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Glasgow Times
3 days ago
- 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.
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Politics
- Scotsman
Keir Starmer should have followed SNP lead and asked higher earners to pay more tax
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When Keir Starmer stood up shortly after taking office and told us things were going to get worse, even he could not have envisaged the extent to which broken promises, infighting, bad decisions and shambolic U-turns would define his first 12 months as Prime Minister. Barely a household in the country has not been left disappointed or downright angry by the actions of a Labour government, which – time and time again – has found itself on the wrong side of the argument, defending the frankly indefensible. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I am well aware, from the office I hold, that governments must be driven by consistent values and clear direction – both of which appear to be completely lacking at Westminster. First Minister John Swinney during a visit to Springburn Academy in Glasgow. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire When I became First Minister, I set clear missions around eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, improving public services and tackling the climate emergency. SNP-run Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty is expected to fall, and soon we will take another step forward by abolishing Labour's two-child cap. We are introducing more measures to help with the cost of living, such as scrapping peak rail fares permanently. And when it comes to the NHS, I am putting in place lasting solutions around the country, which will deliver sustained long-term improvements. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Incidentally, I have managed to do all this – and much more besides – without the enormous parliamentary majority that Keir Starmer enjoys. I intend to build on this progress over the next year and, as we approach the 2026 election, the SNP will set out ambitious plans to move Scotland into the next decade. The dividing lines for that election are already becoming clear. People wanting to know what a Labour government would be like in Scotland need look no further than the shambles of the last 12 months at Westminster. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Anas Sarwar has defended Keir Starmer every mis-step of the way, and there is little doubt that a Scottish Labour government would be equally determined to balance the books on the backs of the poor, the disabled and older people. Labour could have avoided the fiscal nightmare currently tearing them apart if Keir Starmer had the courage to do what the SNP have done, and ask higher earners to pay more tax. This is therefore a strange moment for Mr Sarwar to begin arguing for precisely the opposite – but that is what he has begun doing. Much like every Conservative leader who makes similar demands, Mr Sarwar will have to explain what he would cut in Scotland to pay for his tax cuts for the rich. NHS funding? Free university tuition? The Scottish Child Payment? The Prime Minister's many mistakes in his first 12 months add up to a much bigger problem – he has taken the hope people felt last year and has extinguished it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hope must be the defining feature of next year's election, and hope is what I intend that the SNP offer – a vision of an independent Scotland free from Westminster chaos.
Glasgow Times
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
Tommy Sheridan says he is 'victimised' by Glasgow council
The Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership informed Tommy that due to his 2011 perjury conviction and prison sentence, all future applications for employment would be denied, according to the BBC. He has challenged this decision at Scotland's highest civil court, the Court of Session. Tommy told BBC Scotland News that his gender critical views on trans rights were a factor in the decision by the SNP-run council. READ MORE: Tommy Sheridan refused social work job due to 'unacceptable risk', court hears Sheridan, who completed a master's degree in social work at Glasgow Caledonian University, told BBC Scotland that he had "no doubt whatsoever" that he was being blacklisted by the council. He said that this is because of his socialist background and his views on transgender issues, which he says conflict with those of the SNP-led council. He said: "I don't think it chimes with the spirit of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act to hold against someone a 15-year-old conviction. "Particularly when I've already had to go through a vetting process, a very stiff vetting process from the body that was set up to regulate social care." Sheridan maintains that his "lived experience", including time in prison, makes him particularly suited to working in criminal justice youth social work. He said: "I come from a very working-class background, brought up in a housing scheme, having been in and around jails for the best part of 20-odd years. "I have intimate knowledge of the processes, challenges, and what prison is really like." (Image: Newsquest) He also claimed his gender-critical beliefs—such as rejecting self-identification in favour of biological definitions—played a role in the decision: "I think being a socialist is always difficult for some of the SNP councillors, but I think the biggest area would be my gender critical views. "I don't share the SNP's position that someone can declare that they're a man or a woman. I believe in biology, I believe in science, and so does the law now. "It's very unusual that the Supreme Court agrees with me, but there you go. I agree with the Supreme Court. "Now, those are gender critical views that Glasgow City Council SNP group don't agree with. So I've got no doubt in my mind that that's part of the package." Sheridan's case is currently under consideration at the Court of Session, after he received a rejection letter in August 2024. The court heard that Glasgow City Council deemed his past conviction an 'unacceptable level of risk' for a social work role. His lawyer argued the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)—the body responsible for regulating the profession—had already approved him as a suitable candidate, making the council's position unlawful. In response, the council's legal representative, Paul Reid KC, maintained the decision was within the local authority's rights as an employment matter and therefore not subject to judicial review. Lord Young is expected to deliver a ruling in due course. READ MORE: Tommy Sheridan to pursue legal action against Scottish council Sheridan has announced plans to return to frontline politics, seeking selection as a candidate for the Alba Party in the next Scottish Parliament elections. He added: "Why don't I go back into politics and start using the skills I have to communicate, to advocate, to try and promote independence. "But also to rage against some of the injustices in our world just now, of which there are far too many." Sheridan rose to prominence as an anti-Poll Tax campaigner, later becoming an MSP in 1999 for the Scottish Socialist Party, which he led during its peak years. He was imprisoned in 2011 after being convicted of perjury related to a defamation case against the News of the World. A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: 'It is untrue to say that Mr Sheridan's views on trans rights had any bearing on this matter whatsoever. "The hiring process is purely operational, and elected members play no role in selecting candidates for this kind of role. "Furthermore, these assertions did not form any part of Mr Sheridan's case in court.'
Glasgow Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow city council caught up in Netflix and porn scandal
The Daily Mail revealed that Glasgow City Council workers tried to access inappropriate sites using taxpayer-funded devices. In the past year, staff attempted to stream Netflix shows 63 times. They also tried to access the Pornhub website 17 times and gambling sites another 17 times. READ MORE: YOB chucked bottle at Celtic goalkeeper during derby match READ MORE: Two officers hospitalised and three arrested after 'disturbance' While most attempts were blocked by the council's safety firewall, five attempts to access betting sites were successful. The council suggested that some staff may have been working on a gambling harms project at the time of these successful entries. The revelations come as many public sector staff continue to work from home for part of the week, with some logging on from as far away as the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, and Germany. This follows last week's revelations in The Mail that Scottish Government civil servants had also been accessing inappropriate material at work. Scottish Conservative Glasgow MSP Annie Wells said: "Glaswegians who have been hit with huge hikes in their council tax will be appalled that council employees have been trying to access dodgy websites and Netflix on their time. "We know that this behaviour has occurred within the SNP government, and this culture is clearly prevalent within SNP-run Glasgow City Council too. "Hard-pressed taxpayers expect employees to be focused on fixing the city's pothole-ridden roads, emptying bins, and supporting our schools. "Instead, there have been multiple occasions of them trying to view dodgy content, place a bet or watch their favourite new shows. "This might only be a select number of staff who thought this was appropriate, but SNP bosses at the City Chambers must guarantee all staff will be working on what matters to Glasgow at all times." Figures obtained under freedom of information laws show that there were 63 attempts to access Netflix on Glasgow City Council devices between May 14, 2024, and May 13 this year. Every attempt was blocked by a firewall, the council insists. In the past year, there were also 17 attempts to access pornography on Glasgow City Council devices, but every attempt was again blocked by firewalls. READ MORE: Glasgow drivers racked up £1.7m in LEZ fines since 2023, figures show Over the same period, there were 17 attempts to access gambling websites, with five of those being successful. The statistics, obtained by the Scottish Conservatives, follow a public backlash over the number of civil servants and local authority staff still working from home, despite the Covid pandemic ending in 2022. Some workers only need to attend their office one day a week, while council staff have been allowed to work from far-flung locations including Japan, India, and Australia. A spokesman for the council said: "The council has clear policies on acceptable use of IT equipment, and access to some sites and services is restricted or blocked. "The council has thousands of staff who use a PC, phone or other internet-enabled device, and these figures reflect a very small number of incidents."
Daily Record
12-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
Prime Minister 'horrified' Lanarkshire steelworks have been effectively mothballed
The Prime Minister said the SNP-run Scottish Government had failed to find work to keep the sites thriving after negotiating a 'bad deal' which saw them being bought by a new owner. Sir Keir Starmer has said he is 'horrified' that steelworks in Lanarkshire have been effectively mothballed, and is calling on John Swinney to step in to revive them. The Prime Minister said the SNP-run Scottish Government had failed to find work to keep the sites thriving after negotiating a 'bad deal' which saw them being bought by a new owner. The plants at Dalzell in Motherwell and Clydebridge were bought by the Liberty House group in 2016, backed by a £7 million loan from the Scottish Government. The group, which is part of Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance, also owns the Lochaber aluminium smelter. The Labour leader's comments come after the US trade deal which was reached on Thursday - which cut tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium. Mr Swinney's party said Sir Keir was attempting to 'wash over' his own industrial failures. Writing in the Sunday Times, the Prime Minister said: 'I'm proud we've secured a deal that slashes tariffs on the steel and aluminium industries to zero. 'This Labour government will always support our proud steel industry. So I'm horrified that the Dalzell and Clydebridge steelworks in Lanarkshire are lying mothballed, with workers on furlough. 'All because the SNP negotiated a bad deal and have had no industrial strategy to bring work to those mills. 'We're standing up for Scottish steel - now Swinney needs to step in and get those plants up and running again.' It is understood that some staff at Dalzell in Motherwell have been furloughed and there is no work going through the plant. The Prime Minister also highlighted the trade deal with India, which cuts costs on the crucial Scottish export of whisky. SNP MP Pete Wishart laid the blame on the UK Government, saying it had failed to back the Scottish industry in contrast to the action taken to protect plants south of the border. He told the newspaper: 'The audacity of Keir Starmer to attempt to wash over the UK government's betrayal of Scottish industry is insulting. 'They put emergency support in for Scunthorpe steelworks and deliberately legislated to exclude Scotland and therefore, Dalzell works from any such help, now or in the future.' He added: 'Like the Tories, Labour are making it abundantly clear that Scotland will always be an afterthought for Westminster. The SNP is the only party that will always be on Scotland's side.' *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
