THE result of the four city council by-elections last week will have come as no surprise to either Labour or the SNP.

Three of the seats had previously been held by SNP councillors, two of whom decided to quit the City Chambers for the buzz of London and the Palace of Westminster.

The remaining two vacancies in the city's corridors of power came about as a result of one SNP councillor and one Green deciding to step down for health and family reasons.

Nobody realistically expected the SNP to lose any of their seats to Labour or anybody else for that matter.

And while the Greens may be miffed that their numbers have been reduced by one, they too probably shrugged their shoulders as they became the latest casualty of the SNP juggernaut.

However it says a great deal about the Nationalist surge that in a city which has been controlled by Labour for longer than most people can remember that the swing away from the party was recorded at almost 20%.

Labour business manager James Adams was gracious in defeat and congratulated the SNP on its success and welcomed the four new councillors to the City Chambers.

But he could not resist pointing out that the 20% swing from Labour to the SNP was 10% less than that recorded at May's General Election.

And that the Labour group remains the largest on the council with 45 councillors compared to the SNP's 28.

The combined strength of all the opposition parties means Labour still has an overall majority of 11 and can push through its policies - provided that is that members of the Labour group stop bickering long enough to present a united face.

One policy which has paid off was the decision 13 years ago to close and merge secondary schools across the city, replace old, crumbing buildings with new schools and upgrade the remainder.

For some parents, teachers and pupils it was a step too far and save our schools campaigns were set up.

But the closures went ahead and new secondary schools sprung up across the city.

They sparked a new enthusiasm and slowly but surely, Glasgow is moving away from the bottom of Scotland's exam league table where it had languished for years.