LABOUR has suffered major by-election shocks at the hands of the SNP before - some of them even bigger than the 22 per cent swing in Glasgow East.
Winnie Ewing recorded a massive 37.9 per cent swing against Labour when she won the Hamilton by-election in 1967 to put the SNP firmly on the Scottish political map.
Margo MacDonald achieved a 26.7 per cent swing when she took Glasgow Govan in 197
3, and when her husband Jim Sillars won the seat again in 1988, the swing was 33.1 per cent.
Today Ms MacDonald, now independent MSP for the Lothians, said Glasgow East was a "fantastic result" for the SNP. She said her 1973 victory was the first time the SNP had won a city seat.
"Govan showed that supposedly left-wing, working-class Labour-imbued Scotland was not impregnable. That was important for the SNP's self-confidence and credibility.
"It was very important in the politics of the time because, just like now, it was in the run-up to a general election so it primed the pump."
Ms MacDonald said Glasgow East confirmed Labour had lost its dominance in Scotland. "The SNP is popular. There has been a gradual realisation on the part of Scots that there is another political card they can play successfully."
Mr Salmond used the SNP's conference at Heriot-Watt university in April to set the party the target of 20 seats at the next Westminster election.
It is a tall order. The most seats the Nationalists have ever had before was their "football team" of 11 back in 1974, and with Scotland's representation at Westminster now reduced to 59, he's talking about the SNP winning more than a third of the constituencies.
The full article contains 298 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
