Epstein crisis dashes Scottish Labour’s Holyrood hopes

Glasgow in Brief

🥀 Scottish Labour have been notably quiet as turmoil engulfs Keir Starmer’s government at Westminster — once again casting doubt on Anas Sarwar’s chances for success at the Holyrood elections later this year. Indeed, Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, has been accused of “going into hiding” and urged by figures within his own party to call for Starmer to quit. Sarwar backed Peter Mandelson for the US ambassador role and in April 2025 described him as an “old friend”. He has since backtracked, saying he was “utterly disgusted and furious” by the scandal. Asked if Starmer should resign, Sarwar dodged the question. Little wonder. 

In recent weeks Sawar has preferred to talk about literally anything else, including: bringing the NFL to Scotland; trans prisoners; a child social media ban and the release of the “Salmond files”. On the issue of the Epstein files, Scottish Labour has been fairly tight-lipped, even after Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigned over the weekend. (One wonders if the good folk of Lanark are now set to see a lot more of McSweeney, where he lives with his wife Imogen Walker, MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley, in a palatial country house.) 

One Scottish Labour figure who has spoken up on McSweeney’s resignation is MP for Glasgow South, Gordon McKee. Yesterday he tweeted his support for McSweeney’s “extraordinary ability” despite making a mistake in appointing Peter Mandelson. “Morgan started as a receptionist, and rose up to almost single handedly mastermind our return from the wilderness to a Labour Government,” McKee wrote. He’s also hit out at Glasgow City Council and council leader Susan Aitken over the parking control zone for parts of the Southside, which he describes as a “disaster”. Clearly, McKee isn’t scared to speak up, and is still riding on a bit of a social media wave since going viral for his biscuit GDP debt explainer video at the end of last year.

🌬️ A political storm is brewing at the University of Glasgow. In January, the General Medical Council (GMC) heard a fitness to practice case against Glasgow rector and plastic surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah. The case related to comments he made in an article and social media posts which were alleged to be anti-semitic and in support of Hamas. But, the tribunal which considered his case threw out the charges, and he was cleared. However, the Daily Record reports that Abu-Sittah reacted with “fury” on hearing that the GMC will appeal the tribunal’s decision, claiming that the council has been “weaponised as a tool of political repression in the service of Israel’s genocidal project”. Strong words.

Dr Abu-Sittah studied at Glasgow before being elected as rector in 2024. In 2018, he penned an article in which he said Palestinians “have no weapon left but revolutionary violence”. The tribunal concluded that, when taken in the context of the entire article, they could find no evidence of anti-semitism or support for terrorism, and that the article was more a “critique of the political elite” in Palestine. The original complaint against Dr Abu-Sittah was submitted by UK Lawyers for Israel in 2023. The Bell has asked the University of Glasgow whether it supports Dr Abu-Sittah in his defense of the legal cases. A spokesperson for the university said that the “Rector is not a member of staff or member of the University’s senior management group, and in no way speaks on behalf of the University”.

🎨 In writing so much about the CCA’s demise, one can easily feel a bit gloomy. Thankfully, Thursday’s piece about the arts groups whose shows were cancelled at the CCA allowed for a bit of sunshine to pierce through the dark rain clouds. Readers representing the Mary Hill Burgh Halls Trust and West College Scotland got in touch to offer support to event organisers looking for alternative venues. The Bell duly made the introductions. Also, on Friday, we received the feel-good news that The Telling’s upcoming show ‘Purcell, the Musical’ has found a new home for its Glasgow stop off in April. The English musical theatre company’s entire funding for the tour was potentially at stake had they not been able to secure a new Glasgow venue. 

Meanwhile, other groups to be adversely impacted by the shock closure are the cultural tenants. Evie Glen, whose name you may recognise from her student newspaper beef article, detailed in The National how Daisy Mulholland of the Woom Room and Ishan of Slow Chai, both recent tenants at 350 Sauchiehall Street, had stock locked inside, a grand total of two emails from CCA leadership, and have been left with no information or point of contact for retrieving their belongings. As ever, we are continuing to think about how we can best bring readers new information on the CCA’s closure. 

Thank you to all who have gotten in touch, including the reader who had asked whether their ticket for a Glasgow International Comedy Festival gig at the CCA was still valid and whether the show would go ahead. Well, the festival confirmed to us this morning that all GIFC gigs will be hosted at an alternative venue (TBC) and that tickets would automatically transfer over. Now that’s what we call public service journalism. 

 🇬🇧 A picture — or in this case a YouTube video — is worth a thousand words. If 2026 is the year of AI slop and anti-immigrant hysteria, then the music video ‘Ye Canny Dae That In Glasgow’ sums it up well. “In this satirical anthem, the staunch British Unionist character Union Jock gives his unfiltered take on what happens when migrants arrive in Glasgow,” so goes the description from We Are True Patriots. Previous music videos include ‘You Can Shove Your Brit Card Up Your Arse, ‘The Ballad of Rash Heed Sair Baws The Illegal Migrant’ and ‘Wan-Keir Ahoy! The Wankerman Sea Shanty’.

The YouTube channel is a phantasmagorical slopiverse fever dream of anti-migrant messaging, run by a Glasgow man called Tony, an ex-army vet according to his bio. “I write music, some comedy, parodies, some serious stuff,” he told us over the phone this morning. “A lot of it is political,” he explained euphemistically. “It’s not anti-migrant, it’s anti-illegal undocumented migrant,” he said when pressed further. Tony (who declined to give his second name) starts off by writing a poem — such as the one about a staunch Scot hospitalising a new arrival to Glasgow — then “converts” it with the use of AI. “I’m not a musician, but the new technology allows me to put the lyrics I write to music,” he explains. Terrifyingly, Tony’s WATP channel has clocked up close to 14m views.

Stories you might have missed:

⛪ Former Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman dies aged 72 | BBC News  

🚛 30,000 tonnes of land removed to extinguish seven-month old underground fire | STV

🛩️ Glasgow holiday firm Simply Florida Travel goes bust with all trips cancelled | Glasgow Times 

🚗 My car was stolen. Here are six important things I learned | BBC News 

😀 Susan Aitken says things are looking up for Glasgow. She would though | Glasgow Times 

⚓ Advanced French warship arrives in Glasgow | UK Defence Journal

🥷 Old Firm ultras 'graffiti war' on Glasgow motorways putting road users at 'serious risk' | Glasgow Live

📉 Castle tycoon's company goes bust over unpaid tax bill despite splashing fortunes on football deals | Daily Record

Greetings from Bell HQ. Thanks for reading today's briefing which was put together, as always, by us, Calum and Robbie. We care about what goes on in Glasgow, and about how we tell that story. This means we need time to research, go visit locations, interview key characters, and (you'd be amazed how much) edit each others' work.

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Read/listen/watch:

• "A lot of people felt ownership over my mum - my grief didn't feel my own"  | Ashley Storrie, BBC News 
• Graeme Macrae Burnet: Glasgow was a young writer’s idea of heaven | The Times, £
• Photos and updates of Govanhill Baths, 25 years after first protestors occupied the building | Glasgow Live

Catch up and coming up:

• On Saturday, Robbie took on the surprisingly controversial topic of Gaelic medium education. Not-so-easy to answer questions included: can a language survive without a culture? Who should get to learn Gaelic? Has Gaelic’s attempted-revival in Glasgow been a success? That last one is easy, at least.

Gaelic’s popularity in Glasgow is a lifeline — but has it come at a cost?

A new generation of Glasgow Gaels have revived Scotland’s traditional tongue. Some worry about cultural erasure

The BellRobbie Armstrong

• Last week we looked at how the CCA’s closure impacted arts organisations who had events booked at the CCA. The response, as mentioned above, was heartwarming, even though the immediate futures of some of the groups we profiled looks bleak. Have a read. Last week, we asked our social media followers what they think should happen at the building formerly housing the CCA. The majority believed it should stay as a community-led arts venue. This was echoed in our email inbox by reader Zoë Bestel, a musician who had played at and supported the CCA for a long time: There’s “a myriad of potential in a prime area — something that should stay belonging to the community that made it thrive, and not the situation that befell its downfall. My heart breaks for what this space might become when there could still be a wonderful collection and connection of people that held space for art there. Listened, learned, danced, felt, and cultivated.”

POTW:

This week’s picture of the week features a lolling sunbather atop a Renfield Street building, kindly sent in by Mark Ynys-Mon.

Re:view: Amulet, 38 Mansfield Street

In the space of half a year, this bright blue coffee shop overlooking Mansfield Park has fast gained a reputation as one of the city’s top spots for coffee. The interior is tasteful, with a DIY Berlin feel to it, but the set up is futuristic. Coffee comes from roasters all over the world, and there’s an elaborate menu of guest coffees on rotation. I had a tropical espresso from India when I was in, which did some lovely things to my tastebuds. They brew each coffee meticulously, specialising in espresso and “hand brew” (the menu is a bit ruder than that), serving more of these than flat whites. Obviously, this is a place aimed squarely at the nerds and the gear heads, not the matcha latte brigade or the milk-and-two-sugars crowd (no shade to either).  Punchy flavours, punchy prices, but with this level of craft and dedication, I’m very glad Amulet exists.—Robbie

Glasgow Calendar: Trad session at the Glad

Glad Café bar has a trad session in the bar tonight, hosted by Fran and Kai, listeners and musicians welcome, 8–10:30pm. If you’re busy tonight, the Ben Nevis also runs folk sessions on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, 8–11pm. 

Another date for your diary:

• Galentines Drag Bingo in Milngavie, Saturday 14, tickets from £6.13.

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