by Councillor Paul Carey

During the first year of the minority administration, they have increased childcare costs by 100 per cent and in Glasgow they have started to charge kids and the elderly for swimming.

At the same time you have the first minister meeting Jamie Oliver about obesity problems in Scotland. In some cases with regards to the elderly, swimming might be the only social contact they have and the knock-on effect by doubling childcare costs is that people are going to struggle.

In some cases people are going to go without the basics in order to meet the childcare costs and some people will just stop working because they cannot afford these costs.

At the same time, the depute leader of the council has set up a group of people to discuss art, which will cost approximately £750,000 - employing around 20 artists - from Glasgow Life’s budget. How can he justify that when the board he chairs charges kids and pensioners for swimming and increases parking charges at the main tourist attractions?

On a separate note, he voted to double the childcare costs and charge people for on-street parking on a Sunday.

The impact on these decisions is already being felt across the city. There is a lot of anger out there. The SNP did not make it clear in their manifesto they were going to do this - indeed, they promised the community £1million every year; that did not happen. What we see is a minority administration being propped up by the Green Party and running this city as if it was a small town, not the biggest city in Scotland.

The decisions they are making are hurting Glasgow. I am all for working together with anyone for the benefit of my community and my city, but it seems that this minority administration is out of touch with the people of this city. Indeed, they are out of touch with the first minister. One can only wonder if it suits this minority administration for Glasgow to fail so they can promote their case for Indy Ref 2.

I sincerely hope that is not the case because if Glasgow fails, then the repercussions throughout the west of Scotland will be felt.