Martin Kettle: This byelection could be the most important ever

It would be not just a disaster for Brown to lose a seat like Glasgow East, but a sign of wider Labour disintegration Every generation or so, the city of Glasgow seems fated to hold a parliamentary byelection that shapes the politics of the era. In the 1960s, Labour's loss of Glasgow Pollok marked the emergence from obscurity of the Scottish National party. In the 1970s and again in the 1980s, Labour byelection defeats in Glasgow Govan confirmed that the SNP was far more than just a one-hit wonder. In the early 1980s, Roy Jenkins's capture of a Tory seat at Glasgow Hillhead threatened to break the mould of centre-left politics, not just in Scotland but across the whole United Kingdom. In the interests of accuracy, it should be said that Glasgow has been the scene of forgotten byelections as well as famous ones. But it is also... [read full story]