After an embarrassingly drawn out selection process with potential candidates dropping out or refusing Prime Ministerial entreaties to enter the fray, Labour has a candidate in Glasgow East, Margaret Curran who is currently a Glasgow MSP. But there’s a problem: she’s not the only Curran in the race. There is also a Frances Curran who is standing for the Scottish Socialist Party. Just to compound the problem for Labour, Frances’s name will appear ahead of Margaret’s on the ballot paper.
If this by-election turns out to be a close run affair, the votes lost to Labour by this confusion could cost it the seat; The Times reports that at the last Scottish Parliament election there were an above average number of spoilt ballot papers in part of the constituency. Gordon Brown would never have made general in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army.
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