In his speech last Friday to Labour’s Scottish conference in Dundee, Gordon made a toe-curling and very laboured joke:

“As you know I’m not long back from Washington DC and I said the people there that I couldn’t stay long because I was off to Dundee, They asked, Dundee Michigan, Dundee Illinois or Dundee Oregon? I said the original Dundee. They asked what state was it in? It’s in a great state, I replied. It’s got a Labour council.”

Not now it hasn’t. In a council by-election held yesterday and counted today, Labour lost control of the council.

On the other hand, Dundee’s woes worsened this week in that Gordon’s visit was followed by local job losses at NCR and Texol. The accursed one-eyed son of the manse strikes again…