It was an historic election - one that shook the fundamentals of modern politics and will echo down through the ages. Yes, Labour won a by-election, actually increasing their vote to 55%. The SNP increased their share of the vote too, but not by enough. 

I'm a very old-fashioned, hardline socialist, but coming from an Irish background, I'm not viscerally anti-nationalist. The SNP and Plaid Cymru (not a bad website) have long been spirit-of-68 anti-imperialist nationalist parties rather than BNP fascists (I'm not linking to those scum).

So I'm pleased that Labour won (especially as my friend Richard was campaigning so hard in Glenrothes), but I don't think that it's incredibly momentous. What really makes me smile is that the Conservatives (not linking to toff scum either) lost their deposit. 3% of the vote is utterly pathetic, whatever the demographics. They could have got that without putting a single poster up. If Cameron can't scrape together enough protest votes to significantly damage Labour's chances in such seats, there's a chance that La Cosa Etonia won't win the next election. No wonder he's desperately trying to associate himself with Obama, despite having McCain address the Tory conference two years ago. The links go deep.