Tories vs smackheads in Glasgow
Chris Dillow makes an observation about the Glasgow North East that is considerably more arresting than most of the analysis I have seen:
The Tory Party is less popular than heroin. That - if anything - is the lesson from the Glasgow North East by-election result.
The Tories got 1075 votes. The best estimate (table 3 of this pdf) is that there are over 13,000 “problem drug users” in the city of Glasgow - defined as users of heroin, methadone or benzodiazepines.
If we assume Glasgow North East contains one-seventh of these - Glasgow NE being one of seven of the city’s parliamentary seats - then it has just under 1900 problem drug users.
It’s likely, then, that there are more smackheads than Tory voters in Glasgow North East.
