'Glasgow is tired of being let down – and it deserves better'

Glasgow Times

07-07-2025

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.