In 1975, when Glasgow celebrated its 800th anniversary, I’m reliably advised every school pupil got a free commemorative mug.
I’ve a pal who still has his – not everyone kept them of course. These collector items had a stylish logo that wouldn’t look out of place today.
A futuristic Glasgow coat of arms with the tree, bird, fish and bell of Saint Mungo.
I first moved from Dundee to Glasgow as a teenager in the late 1980s to attend Strathclyde University.
Dundee was home to Michael Marra who wrote the great Mother Glasgow song, which echoed out during Glasgow’s European City of Culture in 1990.
The lure of the city for students is probably stronger now as Glasgow boasts even more world-class universities and colleges today.
As we celebrate the 850th anniversary of Glasgow, I wonder whether we have the strategic savvy to organise a free mug for the weans in 2025? Probably not.
The heady days of the old Strathclyde Region – named after the ancient kingdom with its centre at Govan’s Doomster Hill by the River Clyde – are long gone.
The regional council was abolished by the Tories in 1996 and replaced with 12 unitary councils because it was too powerful, representing over half of Scotland’s population. It pioneered radical anti-poverty and infrastructure initiatives.
For me, Scottish devolution has not been kind to our city.
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We’ve seen power, money and jobs centralised at Holyrood. Local government spending has been cut or ring fenced by MSPs and council tax repeatedly frozen for re-election purposes.
We’ve had a renaissance of the pointless quango; if Holyrood was an octopus, our myriad of expensive and faceless public quangos would be its tentacles.
Managerial politics may be great for elected managers but few people else.
Glasgow needs a new Scottish Enlightenment and strategic leadership.
English city regions have prospered in recent years from the ten directly elected Metro Mayors. One only has to look to Greater Manchester or Greater Liverpool to see that.
A Strathclyde or Greater Glasgow metro mayor should have the power to raise funds and investment for strategic infrastructure projects. In essence, we need to devolve power from the devolved Scottish Government and Parliament.
We need a fully integrated transport system with capped daily charges. The ability to travel across Greater Glasgow for a modest fee would be life changing for many people.
We need a rail link to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan and a rail track onto Glasgow airport.
Looking to the future, Glasgow needs to reinvigorate its city centre and local communities. That means making the town centre attractive for shops and large retailers. And investing in local community assets.
If you don’t have attractive and high quality shopping centres – which we used to have – who will want to come into the centre? What attracts your tourism trade if you don’t have a vibrant city centre? And how can you have a successful night time economy without sufficient tourism?
Fundamentally, Glasgow needs metropolitan status in Scotland. It’s been a travesty that we’ve not had special funding to recognise the unique demands on our public services whether in terms of homelessness, housing, education and social work.
The city is rightly a great magnet for people across Scotland and the UK looking for a place to live and work.
A metro mayor could enunciate these challenges and make the political case for metropolitan status and funding
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