To Writ To Who

We're now into the final two days of Westminster before the recess begins and still we wait to see if a writ will be moved to call the Glasgow North East by-election for August or if Labour will wait until November to have the contest.

In one week's time, Norwich North will have their by-election contest even though the two constituencies lost their MP at more or less the same time. Almost four months will sit between the two contests if this writ is not moved.

I suspect Gordon Brown is adopting a cautious approach as he believes that two by-election defeats within a month of each other would spell the end of his time as PM. The timing, a couple of months before Labour Conference, would be ideal for the rebels to mount another challenge.

Further to this, Labour will be hoping that delaying the contest till November will ensure that some of the Glenrothes luck will rub off on their candidate.

I would hope that the media would give this issue the full spotlight given how many headlines the SNP selection contest has generated. The problems the Nationalists is but a blip in comparison to the travesty of fairness that Springburn constituents are facing, needlessly going 5 months without an MP.

It is ironic that it is Michael Martin that is being replaced too, a Speaker who was too stuck in his traditional ways regarding the office he held. Upon stepping down from Westminster one of the first calls for change in how the UK Parliament does its business was for fixed term parliamentary sessions.

An independent body setting the dates of by-elections would be just as welcome as this situation where we'll all hanging on to find out if the Government can put partisan advantage aside and find the cojones to call the contest sooner rather than later is just ridiculous.