Latest news with #GlasgowSouthside
Glasgow Times
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
'Glasgow is tired of being let down – and it deserves better'
We still walk the same streets riddled with potholes. We still wait weeks or months for hospital appointments. Our bins overflow, graffiti spreads, and fly-tipping piles up – all while city leaders insist we're "on the up." The disconnect between the Scottish Government, City Chambers, and the people who actually make Glasgow tick has never felt greater. This city, which should be the beating heart of Scotland, too often feels like an afterthought – neglected, ignored, and let down by those meant to stand up for it. Let's be honest. The SNP-run Scottish Government has slashed funding to Glasgow in real terms year after year. And Glasgow City Council – under Susan Aitken and her Green Party allies – appears more concerned with headlines and hashtags than with helping households. The rhetoric might be slick, but the results are sorely lacking. While the SNP obsesses over independence and pet projects – like challenging biological reality, taxing air miles, and hammering motorists – the basics are crumbling. Schools are stretched. GP practices are under siege. Cancer targets are missed. Waiting lists at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital keep growing. These aren't statistics – they're lives. Real people, real suffering, right here in Glasgow. At the same time, crime and antisocial behaviour are creeping further into the city centre. Local businesses and residents tell me they no longer feel safe. Police Scotland is stretched to the limit, expected to do more with less, while ministers look the other way. Instead of real leadership, we're served spin. When Glaswegians complain about rats and graffiti, we're told it's "no worse than any other city." That's not reassurance – that's resignation. And it's absolutely not good enough. Glasgow deserves more than complacency self-identifying as competence. It deserves more than half-hearted pledges about a "spruced-up" city, while the evidence on the streets tells a very different story. The people who pay the taxes to fund Susan Aitken's budget aren't asking for the world. They want the basics done right – here, in their own communities. No vanity projects, no funding pet causes in far-off places. Just the essentials: roads that don't wreck your car, pavements that don't trip you up, weekly bin collections, streets that feel safe again. And let's not forget Glasgow Southside's master of the SNP inner circle and her elusive estranged spouse of modest means but expansive motorhome tastes – well-fed, well-housed and well-insulated from scrutiny... until the polis come knocking. Now they expect you to pay his legal fees. We've yet to hear Susan Aitken question this entitlement. No doubt Nicola could write a book about this saga – and promote it on the taxpayers' dime. Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather see a city that works than a party chasing headlines – or disappearing behind the drapes in embarrassment. Fix the roads, for God's sake. Clear the rubbish. Back small businesses. Support our police. These aren't radical ideas, they're what most Glaswegians want. Scottish Conservatives believe in results, not rhetoric. We want a government that listens and a council that delivers. That starts with fair funding: give Glasgow its fair share of UK spending increases. Let local leaders plan for the long term, not lurch from one SNP budget crisis to the next. This summer, Glaswegians don't need another slogan from SNP HQ. They need real change. So here's the challenge to the SNP: stop the excuses. Stop the blame game. Start delivering. Because Glasgow is tired of being let down – and it deserves better.
Glasgow Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Launch date for Nicola Sturgeon's memoir revealed
Sturgeon, who is MSP for Glasgow Southside, will launch her memoir Frankly at the festival on August 14. The festival has revealed a line-up for an expanded series, The Front List, between August 12 and August 24, at McEwan Hall, next to the main venue, the Edinburgh Futures Institute. READ NEXT: Wedding kiss restrictions branded 'bizarre' by humanist leader at Covid inquiry Included in the line-up are Maggie O'Farrell and Ian McEwan, and also Gavin And Stacey co-creator and writer, Ruth Jones, who will discuss her new novel, By Your Side. Writers RF Kuang; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and Asako Yuzuki, winner of 2024 Waterstones Book of the Year; will also appear, along with Ally McCoist, who will discuss Dear Scotland: On The Road With The Tartan Army. Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny, will offer political insights, along with a-Nehisi Coates, Anne Applebaum, and Edward Wong, diplomatic correspondent at the New York Times. More than 600 events will be announced on June 10, with participants from the United States, Japan, Russia, and Nigeria as well as the UK. READ NEXT: Community braves the rain to celebrate Cherry Blossom Festival A spokesperson said: 'We are thrilled to be launching Frankly, the highly anticipated memoir from Scotland's first female – and longest-serving – first minister, as Nicola Sturgeon shares the story of her journey from shy, working-class child to one of our country's most significant political leaders. 'We're joined by acclaimed and international writers, speaking about their careers and works. The luminous Maggie O'Farrell celebrates 25 years of creativity since her debut publication, and Ian McEwan looks back over his remarkable body of work and forward to what comes next. 'With the Trump administration continuing to unravel the last 70 years of established world order with breathtaking speed, essential political insight comes from The Atlantic columnist and author, Anne Applebaum, and New York Times diplomatic correspondent, Edward Wong, who together take on recent seismic political shifts and explore whether democracy can ever be truly protected. 'Poignantly, Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison last year, speaks about her late husband's courageous work, Patriot, and continuing his crucial activism.' Jenny Niven, book festival director and chief executive, said: 'We are thrilled to be returning to the beautiful McEwan Hall, and expanding our partnership with Underbelly to present 14 The Front List events in 2025. 'At this challenging moment in history and politics, we'll be offering a comprehensively informed and critical eye on international affairs, and also the chance to escape them through the work of some of the world's foremost fiction writers, entertainment, and sporting figures. 'There's plenty more to come in our full programme announcement, but we hope our line-up for The Front List offers a delicious taster of the many flavours and perspectives you can expect from this year's Book Festival events.' The Glasgow Times reported last month that Sturgeon has announced she will not seek re-election as an MSP next year bringing an end to a parliamentary career that started with her election to the newly reconvened Scottish Parliament in 1999 as a Glasgow MSP. She became deputy first minister to Alex Salmond in 2007 when the SNP won its first Holyrood election and had been in government ever since until she announced her resignation as first minister in 2023. She served as first minister and SNP leader between 2014 and 2023, overseeing a hugely successful election period at Holyrood and Westminster for the SNP. Sturgeon has been the SNP MSP for Glasgow Southside since 2011 and before that for Govan since 2007. She was a list MSP for the Glasgow region between 1999 and 2007. Tickets for The Front List events go on sale to the public at 10am on Tuesday, May 6 and are available at
Sky News
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Nicola Sturgeon announces she will not seek re-election to Holyrood next year
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon will not seek re-election to Holyrood next year, she has announced. The ex-SNP leader has been an MSP since 1999 and said representing Glasgow Southside had been "an honour beyond words". In a post on Instagram, Ms Sturgeon added: "However, I have known in my heart for a while that the time is right for me to embrace different opportunities in a new chapter of my life. "I have therefore written this morning to SNP members in my constituency informing them that I will not be seeking selection for next year's Holyrood election." Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
