Elections generally follow a familiar pattern. Each party decries all the others, reserving particular contempt for their principal opponents.

Such is the template, the standard narrative. But the pending Holyrood by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse will instead follow an updated approach. The tale of two governments.

Anxious citizens of Hamilton, an ancient Royal burgh, and its neighbouring communities are being told by rivals that only the SNP Scottish Government / Labour UK Government is truly on their side.

Which makes this contest rather important. More than just a single seat at Holyrood. It is a rehearsal for the full Scottish parliamentary elections in a little over a year’s time.

There is a further dimension. To varying degrees, Reform UK has got all the established parties worried. Especially the Tories. This by-election is a chance to discover whether the new kids can be blocked.

From time to time, a by-election arrives, encased in an aura of significance. Most recently, the 2023 Westminster contest for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat where a thumping Labour win presaged widespread party gains across Scotland in July last year.

But the Nationalists have their memories too. The two Govan contests, in 1973 and 1988. Perth and Kinross in 1995. And, most famously of all, Winnie Ewing’s victory in Hamilton in 1967 which helped forge the modern SNP.

This present-day Hamilton Holyrood seat is left vacant by the sad death of Christina McKelvie, an SNP minister. She was widely respected and admired, across the political divide. From the........

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