The Steamie: Welcome to the virtual by-election

The Steamie today brings you a first in Scottish politics and Scottish journalism.

Over the coming week candidates in the Glasgow North-East by-election, in adddition to fighting the contest on the doorsteps and on the hustings, will be taking the fight online.

Candidates for the main Scottish parliamentary parties will be be guest bloggers here on The Steamie for the duration of the by-election.

They'll be announcing their policies and their plans here, and taking on their opponents' arguments as well, making The Steamie a major forum for the by-election debate.

And of course, there will be the chance for readers of The Steamie to comment on their contributions.

The internet, one of the most influential tools in the US presidential election last year, is still an untested forum in Scottish and UK politics. But it is certain to be an important part of the forthcoming general election.

This virtual by-election on The Steamie is a chance for all sides to get a taste of that future.

Kenny Farquharson
Deputy Editor
Scotland on Sunday

Glasgow NE: Willie Bain, Labour. Standing up for Glasgow.

I'm pleased to be taking part in this great idea by The Steamie to get people engaged with this by-election online.

Although I know not everyone uses the internet to access their news - I know lots of Glaswegians who are increasingly using it to find out what's going on and keep in touch with friends and family. I hope that by writing on here that I can help some of them understand more about me and my plans.

Despite a late night in the Newsnight studio I'm keen to hit the ground running this morning - talking to voters and hearing their concerns. I've lived in this area all my life - I think I'm the only candidate that can (honestly!) say that. I'm not a politician and I've never stood for election before but I'm proud of this area and I want to do my best for it.

The issue that people constantly raise with me on the door is their anger at the way the SNP is ripping off our city. Despite the SNP's budget going up by £600m this year they are giving extra money to some projects - but shortchanging Glasgow. It's amazing how many times people raise this when you speak to them. So I'm going out and about in the constituency today - knocking of people's doors and letting them know who I am and what I believe in.

I'm also meeeting with Andrew Adonis to tell him about the importance of good transport links to the Glasgow economy and the shockingly short-sighted decision of the SNP to cancel the airport rail link at a cost of 1000 jobs.

The other issue that people keep raising with me is about the SNP candidate fibbing about where he was born. Look, at the end of the day the real issue in this story is about trust. People's trust in politics is at an all time low. We have to start trying to restore that trust and that starts with people being able to believe the people that seek to represent them.

I've been clear with people what my top priorities are:

• stopping the SNP ripping off Galsgow and dishing out the money elsewhere
• cracking down on crime and anti-social behaviour - I've been running a carry a knife go to jail petition to get automatic jail sentences for knife criminals
• helping glasgow pensioners through tough times and fighting to protect jobs
• campaigning for better shops, better homes, and better buses

Thanks to everyone who is supporting me in this campaign. If you want to get in touch with me then you can email me at willie@williebain.com.

Best wishes

Willie Bain
Labour's candidate for Glasgow North East

David Maddox: Steaming into the top league

It is perhaps a little immodest to point this out, but I've just seen that the highly respected TotalPolitics website has published its top 40 media political blogs.
Rather gratifyingly the Steamie was 20th overall and seventh best amongst the newcomers. Not bad for our first year. We will hope to get even higher next year and there may be some improvements on the way.
Thanks to Green James MacKenzie of Two Doctors blogging fame for pointing this out.

Kenny Farquharson: Do you Twitter?

The Steamie is now available on Twitter (www.twitter.com/thesteamie).

If you have no idea what that sentence means you are:

a. not in tune with the zeitgeist

b. not paying attention

or

c. a High Court judge

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blogging site where posts are limited to 140 characters.

Everyone's doing it, from Barack Obama to Gordon Brown to Andy Murray to Stephen Fry to, er, me (www.twitter.com/KENNYFARQ).

There's even a rather good spoof Alex Salmond site www.twitter.com/Alex_Salmond (sample posting from the past few days: "Got to love American portion sizes...")

Get tweeting...

The Steamie: Christmas blogging

Blogging will be light on The Steamie over Christmas as our politicians recharge their batteries at home and hearth.

But we'll be building up a full head of steam again quicker than you can say Pepto Bismol.