My first sighting of Jim Devine – the latest Labour MP to be deselected by the party in the wake of the expenses scandal – was on the eve of poll for the 2001 General Election, shortly after I came across to Scotland to live.

As the agent he was standing alongside Robin Cook waving from an open top bus as they drove through Stoneyburn on a tour of the constituency; we were eating dinner. Victors in cup finals don’t do open bus tours until after the silverware is in their clutches – but such was the certainty of Labour that the celebratory tour was taking place 12 hours before the polls opened.

A little under four years later I got to see the man close up in action as he stood in for the unavailable Cook at a hustings in Loganlea, a former mining community. The other four parties’ candidates were present, and for the first three questions the answers were being dominated by the agent, until a point of order was raised from the floor that this was a hustings and the other parties who had actually sent the person seeking election should be heard in equal measure. Devine looked a little shocked that in this fiefdom of working men that anyone other than Labour should be heard. Ironically a few months later during the by-election, when he was actually the candidate, he himself failed to show at the hustings in the same venue.

The fact is that it is not his ‘phantom shelves’ (which Ranulph Fiennes himself might be hard-pressed to discover the true location of), or the non-existent electrical firm, that has been the true undoing of Jim Devine. As the examples above show it is the arrogance of Labour in this part of Scotland that this is ‘their land’, and nobody else’s opinion matters. It is the sort of region where the voters have been taken for granted. Yes, there were great parliamentarians in Robin Cook and Tam Dalyell – but the red rose is no longer the be all and end all.

There is talk now that Devine, having been deselected, will now step down forcing an early by-election. It is also rumoured that he will stand as an Independent. Nick Clegg for the Lib Dems has been calling for the right for constituents to recall their MP if found before a standards commission to have breached the rules. But Devine is potentially going to offer a ‘self-recall’ if he follows this course. If he does force an early by-election, what are the options?

We could have the disgraced former MP. Or a Labour candidate selected and vetted by the same Constituency Labour Party that some 10 days ago fully endorsed Mr Devine. Or we could have an SNP candidate who really doesn’t want to be in Westminster for any longer than the Nats feel necessary, and therefore won’t do anything to reform the place. Or a Tory who will be promising the people of Livingston s/he will let them know what policies they believe in ‘in the fullness of time’.

Or a Lib Dem from the party that has consistently called for change to the way Parliament works and has voted in the division lobbies to do exactly that. Plus the party that is looking at the tough spending decisions that are ahead, and not trying to point score like Labour or the Tories, but offers a constructive way forward.

Is it just me or is it plain just what a divine opportunity that would and should be?

* Stephen Glenn blogs at Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal. Durning 2005 he was on the West Lothian Party executive committee and was a key member of the by election team for Charles Dundas which faced Jim Devine.