I’€™m not sure I want to wake up on Friday morning. I have this terrible feeling that Mr Irresponsible will win an outright majority.

It’€™s not that I’€™m in favour of Labour, though. Because of the nature of Labour in Scotland, I couldn’€™t bring myself to vote for them. But for all their drawbacks in the UK sense (Iraq, ID cards, other infringements of personal liberties, failure to bring the bankers to heel, not scrapping public private partnerships, intense relaxation about people being filthy rich) they are still better than the Tories. To take one example of their success, the NHS is immeasurably better than it was 13 years ago.

The reason that I dread a Mr Irresponsible premiership – more accurately I fear a George Osborne chancellorship -€“ is experience. The Tories have a track record. They seem to take a visceral delight in the cutting of public expenditure. But it’€™s all right for Cameron and Osborne; they’€™re well off and won’€™t be affected. (In fact, due to their inheritance tax plans, they’€™ll be even more quids in if their parents snuff it.)

It’€™s other people who will suffer, people who can least afford cuts, either in their benefits, their pensions or their jobs.

I know the other main parties are also saying they would make cuts but they are more likely to make efforts to mitigate the worst effects.

And don’€™t tell me the Tories are the party of low taxation. I well remember them during the 1979 election campaign denying claims that their plans would require the rate of VAT to be doubled. In their first budget after the election they raised VAT from 8 to 15%! (In subsequent Parliaments they raised it further to 17.5%.) VAT is a tax which hits most those who can least afford it.

I also fear for the BBC. It’€™s a great British institution which happens to be tremendously good at what it does. I would go so far as to say at everything it does. We would all miss it when it’€™s gone. I know we all have to pay for it almost willy-nilly but it is amazingly cheap at the price. The Tories are in Rupert Murdoch’€™s back pocket (as well as Lord Ashcroft’€™s) and he would like nothing better than to see the BBC dismantled or at least curtailed. Sky would not be able to give us such sterling service. It never could, because Murdoch is only seeking to turn a profit. I would rather never watch TV again than contribute to his coffers.

I know my vote is not going to make a difference. My sitting MP (Gordon Brown) has a huge majority and I can’€™t see it being overthrown. Besides when was the last time you heard that the incumbent PM actually lost his (or her) seat?

I genuinely don’t know for whom I’€™m going to vote; only that I will. Too many people fought too long and too hard for my right to do so for me not to honour them. But it will not be Tory or Labour.

If Mr Irresponsible should win on Thursday then, in the words of a prominent 1980s politician, I warn you not to be old, I warn you not to be ill, I warn you not to be poor.

The trouble is that, down the line, you (and I) are likely to be at least two of those things, if not all three.

Broadwood Stadium, 1/4/10.

We got exactly what we deserved from this. A doing.

In the absence of Chris Smith I warmed to him considerably.

Despite giving myself plenty of time I missed the first goal because the roadworks on the A 80 didn’t allow me to turn off at the A 73 as I had intended and I had to carry on, then double back though Condorrat.

I know nothing was riding on this but it verged on an embarassment. Defensively we were a shambles, it was beyond comic cuts at times. Vojáček in goal could have dealt better with the situations at Clyde’s 2^nd and 3^rd. All game he flapped at everything that came near him. Chappie implicitly admitted he’d got the team selection wrong by subbing two players about twenty minutes into the half. Unusually for him, though, it was the first half.

Ryan McStay oozed class – especially one drag-back in the second half. For about three seconds before he struck it for our first it was obvious from his body language what he intended. It still hit the bottom corner.

Their fourth was a great strike but the player who passed it to him handled in the build-up.

No complaints, though. We were well beaten.

To progress next season we need to improve our home form and do better against the teams at the bottom. Okay, we outdid Stenhousemuir but parity with Clyde, 3 points out of twelve against Arbroath, equal points but a worse goal difference v East Fife says it all.

I thought of Gordon Lennon during the match. Most games this season there hasn’t been time for that among the hurly-burly. Goodness knows what he would have made of this display.

The players stayed on the pitch at the end for some mutual applause with the fans. Recognition of the season’s efforts, not the day’s. I came away wondering how many of them I would see in a Dumbarton shirt again.

It’s going to be a long summer till July. What will I write about?

(I know there’s the World Cup but that’s not the same.)