So much of the very essence of what we do in politics is double-edged.

Amidst the satisfaction of delivering a really positive policy, winning a crucial vote or turning a pledge into a reality there’s the stark reminder of why we do this.

Last month for example I undertook one of the most uplifting visits in my two years as leader.

The City Treasurer and I saw first-hand the tremendous work in providing decent food and activities for thousands of Glasgow schoolkids during the Easter holidays.

We had a blast with the kids.

But the fact we have a need to meet so children in this city don’t go hungry tells us the scale of our challenges, the legacy of deprivation and why Westminster policies make this worse.

Similarly, Equal Pay has dominated these first two years and the City Government is rightly proud of delivering justice for thousands of our staff.

Yet the poignancy of the commemorative bench unveiled last week in George Square to those who died during the fight for Equal Pay laid bare the real lives behind this issue.

And so it is with the launch of the Connectivity Commission.

In late 2017, I tasked a group of independent experts to consider Glasgow’s transport networks and deliver proposals addressing the city’s needs, opportunities and challenges.

You may have seen the news coverage: a new city-wide Metro system, a connection between our two main railway stations, reviving many of the dormant tunnels and lines closed in the 1960s and extending Central Station.

The images used, a Metro on the familiar setting of Cumbernauld Road or at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, gave a tantalising glimpse of how these ambitions could look.

But then I come back to why we needed this report.

And it isn’t because we want a shiny new system, as appealing as that may be.

It is because far too many Glaswegians are excluded from the economic life of this city, denied jobs and opportunities because of the lack of connectivity into the transport network. We may have one of the best metropolitan rail networks on these islands and our unique Subway system carries around 13 million passengers a year. But if you do not live close to either of these, which hundreds of thousands don’t, then chances are you face more barriers to employment, training and education.

Many readers will be familiar with the transport proposals which have come and gone over the years. But for the first time we have a report, a solid set of ideas which put the need for new transport projects at the heart of improving the life chances of ordinary people. And how, if we have the will to deliver them, the ability to improve the health and prosperity of all our citizens because they can get around much easier increases manifold.

None of this is outlandish or futuristic. The Commission’s report, on its first page, makes clear this is exactly what other European cities have been doing for 30 or 40 years. How many of us have visited a European city, maybe one even smaller than the Glasgow area, hopped onto a Metro and thought ‘why haven’t we got one of these at home?’ We simply need to catch up.

The response to the report has been encouraging. Transport ideas and projects have a tendency to be unnecessarily divisive in Scotland. Yet it has been striking in my two years as leader how often the Council can find cross-party consensus on the big issues. All of us agree on the need for better public transport to lessen the need for private cars, to improve the air quality for the health of our citizens and ensuring that Glasgow is doing our bit to support national and global efforts to combat climate change. We are taking great strides on this, from big infrastructure proposals to more car-free days on local streets. I really hope we can now unite around the Commission’s report. Because, as the Commissioners have pointed out, it really is Glasgow’s turn. And a collective voice can help us make that case.

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