Glasgow Times readers who read last week’s piece by Labour’s group leader in Glasgow would be forgiven for thinking that everything is rosy and we should all be grateful for the decisions being taken by them.
It will not come as a surprise that I did not want Labour to win, I’m a proud Conservative after all.
However, I’ll let you into a little secret. Part of me was at least optimistic that things would change after seeing the SNP routed up and down Scotland.
Sadly, if the past 75 days are anything to go by then people that I represent better brace themselves to be disappointed by this Labour government, in the same way 17 years of SNP rule has let them down.
Since Sir Keir got the keys to Number 10, I believe we have seen any optimism evaporate rapidly.
Worst of all was their shameful decision to U-turn on their previous pledge and axe universal winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners across the country.
That will leave many elderly people – including in my Shettleston ward – choosing between heating and eating this winter.
Politics is about choices and Sir Keir’s Labour government has chosen to take lifeline payments away from pensioners.
I’m proud of the record of the Conservatives in standing up for our elderly population over our 14 years in charge and firmly oppose these cuts, which will affect more than 50,000 pensioners in Glasgow alone.
Worse was to follow with comments from Labour’s Scottish secretary Ian Murray that crucial levelling up funding is now under review.
That could be devastating for Drumchapel which had been awarded £15 million by the previous Conservative government in what was a huge boost for the area. Myself and my colleagues in Glasgow will fight them every step of the way, but can the same be said of Anas Sarwar?
He is conspicuously silent on the cuts being imposed on Glaswegians by his friends in London.
However, we should not let the SNP off the hook here. Where Labour lead on winter fuel payments, the SNP have disgracefully decided to follow suit.
The SNP could have reversed Labour’s decision but instead their financial mismanagement over the last 17 years is coming home to roost and it is pensioners who are paying the price.
Before nationalists start crowing about where the money would come from, why not look closer to home? Stop spending on skewed priorities such as international offices and Angus Robertson’s trips abroad, stop the waste and then it would be easy to keep our pensioners warm this winter.
But the chances of nationalists avoiding playing to their constitution-obsessed supporters is just about nil, as they prefer to put party above politics. Just as they did when they shamefully cut the Affordable Warmth Payment for over 80s in the city, rather than stand up to the cuts passed down from Edinburgh to the City Chambers.
I can fully understand why people in this city are scunnered with politics. They see a cosy left-wing consensus taking the wrong, arrogant decisions time and time again and see them getting away with it.
We need a real alternative. The Conservatives may be down in Glasgow, but we are not out.
Shettleston knows how I’ve stood up for our community for the last seven years and fought for common sense to win out.
My pledge today is to ensure that the Conservatives represent all of you who feel let down and fight for those values across the whole of the city.
