No Candidate!
I read this earlier this morning, and could not stop myself laughing! Nineteen days to go the the Glasgow East by-election on 24 July and Labour have no candidate for the voters to vote for, or against as the case may be. The leading contender did not make an appearance at the selection meeting on Friday.
Shettleston Councillor George Ryan has now officially withdrawn from the contest after missing the selection meeting on Friday for “family reasons”.
Now I am not say that George Ryan is finding an excuse, we all know just how stressful a life can be for Scottish MP’s in Westminster, and I think him very wise to put family first. However, I do know that were I even vaguely in the running for this position I would not only scraping the bottom of the barrel, I would be turning the bloody barrel over and looking underneath it for any excuse not to be taking this poisoned chalice; and indeed in te present political climate it most certainly is a poisoned chalice.
That all round nice guy Brian Taylor (BBC Scotland’s political editor) has a really good take on this whole debacle - see here…
