This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

Perhaps I should be thankful for Storm Eowyn, it’s certainly blown the litter out of my street. Well, for now anyway.

I was going to work on this column some days ago, but decided to wait until now as I didn’t want to write in anger. Passion is good, but it’s never wise to sound off too strongly when your temper is up.

What needled me was a statement by Glasgow Council leader Susan Aitken in response to calls by the GMB union, which represents refuse workers, for the city to get a clean up ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

Aitken rejected the idea saying: “We clean all the time. We are constantly cleaning the city.”

Now, I don’t know where Aitken lives, but it’s certainly not near me, any of my friends or family, or any part of the city I regularly visit. Glasgow is a pigsty, frankly, and Aitken is gaslighting Glaswegians to suggest otherwise.

Now, evidently, Glasgow council staff are indeed cleaning all the time. It’s not as if we’ve no cleansing workers, and it’s not as if the ones we do have just laze around doing nothing. I’m sure they’re hard-working citizens who deserve a decent wage and a thank you.

But there’s clearly not enough of them and whole areas of Glasgow are being forgotten when it comes to cleanliness.

The reason I........

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