On reading councillor McCabe's letter in the Tele 24.6.09 contradicting the paper's account of who came second and third at the council ward 6 by-election - I could not help but think back to my childhood days when some of us had lost one game or another then scrapped over who came second, third, fourth and so on....

Without being big headed, and I genuinely mean that, I feel councillor McCabe and his Labour colleagues are going to have to get used to that losing feeling.  They lost in the Scottish Parliament elections in 2007, the Euro elections poll on the 4th June and now in the council by-election in ward 6 last week.  Early predictions show that unless there is a huge swing back towards Labour over the next 11 months then they face further big losses at next June's Westminster elections.

There is a bit of deja vous here with Labour.  We are seeing a mirror image of what occurred to John Major's Tory Premiership in 1997 as Labour lurch from one crisis to another.

I am not being smug when I write this - I realise that this can happen to all political parties and politicians - but my SNP colleagues and I will never take votes for granted in the way Labour has for decades.

Councillor McCabe and some of his colleagues are living in denial.  The simple truth is that the New in Labour has burst big style.

As for Cllr McCabe's unfair criticism of the Greenock Telegraph over the council by-election result - I may have had more time to listen to his comments had he actually dared to turn up at last Friday's count to support the Labour candidate Alex McGhee.  But along with messers Cairns, McNeil and others he was posted missing.  Maybe he knew how things were likely to turn out before the count took place?

Finally, I worry for us all.  The final stage in the count showed the Lib Dem candidate had 620 votes to Labour's 519.  Clearly the council leader cannot add up if he still thinks his candidate came second!