Surprisingly, Labour won the by-election in Glenthrothes. I say “surprisingly”, but Labour were never out of the game. They always had a chance of winning, and only idiots *cough*Salmond*cough* said that it was in the bag for the SNP.

However, the amount of its vote that Labour managed to keep is surprising. In 2005, Labour had a majority of 10,664, and in 2008 a majority of 6,737, a loss of 4,000. The SNP increased its vote by 4,500, and both the Conservatives and Lib Dems lost their deposit. The biggest loser of the night was the Lib Dems, who were dismissed by the electorate into fourth place – down from third.

Gordon Brown has hailed this victory as a “vote of confidence” in the government. Err, excuse me? How, precisely?

Let’s look at the facts: Glenrothes is a Scottish constituency right next to Brown’s own; Gordo is a local boy, “a citizen of the Kingdom of Fife”; Labour’s candidate was the head teacher of a local school; neither Glenrothes or any of it’s constituent parts have ever had a non-Labour MP. So Glenrothe isn’t exactly a neutral area on which the success of policies can be based, since Brown and Labour had such an inbuilt advantage.

It simply cannot be regarded as any form of vote of confidence in Labour’s policies on a national basis – even though it is an undoubtedly a good thing for them.