The Battle of Langside’s koi

Dear readers, we hope you enjoyed the summer solstice. We trust you were dancing in bacchanalian revelry as the sun aligned through a ring of megalithic stones. Making her pagan ancestors proud, Beth spent the weekend watching the fitba and on a family outing to Saint Judes bar on Bath Street — verdict: “disappointing”. Calum picnicked in the Botanics and got some well deserved rest as he counts down to payday. Robbie was a happy camper, hiker and swimmer near Callander. Plus ça change. 

This morning, we bid adieu to Starmer, the UK’s 6th Prime Minister in ten years. Tomorrow, as it happens, marks a decade since we Brexited; the day after which David Cameron stood on the steps of Downing Street to tell us all he was packing it all in, whistling jovially as he closed the door to number ten. Starmer was meant to signal an end to the roiling, internecine chaos that plagued the latter phase of 14 years of Tory rule. Alas, Starmer lasted fewer than two whole years in office, despite a 174 seat majority. 

Anyway, that’s enough national politics for now, onto your briefing.

Glasgow in Brief

👓 An unexpected front has opened in the battle over the council’s “indefinite” closure of the Queen’s Park Glasshouses after their long-term tenant, the Scottish Rural College (SRUC), didn’t renew their lease. We reported previously on the lonely carp club; the long-lived fish are the only animals remaining in the glasshouses, and they’re looking for a new pond. Now, some protesters want the fish to stay put. On Sunday, a group of protesters entered the glasshouses, seemingly to protect the fish. “Once the fish are gone… the rest of the closure of the glasshouse is quite easy,” said local resident David Lees to the local Instagram news page Traffic Cone Media. “Some people have been charged with breaking and entering into a public park”, he claimed. (The Bell hasn’t been able to confirm if this is true despite contacting Police Scotland). “We came this morning to make sure the fish weren’t removed,” Lees added. 

The council position on the glasshouses hasn’t been entirely clear. At the start of June, it was reported that the glasshouses were to close permanently from August. Since then, they’ve been promising to find “alternative uses” so the facility can stay open to the public. The Bell has asked elected members of the council what these uses might be, and we haven’t heard back. Someone without years of witnessing Glasgow’s buildings fall further into disrepair might take the council at face value. Not the protesters in Queen’s Park — they fear the iron and glass doors closing for good. Labour councillor Dr Soryia Siddique said during a council administration committee meeting that much of the uproar stems from the local community feeling that they are not being listened to. She said that “one of the things that comes up over and over again is the lack of their voice in the decision making process”. 

Responding to Siddique, convener for built heritage Ruairi Kelly promised that local voices would be listened to. The bigger issue, he continued, is the “heritage deficit” — the amount of money needed to bring all historic buildings in Glasgow, public and private, up to standard. Councillor Kelly said this stands at “around £1 billion”. He added that, each year, the funding coming through Historic Environment Scotland funding, National Lottery and council schemes, is “maybe £25 to £30 million”, barely covering 3% of the deficit. The Bell has noticed this directly impacting some of the buildings that have featured in our stories. Take our piece on the sinking Mitchell Library. There, the amount needed to repair issues was £25 million, and no work was being done at the time of reporting. We’ve heard it muttered by senior council figures that Glasgow Life, the arms length charity that manages the Mitchell, can only fund one major renovation project at a time. Right now, that’s the People’s Palace, not the Mitchell, so you can see how the deficit will only increase. 

The parlous state of the city’s coffers, and its particular problem with dilapidated Victorian buildings, does not bode well for the future of the glasshouses. For now, the protesters are carrying on, with a planned demonstration outside the City Chambers this Thursday. 

🔫 Nicola Sturgeon has bagged herself a new role as Deputy Prime Minister… no, this isn’t a dream (or nightmare). Rather, she’s taking on an acting gig in the new Sky series “The Wargame”. The immersive documentary places former high-profile politicians into a fictional war scenario to see how they might respond to a Russian attack. Sturgeon isn’t the only big name, with Micheal Gove — Ex-Tory MP and cabinet jack-of-all-trades turned editor of The Spectator — and Jim Murphy, former Scottish Labour leader turned lobbyist also participating. While some have expressed their disapproval, including Jackie Baillie’s barbed line, “I very much doubt it’s the first time she’s [Nicola Sturgeon] dabbled in fiction”, it appears Sturgeon is beginning to solidify herself in the media, bolstering her bookish credentials. One eager viewer will be Calum, who enjoyed Sky News’ and Tortoise Media’s podcast of the same name, which not only humanised politicians but reflected well the relentlessness of geopolitical decision making.