Former Shipbuilding Heartland To Steer Nations Course (from The Herald Election Site)

AND so after 35 days of insults and injuries, of polls and counter polls, and one or two policy announcements along the way, it all boils down to two words: Glasgow Govan.

If ever a seat served as a barometer of the political outlook in Scotland it is this one in the heart of the nation's biggest city.

Labour may have dominated Govan, once the centre of the world's shipbuilding industry, since the end of the Second World War, but its grip has by no means been unshakeable. The Tories won here twice in the 1950s and then, of course, there were those two famous SNP by-elections in 1973 and 1988 which sent Margo MacDonald, and then her husband Jim Sillars, to Westminster.

The temperature reached 66 degrees in Sunny Govan yesterday, and is expected to rise today. If another scorcher results in an improvement on the dismal turnout of just 43.4% in 2003, Nicola Sturgeon may yet be third-time lucky in taking this seat from Labour.

Incumbent Gordon Jackson is a high-profile QC who has weathered more adverse publicity than most politicians and yet somehow managed to win three times.

Mr Jackson's temporary campaign office sits between vacant and shuttered shops on Harmony Row, the little street made famous by Alex Ferguson, who once kicked a ball for its boys' club. The poster in the window warns: "DANGER. SNP risks Govan jobs. Gordon Jackson says I need your help to protect your jobs.'"

"Aye, mair like his ain job", offers up one man loitering in the sun outside. "What jobs is he talking about?"

In Govan, the claimant count for incapacity and disability benefits is the ninth-highest in Scotland, and a quarter of those of working age rely on benefits.

The one word Labour has tried to avoid during this campaign is "Iraq", but in Govan, with the biggest Muslim population in the country, it is unavoidable.

The war has reverberated here. Four years ago, 26-year-old Russell Beeston, an unemployed Territorial from Roseneath Street, Govan, died at the hands of a mob who ambushed him on a dusty road 3000 miles from home. Mohammed Razaq, 31, said his parents voted Labour, but he will not. The reason? Iraq.

While Govan is being contested by six candidates, including a Communist and an independent, it remains the ultimate two-horse race. If both parties manage to mobilise their votes, don't be surprised if the outcome is decided by a photo finish.

Nice to see the Labour candidate has such a positive prospectus to offer the voters of Govan. Scare tactics such as claiming that voting SNP will cost jobs suggest that the leagcy of Labour rule is too thin to rely upon. Since Labour won the Westminster seat back from the SNP, can anyone in the Labour Party really claim that things have significantly improved for the electorate of Govan? Gordon Jacksons' claims are so desperate that he sounds like a man who knows his time is nearly run. It's time to say goodbye Gordon, hello Nicola.

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