I WAS at Heathrow and about to board a flight for Washington DC when I saw the BBC newsflash on one of the flat screen TVs saying that Wendy Alexander was about to announce her resignation.

By the time we touched down in the US David Marshall's resignation had been announced and there was to be a by-election before the end of the Glasgow Fair. For the next few days I was inside the Beltway but I could hardly have been more out of the loop. In Williamsburg I couldn't find an internet connection so I was in North Carolina before I learned, belatedly, that Nicol Stephen had resigned. This was getting ridiculous.

So I'm back, but barely up to speed, as I head for Easterhouse, Barlanark and Tollcross. What I do know is that already it's a very strange by-election. For by-elections in England David Cameron has taken to sending in his Westminster troops in overwhelming numbers. For defending a Glasgow heartland seat Labour has been treating it like a special forces expedition, a handful of SAS infiltrated in secret as if behind enemy lines.

So it's official. It's good for Margaret Curran to be seen with an actor who appears on Taggart, publicly discussing making the streets safer with someone who's only a pretendy polis, but it's way too embarrassing for her to be captured on camera with Gordon Brown’s deputy, so Harriet Harman is back in the safety of Westminster before news gets out that she's been here. Ditto the Defence Secretary. You couldn't make it up.

Anyway, I'm off to see what the mood is like on the streets.