A storm in a teacup was evident in Glasgow yesterday - albeit was a mighty large teacup in the shape of Glasgow City Chambers.
Prior to the council meeting, in which the labour-run council intended to pass its annual budget, the west of Scotland political watchers and others further afield were aware all was not well within the clique of Glasgow Labour who have run the council for most of my lifetime. Rumours that the budget would fail flooded the social networks.
Recently Glasgow Labour decided some of their serving councillors weren't suitable for the job and without the approval of the respective electorate, deselected several of them. Just that that - 'Yer oot so git yer hat' kind of behaviour. After such treatment, although most resigned from the Labour party, a few still stuck with their executioners yesterday and voted for the Labour budget. Sometimes I have difficulty understanding human nature.
Watching the Labour leader of the council, Gordon Matheson, as he was interviewed after the debate was eye-opening. His relief was evident as he screeched, 'I'm thrilled.' No dignity, no understanding that the London-led deselection process will do devastating harm to his party in the forthcoming council elections in May; just delight that his job was safe for the moment.
There is the possibility that the SNP will gain hold of Glasgow council in May and the disarray within the Labour ranks will be of great assistance. Long may they stick their heads in the sand and ignore the good people of Glasgow, because it's the people who live in the city who matter - not the politicians who run the council. They're elected to serve the people and they have let them down for decades.
If the SNP can show Glaswegians that they can run their city as efficiently as they're governing the country, they will win. That can't be such a difficult task after Labour's woeful public performance yesterday.
Update: I'm told by Aiden Skinner on Twitter that only 5 of the 20 deselected Labour candidates have resigned or have been deselected from the party. I reiterate, why would any self-respecting individual stay with Labour in these circumstances?
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