Gunning for David Kerr

Whether it's actually down to Unionist media bias or that David Kerr is genuinely gaffe-prone, the cyberNats will be going into hyperdrive in their apoplexy at the Sunday Herald for the latest instalment in the litany of negative press that the SNP's candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election has attracted.

This morning's slightly bizarre story concerns Mr Kerr brandishing a gun in a supermarket car park while also being in possession of a pistol and a large hunting knife. While this isn't as bad as it might first appear - he was using the replica air rifle and other weapons as props to illustrate a news story while he was working as a television reporter - according to the Herald the incident sparked an internal BBC investigation, raised speculation that Mr Kerr may have committed a criminal offence and resulted in suggestions that his job may have been in jeopardy.

Of course, this kind of thing makes the nationalist candidate an easy target for his Labour opponents, particularly in view of the SNP's frequent calls for a crackdown on the use of airguns and the ongoing tension between Holyrood and Westminster on this currently reserved issue.

And this come on top of several weeks of adverse press for Mr Kerr in relation to his initial rejection by the Glasgow NE constituency party, reports that he would be offered a job as a special adviser as a consolation prize, his subsequent endorsement as a third/fourth choice candidate, claims that he has downplayed sectarianism, past derisive comments relating to a Glasgow university and adverse reaction on news of his membership of hardline Catholic sect Opus Dei. Meanwhile, Labour's candidate Willie Bain has thus far came through the first few weeks of campaigning relatively unscathed.

While the SNP have plausibly complained that Labour have delayed the by-election until November to, ahem, spike the nationalists' guns, on the other hand Mr Kerr must surely be hoping that the long run-in to the vote will lessen the impact of the adverse press, assuming, of course, that most of the bad news is out of the way, or at least will be very soon. But, of course, the campaign proper hasn't even really started yet.

However, in the Sunday Times Jenny Hjul claims that Mr Kerr's membership of the socially conservative Opus Dei conflicts with the SNP's more modern, liberal stance towards social issues and that this will prove a running sore for the party and to that extent months of scrutiny will not work in his or his party's favour.

Thus the extended nature of the by-election campaign means it looks set to surpass all others in terms of politicking and muckraking. Therefore perhaps a summer godsend for the press, politicos and bloggers, but likely to prove an even bigger turn-off than usual for the voting public.