THESE days those of us who have politics on the brain are pretty much pre-occupied with the Scottish Parliament elections.

But we’ll hardly have finished voting for Holyrood when the referendum on the EU will be upon us.

Should we stay or should we go? Well Glasgow’s Labour councillors answered the question last week when they voted unanimously for remaining in the EU.

Mind you when the actual votes are counted it might well be a very close run thing.

The latest opinion polls are showing ‘leave’ slightly ahead of ‘remain’, with one in five still undecided. So exactly how did we get here now?

One reason might be that you can hardly look out of the window and see things that tell you, “This has come from the EU so the EU is good for you.”

You might call that a variation on the old Monty Python line, ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ That can so easily become, “What has the EU ever done for us?” But the answer is – plenty.

That’s why Labour in Glasgow has voted to stay in.

Put it this way, if you drive on the linked up motorways of the M8/M73/M74 you should really be saying thanks to the EU for the £175m it put towards the costs.

Ever walked or cycled across the Squiggly Bridge? It would never have been built without the £3million the EU put up.

Studying at the new Glasgow College are you? Thanks to the EU for the £80m.

But perhaps one of the programmes that fails the ‘looking out of the window’ test is the massive contribution made by the EU to Glasgow’s job programmes.

Literally thousands upon thousands of Glaswegians, who are now bringing home a wage, could wear a badge on their lapel declaring, ‘sponsored by the EU.’ But being in the EU is about more than just what it can do for our city. It’s about what opportunities it gives our city as well – hundreds of millions of customers for our products, countless prospects to grow our city economy, and create jobs for our people.

However, I must make one thing absolutely clear. My support for staying in the EU isn’t the same as David Cameron’s.

It’s based on the type of Europe I want for the future.

Put it this way, if I were Greek I’d take a lot of persuading to remain with the EU and its troika of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.

Together the three, with a little help from their friends in the German Government, have forced an economic catastrophe, in the name of the ‘euro’ on the people of Greece.

The former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis has laid this out in his new book.It’s about the struggle his Syriza left wing government had with the unelected, unaccountable troika when they tried to put an anti-austerity programme forward to save the people of Greece from further economic disaster.

The troika said ‘No’. They crushed the Greek spring, which as Varoufakis says was a wholesale defeat for a united, humanist, democratic Europe. That’s what I’ll be voting for on June 23 – staying in an EU which becomes an EU of the people.

Not Cameron’s EU of the troika, the bankers and the plutocrats.

AT the end of March the Pakistani flag flew at half mast over our City Chambers.

At the Council meeting that week the Lord Provost made a moving tribute to those who died in the terrible events in Lahore. They perished on Easter Sunday.

One week later Glasgow lost one of its own sons of Lahore – Imran Khand.

He was a long standing friend and Labour Party comrade of mine but that’s not why I want to mark his passing.

Imran was born in Lahore but in truth he was a son of Glasgow because he spent almost every year of his life here.

Imran was one of Glasgow’s most successful entrepreneurs which is enough to justify marking his passing.

But it’s not that I want to pay tribute to. It’s his intrinsic humanity.

Imran’s was always the ear to listen to others’ troubles, the hand extended in friendship, the smile which said, ‘Come, of course I’ll help you, no matter your plight”.

Imran was fond of quoting Kipling’s poem “If”.

That’s fitting for his was, ‘the Earth and everything that’s in it.’ Rest in peace Brother Imran.