Holyrood elections: party pledges and seats to watch

Dear readers, we hope you all enjoyed some spring sunshine over the weekend. The Bell boys enjoyed an after work beer outside the Clutha on Friday, the evening warmth welcomed after all the squalls. Calum checked out the new Madhras Dosa on Clarendon Street afterwards. His verdict: as good as the OG, go check it oot.  

Robbie embarked on a pastry pilgrimage to South Queensferry, where Dune bakery recently made it into Felicity Cloake’s top spots in the UK. The pain au chocolat, he is pleased to inform you, is up there with Scotland’s best. Plus, with views over the Firth, it certainly beats Cottonrake’s new vantage over Barclays Campus. He managed a bracing dip in the sea, and may have treated himself to a cold pint and some chips thereafter. 

Today, we’re bringing you a bit of a snapshot explainer of the party manifestos and a few things to watch out for at the elections, which are only 17 days’ away. 

Election round up

Party Manifestos

At this stage in the election campaign, all the parties have revealed their policies and promises they’d take to Holyrood if elected on 7 May. Below, we present a few headline pledges to you, along with a link to the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ analysis of the manifestos. The IFS assesses how economically literate and realistic the policies are. 

SNP: ‘On Scotland’s Side’

• “Take steps towards” creating an Urban Development Company in Glasgow, plus £10m in recovery funds for the Union Corner fire
• Cost of living support via expanded childcare and child benefits, bus fares capped at £2 per trip, and price caps on selected groceries. Plus, a pilot to pay artists a minimum income.
• Increased walk-in GP clinics and reduced NHS waiting times, £10 billion in capital spending (new facilities, equipment etc.)
• Implement a mansion tax, and private jet tax, no income tax increase
• Fresh independence referendum if elected with majority

IFS verdict: ‘A manifesto pledging a bigger welfare state with or without independence, but which fails to properly confront the fiscal implications of its plans’

Scottish Labour: ‘Scotland Needs Change’

• Deliver Glasgow Airport rail link
• Cut NHS wait times, end 8.00am rush, and create a mental health emergency service
• Cut a third of ‘quangos’, £350m fund to fix potholes, build 125,000 new houses
• Reduce tax for first-time house buyers and increase value tax-free childcare to £3,000, no income tax rises

IFS verdict: ‘A focus on improving existing services rather than new entitlements or tax cuts’

Scottish Greens: ‘Let’s demand better’

• Free bus travel for everybody, expand funded childcare, net zero by 2045, One GP per 1000 people
• Tax wealth, business rates surcharge for polluting industries, businesses which cause ‘social harm’ such as gambling, and make it too expensive for absentee landlords to hold onto properties
• Pro-independence but without proposals for fresh referendum

IFS verdict: ‘A manifesto with big tax and bigger spending increases — and a mixed bag of tax reforms’

Reform UK: ‘Manifesto for Scotland 2026’

• End Glasgow’s status as dispersal city for people granted asylum and restore the ‘local connection’ requirement for those registering for homelessness support
• Big cuts to income tax, initially matching UK rates then reducing over five years to 3p below current UK tax bands
• Abolish ULEZ and end the ‘war on the motor car’, support Clyde Metro plan, shutdown quangos

IFS verdict: ‘A plan bold in ambition, but lacking in fiscal credibility’

Scottish Conservatives: ‘Get Scotland Working’

• Re-establish the ‘local connection’ requirement when registering for homelessness support and restore priority to pregnant women and vulnerable groups, scrap free bus travel for asylum seekers
• Create more grant-aided schools, such as Jordanhill
• Create a business-led body to find £500 million in government savings, reducing quangos by a quarter
• Raise personal allowance of income tax, extended childcare support, GP appointments within 48 hours

IFS verdict: ‘A plan for big tax cuts that is costed on paper, but which may not survive contact with reality’

Scottish Liberal Democrats: ‘Change with Fairness at its Heart’

• Council tax reform, air departure and private jet taxes
• Boost home insulation and use Scottish renewable energy to subsidise energy bills
• 900 extra NHS clinical staff in GP practices, establish walk-in mental health services
• Allow asylum seekers to work if they’ve been here for longer than three months
• Change Holyrood voting system to a ‘single transferable vote system’ (a form of proportional representation)

BBC analysis (IFS haven’t published a verdict)

Seats to watch: 

The BBC’s Phil Sim has a write-up of the nine seats that could decide the Scottish election, which we’d recommend reading. There are several in the Greater Glasgow area which could be crucial. A quick rundown: 

Rutherglen and Cambuslang

A key battleground where Scottish Labour’s Monica Lennon is gunning to take the seat from the SNP, who have a majority of only 13%. She’s pitted against former children’s minister Clare Haughey. The Scottish Conservatives have picked former deputy leader, Annie Wells (who can be seen here absolutely sopping wet  while on the campaign trail). Labour are hopeful, pointing to the 2023 by-election in which Michael Shanks won with a large swing of 20.4%.

Kelvin and Maryhill

A key battleground for the Scottish Greens, where they hope rising political star Iris Duane will triumph over the SNP’s incumbent, Bob Doris, in the former Maryhill and Springburn seat. Boundary changes mean the area now brings in larger parts of north Glasgow. Given some vocal opposition to Doris and the strength of anti-immigrant sentiment reflected by the Great Flag Wars of 2025, Reform UK will also be looking to boost their vote, though largely in the hopes of gaining seats in the regional list. While it’s possible that Reform fail to gain a single constituency seat, latest MRP polling from More In Common shows they could win 20 seats via the regional list — making them the official opposition party at Holyrood. 

Southside 

The departure of Nicola Sturgeon from Holyrood may not have opened up the field entirely in her old constituency (the SNP are standing continuity candidate and minister for equality Kaukab Stewart), but it’s certainly giving a lot of room for other parties to play for a chance of winning. The Greens’ Holly Bruce has the wind in her sails, and the party thinks she may be able to take the seat. It would be no small feat; Sturgeon comfortably beat Labour’s Sarwar in 2021 with a majority of over 9,000 and a 60.2% vote share. The Mohammed Ameen fraud charge and last minute candidate change for Scottish Labour only serves to bolster the SNP and the Greens — but can another pro-independence party convince legions of SNP voters to switch their votes? Stewart previously won the Kelvin seat by 5,458 votes, defeating the Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie. 

Eastwood 

Can the former Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw hold off a challenge from the SNP's Kirsten Oswald, a former local MP? It’s a crucial question, which could also decide the fate of current Conservative leader Russell Findlay. Through a quirk of the voting system, if Carlaw holds it may mean the party fails to win a regional list seat in the area, which would knock Findlay out of parliament. 

Strathkelvin and Bearsden 

The More in Common polling predicts this seat may go to the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems have chosen Adam Harley, a RADA-trained actor with a few credits to his name. But the BBC’s Sim describes this as a “stretch goal”; the Lib Dems would need a 16-point swing to upset the SNP, having finished in fourth place at the last Holyrood election. 

Glasgow in Brief

🎶 With Paisley Alive festival cancelled over the weekend after poor ticket sales and rising infrastructure and production costs, it’s another blow to Scotland’s independent music festival scene. The event — headlined by Rag 'N' Bone Man, Emeli Sandé and Sister Sledge — was due to take place in Barshaw Park in July and attract an expected 10,000 people. Last month, Kelburn jazz weekend was also cancelled after fewer than 500 tickets sales. The Reeling, which took place in Rouken Glen for the past three years, is moving to Ingliston this year to form part of the Royal Highland Show. We also reported on the last minute cancellation of In the City last year. Wasteland Festival also failed to get off the ground last year. It paints a picture of a music festival scene dominated by big players such as DF Concerts, where independents — even those able to pull together strong lineups — fail to amass enough sales to even mount the costs of their inaugural year. In the past, such festivals would often have failed to turn a profit in the first years, but would hope by increasing capacity in the following they would eventually begin to break even or become profitable. Today, even that goal seems increasingly out of reach. 

🥣 One of the weirder Glasgow stories we’ve seen this year — and that’s saying something — is a Sunday Times (hit?) piece on sports broadcaster Kheredine Idessane allegedly stealing soup from the BBC staff canteen in Pacific Quay. “Staff at the canteen raised concerns that food appeared to have been taken on a number of occasions,” an insider told the Times. The story is in keeping with right-leaning outlets’ fetish for anti-BBC gossip. Idessane is undergoing a misconduct investigation with the Beeb as a result of the claims.

Robbie and Calum have both frequented the top floor canteen for years. Based on their experience, The Times’ piece strikes them as something of a non-story. Regularly, till staff would be AWOL throughout the day. Who knows how many people have simply walked out without paying in these circumstances. Besides, the pair may even have, on occasion, paid for one less sausage than made it into their baps (shoutout for correct guesses). We expect a full investigation into the banger burglars to be conducted imminently. 

Stories you might have missed 

✝️ Running champion died on Cape Wrath trail weeks before wedding | BBC News

🛩️ Gazan Student’s Journey to Glasgow may not be Possible, Despite Unconditional Offer | Glasgow Guardian

⛪ Hillhead Baptist Church recommended for demolition despite 332 objections | The Herald 

👮 Murder probe launched after woman, 82, found dead on Glasgow street | BBC News 

📷 Glasgow student facing charges in US for ‘illegally’ photographing army airplanes | Glasgow Times

🪧 Staff at Glasgow, GSA, and Strathclyde to strike on Friday | Glasgow Times

Read/listen/watch: The Easterhouse man who might go to the basketball hall of fame

Alex McKechnie is from Easterhouse. As a young man, he dreamed of playing for Rangers until a car crash injured his father, sparking his interest in physiotherapy. After qualifying in Leeds, he moved to British Columbia in Canada in 1974 to run his own physio clinic. When word spread of his pioneering methods and miraculous work with athletes who’d suffered what were conventionally thought to be career-ending injuries, the National Basketball Association came knocking. 

What followed was an illustrious stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, during which he won five championships as a key member of their medical team. Famously, he rehabilitated Lakers superstar (and seven foot man mountain) Shaquille O’Neal, and was able to, for the most part, keep him and the late Kobe Bryant healthy and dominant in the early 2000s. He won a sixth ‘ring’ with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, and remains in high demand for elite athletes everywhere as the godfather of understanding the connection between core strength, stability, and ligament injuries.

Catch up and coming up:

• In one of our favourite pieces from 2026, Alice Austin explored the strange case of DJ Kieran Wells, a man from the Central Belt who’s been attempting to scam vulnerable young DJs for years. Or has he? As Alice found out, things aren’t quite as they seem in Wells’ world. Are the dozens of events that he books DJs for, only to request cash and disappear, a scam, or actually failed attempts to be part of a scene he failed to crack into himself? The story has since been picked up by Resident Advisor.

Spinning lies: the man deceiving Glasgow’s DJs

The complicated story of a man, a ‘scam’ and an unfulfilled dream

The BellAlice Austin

• On Saturday, veteran documentary maker, writer, and Hoops fan Liam O’Hare dissected the drawn-out civil war at Celtic between the fans and the board. From merch boycotts to AGM walkouts, dozens of titles in the last few years aren’t enough to placate a fanbase feeling ever more distant from their club. Liam, in his Bell debut, gives us the inside track. 

From Editor's inbox:

There’s been some good discussion of Alice’s DJ ‘scammer’ piece on the Instagram Reel she made about it.

“Interesting character. It’s notable how candid he was with you. I kinda get that the attention would probably be enough motivation for a certain type of person to repeatedly do this. Do you believe him when he says he didn’t take any money off anyone? I find that implausible.” —@pennythetricollie 

To this, one of the DJs who’s had run ins with Kieran Wells and his fake events said:

“only reason he didn’t take any money off of anyone is because we caught on before anyone actually sent him any, asked me and a few others to send him £300 for a venue and £50 for a deposit, he was quite willing to take the money if it was sent”

Re:view: Saffron by Paradise, 411 Great Western Road

I walked into this Persian stalwart on my way to report another story at 5.29pm, a classic early dining time. I was their first customer, and they sat me at a window seat with a menu that read: “In Iran eating food on your own is simply unthinkable”. Ego wounded, I sat stoically as the place started to fill up surprisingly quickly for a Tuesday evening — so I wasn’t really alone. I ordered the charred balal (char-grilled corn on the cob), served with lemon and spiced butter. But the big challenge was what to choose for the mains. 

I resisted the urge to order the saffron chicken solely to compare it to my own. Instead, I took the hit and picked a trio of stews to sample a wider range from the kitchen. Two lamb and a green bean number. Best was the gheimeh bademjan, a lamb stew in a tangy tomato sauce with yellow split peas. This was peak Persian cuisine: stacks of cinnamon, the flavours deep and layered, preserved lemon, tomato, lamb, earthy split peas. The green beans were also good, served in a tomato and dill sauce. But I couldn’t banish the thought that they tasted like the tinned green beans in Lidl available during ‘Greek week’. Thankfully, I love Lidl. The ghormeh sabzi, lamb cubes with kidney beans and green herbs, didn’t quite deliver enough flavour. Overall though, it was khoshamzeh — a delicious offering of Persia’s colourful cuisine. —Calum

Glasgow Calendar:

• Nubiyan Twist @ Charlie’s Loft, Milngavie | Saturday 25 April, 8pm | from £24.54
• Compass Gallery Spring Show @ 178 West Regent Street | throughout April | free
• Let Glasgow Flourish — the coat of arms exhibition @ Maryhill Burgh Halls | until Wednesday afternoon | free
• Ayanna Witter, Fergus McCreadie, BBC SSO @ SWG3 | Wednesday 22 April, 7.30pm | from £22.50

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