allison Hunter.
The LibDems, Tories and Greens are joined by wildcard independents including opponents of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, former long-standing Labour councillors on a ticket opposing the bedroom tax and disaffected ex-SNP members, along with Christian parties, Communists and the far-right.
The winning candidate is likely to be Labour's John Kane, a full-time carer for his disabled wife who has been resident in the ward for 25 years, or the SNP's Helen Walker, a 22-year-old recent graduate who also lives in the area. Defeat for the SNP would leave Govan as the only electoral ward in the city without any Nationalist representation. Labour has suffered two historic parliamentary by-election defeats in Govan to the SNP.
Despite not being a policy of either of Scotland's main two parties, both sides have their attack lines on the Bedroom Tax, a policy said to impact on many within the socially diverse ward.
Labour claims the SNP government isn't doing enough to mitigate against the effects, while Labour is accused of coming too late to the opposing the Westminster Coalition policy.
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