Michael Kelly: SNP overtures to Glasgow voters must be resisted

Published on Tuesday 14 June 2011 16:54

A victory for the Nationalists in the local elections would only result in a cynical manipulation of their mandate

WHAT a bloody cheek they've got. The SNP want to take over the running of Glasgow as part of their campaign for separation. Alex Salmond has foolishly let it be understood that success in next year's council elections will indicate a further shift in sentiment down the road to breaking up the United Kingdom. It won't be of course - any more than this year's overwhelming victory to run an assembly whose narrow powers are devolved from central government entitles him to interpret the vote as an endorsement of independence.

It's insulting enough to plan to hijack the votes of Glaswegians who will be asked only to choose who runs the city. If it was being done on the back of ridding the city of an inefficient administration with the promise of replacing it with fresh well-funded local government it might just wash. But to do it on the back of the SNP's shameful treatment of the city is taking us for mugs.

What has the SNP ever done for Glasgow? Well, it pulled the plug on the vital airport rail link. It refused to change an unfair roads formula. It failed to recognise the national status of the city's museums. It consistently discriminated against the city in the annual budget settlement. Two years ago SNP Perth and Kinross was awarded a 5 per cent increase while Glasgow got less than 1 per cent. Last year, SNP West Lothian's share was frozen while Glasgow's was cut. A roll call of shame. The Judean Popular Front has more credibility here. Yet the new SNP leader in Glasgow City Council, Allison Hunter claims that "there is a crying need for the people of Glasgow to be reconnected with the city council". The way in which a council interacts with its people is through the services - education, social work, refuse collection and so on - it provides. Hunter's party has chopped the resources which they are obliged to offer Glasgow for the provision of these services while the prolonged council tax freeze has prevented the council raising the revenue locally. Hunter has kicked off a personal attack on Labour leader Gordon Mathieson by trying to stigmatise him as the person behind a schools closure programme. The fact is that under Labour the secondary schools' estate has been rebuilt leading to a measurable improvement in teaching, learning and attainment. It is the SNP's refusal to fund it that is preventing Glasgow carrying out a similar upgrading of primary schools which would produce even better results..

Now that they see the opportunity to consolidate the surprising broadening of their support to urban areas they have appointed a cities' minister to cover up years of neglect - though in their party there seems to be some dubiety about her role.According to Allison Hunter, Nicola Sturgeon is not there "to get involved in Glasgow issues". A cities' minister with no involvement in Glasgow? It would appear obvious to the rest of us that what Sturgeon is there to do is quickly to channel some goodies to Glasgow as electoral inducements

Glasgow Labour should already be taking advantage of this new appointment by submitting to Nicola, a Glasgow MSP after all, a list of projects vital to the city's continued long march along the road of post-industrial regeneration. Top of that menu should be the green light for Fast Link, the pollution cutting transport system to join up all the new developments along both banks of the Clyde. That can be followed by demanding funding for the modernisation of the Underground. Then there's the restoration of the growth fund for cities which the SNP abolished.

By portraying itself as the Glasgow Party, Labour can de-couple the debate from the separation agenda and be seen to be fighting for the city's priorities. This will oblige the SNP to respond by delivering at least some of the demands. To refuse to do so will leave it as nakedly exposed to criticism in Glasgow as it is now.

Of course, Labour's record of government in Glasgow will be scrutinised. Expect the scandal surrounding the resignation of Steven Purcell as leader to be raked over obsessively. Drugs, sex and a mysterious death whetted gossipmongers' appetites.

But creating paid posts to reward supporters and to ensure the continuity of the regime was an abuse of public funds and a cynical manipulation of power.

In the aftermath of the scandal Nicola Sturgeon made her stance clear. "It is time to shine a light - a very bright light - into the murky corridors of Labour-controlled Glasgow City Council." Well, the lady has been shining her lamp for 14 months now and nothing further has emerged. Can we expect a clean bill of health? Labour can expect that the reforms made and the record of good government since will weigh with voters against the inevitable unsubstantiated slurs.

Any objective assessment of the city's progress is that it has been solid and impressive. With double the number of working adults than ten years ago, Glasgow has a diverse economy of financial, tourist, retail and leisure industries with a significant manufacturing sector in research and development. This business sector is set against a transformed public estate - new bridges, new museums, new sports facilities.

The SNP has been playing a three-card trick with councils since it came to power in Holyrood. Cutting resources, freezing council tax yet demanding essential services be maintained is drawing a triangle whose sides don't join up. The UK government has just recognised that in relation to ordering councils in England to collect rubbish weekly. If the SNP gain control of a sufficient number of councils next year it might be able to prevent this policy from being exposed for the con that it is.That is the real political imperative for its concentration on these elections. And that must be the driving force for Labour ensuring that Glasgow is not sold down its revitalised river.

• Michael Kelly is a former Labour Lord Provost of Glasgow