Eddie Barnes - SNP has it all to do in Glasgow NE

ALEX Salmond has raised some speculation about an SNP surge by announcing he is to head back to Glasgow North East on Monday, having just left there yesterday. This after saying he was going to play a low key role. A year and a bit after they won in Glasgow East, is there about to be another shock on the same streets?

Having lowered expectations over the summer and early autumn about their chances, the SNP is now casting itself in the role of the plucky underdog, gaining ground on the tiring front-runner. They are hoping to time their run-in like they did in Glasgow East when they similarly came from behind on the final straight.

But there is a big difference between Glasgow East and Glasgow North East. When the campaign bus arrived in Glasgow East last summer, Labour activsts discovered that they had precisely no information whatsoever about the local electorate. So instead of knocking up their own support, or offering prepared messages to swing voters, the party had to spend ages simply going out to find the people who might vote for them. It was a mess. In North-East, however, I'm told that the campaign apparently already knows the voting behaviour of more than 40% of the local residents. So they know where their support is and they can target them and get them out.

Still all to play for, but Labour has a much stronger base position than it had last summer.