Glasgow’s last Conservative?

Dear readers — how was your weekend? Ours was pretty good, mostly thanks to the publication of Francisco Garcia’s fantastic profile of four descendants of Scottish fighters in the Spanish Civil War. 

On X, Gareth Roberts deemed the feature “a moving account of a fine generation, who went far from home to fight a war of conviction”, while interviewee Willy Maley called it a “wonderful piece”. We were personally struck by the sensitive exploration of how political commitments could intervene with personal ones; as Jennie Renton, the daughter of a Communist Party organiser, notes: “What I secretly yearned for was a dad who was at home more, who spent time with me, who had a job that paid”. 

Other big news from the weekend: we’re hiring! The Bell is looking for a news reporter, to be based in Glasgow. Salary is £25k to £30k, depending on experience, and it's a hybrid role, with two days a week spent in our office. More details here. 

We can only hire a new local journalist because of the support we’ve already garnered from Glasgow. The Bell is just starting out; we’ve got big aspirations and are still tailoring our work to what Glasgow wants, and needs. Expect to see more fruits of this soon. To help fund us further and access more long-form quality journalism about your city, you can join us as a paying member from just under £8 a month. 

Now, onto your Monday briefing. 

Your Bell briefing

🚗 Curb botherers beware — Glasgow’s pavement parking ban is set to come into force on 29 January. Fines of £100 will be given to those who get caught parking their vehicle on a pavement, with a 50% reduction if paid within 14 days. As well as pavement parking, there’s new controls on double parking and parking at dropped kerbs. The measures are intended to improve safety and mobility for pedestrians, particularly those with physical disabilities, or pram users. 

🏠 The Carbuncle Awards — which crown Scotland’s ugliest eyesore — are back, and Sauchiehall Street is one of the frontrunners, according to The Times. The awards, administered by architecture journal Urban Realm, ended in 2017 after controversy over “demonising” working-class communities in post-industrial turmoil. But (in quite a telling sign of the times) Urban Realm editor John Glenday has announced 2025 is a ripe moment for their return. “The need for the awards has only increased as we grapple with empty high streets, offices and the zero-carbon agenda,” he said, adding that critics misunderstood their purpose. The awards, he claimed, issued a “clarion call that could cut through decades of managed decline [and] awaken underperforming places from their slumber”. 

🧥 Have old but perfectly wearable jackets cluttering up your cupboards? Finnieston Clothing have a new ‘Jacket for Jacket’ partnership going with Homeless Project Scotland: customers buying a new jacket will get 20% off their purchase if they donate a coat at the same time. Colin McInnes, CEO of Homeless Project Scotland praised the brand in a comment to Glasgow Live, but also highlighted his disappointment that “businesses are having to step in to help people who should be supported by our government at both a local and national level.”

Big story: Glasgow’s last Conservative? 

Topline: Thomas Kerr, one of two remaining Conservatives serving on Glasgow City Council, has defected to Reform UK. Kerr, who represents the East End Shettleston constituency, will be Reform’s first foot in the door at the local authority. He brings Reform's total of councillors in Scotland to five, all of whom are defectors (in addition, Councillor John Cox in Aberdeenshire has joined the party but declared he will sit as an independent). Expect that number to grow; Reform is climbing in the national polls and local Glasgow by-election results have seen them recently repeatedly beat out the Greens for third place.

But who’s left behind in Glasgow? The mantle of the last Conservative councillor in Glasgow now falls to John Daly. He represents Bailleston, which is next door to Shettleston. Daly and Kerr have a close working relationship — barely two weeks ago, Daly posted on Facebook that the pair were “starting 2025 off with a strategy chat [...] on how we can best represent the people of Glasgow”. Daly is fairly new to frontline politics; he was elected in 2022 after an unsuccessful bid for office a year earlier.

What’s his background? Daly doesn’t actually live in Bailleston, but instead resides a “two minute drive away”, by his metric. But he’s an East End man, having been born and raised in Dennistoun. His pre-politics career was as a teacher, but before the pandemic hit he took early retirement. Since his election, Daly has become disaffected with the way the council operates, writing in The Glasgow Times last year that his hope of to “work collegiately with councillors across the political divide, to find common cause in the improvement of our city” has “proven to be spectacularly naive”. 

• In the same comment piece, Daly also claimed he’d spoken to council officers who had experience working outside of the city council and that they are surprised by how “‘tribal’ and politicised the city’s administration is, often at the expense of effective governance”. 

How long will he be the last Conservative on Glasgow Council? Potentially a matter of days — there’s whispers Daly might defect to Reform too (if he can hold off until this newsletter is out, we’d really appreciate it). When asked by a Herald reporter on Friday if he was going to follow his former colleague, Daly simply said he’d: "be interested in knowing where you heard that” and followed up with “I understand”, when the journalist repeated the question. Which is categorically not a denial. 

• The Herald also reports that former Labour councillor Audrey Dempsey — who quit the party after being suspended for suggesting racist attacks against white pupils and teachers were increasing in Glasgow’s schools — might join Reform too. 

What’s the reaction been? Conservatives are in a tailspin, obviously. All communications are being directed to the national office in Edinburgh, with Russell Findlay, leader of the Holyrood opposition (though for how much longer will that be the Tories?) providing comment on the potential of more defections. Which was simply: “I can only control what’s in my gift to do. I can’t anticipate what other people may or may not decide to do.”

• Back in Glasgow, both the SNP and Greens are calling for a Shettleston by-election. In a statement, the Green group said “All Reform are offering is snake oil,” while an SNP group spokesperson asserted that: "The voters in Shettleston did not vote for Nigel Farage's party and it is only right Thomas Kerr resigns so they can have their say in a by-election." 
• In the meantime, Kerr was removed, mid-meeting, from several committees he served on after his defection was announced. 

Bottom-line: Democratically, a by-election is the fair option. But given the latest polls put Reform and the Conservatives on equal pegging when it comes to Holyrood, it is very likely that the voters in Shettleston could indeed have their say — and return Thomas Kerr to the council, as Reform’s first legitimately elected representative in Glasgow. 

Spot of the week: Glasgow Central Station

While there’s much to be gained from seeking out the new, there’s equal pleasure to be gleaned in seeing the familiar with fresh eyes and a renewed sense of appreciation. With that thought in mind, there is nowhere else in Glasgow as capacious, bright and breathtaking as Central Station. Its sleek white marble floors, precise angular ironwork, and concourse roof — all 48,000 glass panes of it — are perfectly poised and measured to perfection. Quite enough to lighten the load of the weariest of travellers. Next time you’re passing through, stop under the clock to watch the denizens fly by, and dream up a few stories about their onward journeys while you do. — Robbie.   

Media picks

Caledonian Twin Peaks: With the death of the utterly singular director David Lynch last week, many were reminded of this 1991 April Fool’s prank, when Reporting Scotland revealed Lynch was hatching a plan to relocate Twin Peaks to Scotland. The Buchanan Highland Hotel in Drymen was said to be in the frame, as “Scotland’s answer to One Eyed Jacks,” according to a young, straight-faced Jackie Bird. Nearby Loch Lomond? The setting for a grisly murder. “There are quite a lot of parallels with Twin Peaks and Scottish literature, which has always had a magical, unexplained, mysterious element in it,” says Robbie Coltrane cheekily, leaning on his vintage car. 

Matched with a predator: BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team have unravelled the sinister crimes of the prolific romance fraudster Christopher Harkins, described as a “sexually and violently abusive” man. He scammed over £200,000 out of nine victims, using apps like Tinder to attract successful, career-driven women, largely around Glasgow and the central belt. Women who had tried to report him between 2012 and 2019 say they felt “dismissed” when they approached Police Scotland. This all raises the question of how Harkins was able to evade justice for almost a decade. 

I burn, but I am not consumed: At Celtic Connections’ opening concert eight years ago, Karine Polwart took to the stage of the Royal Concert Hall with a song she’d composed especially for the event. It told the story of a young woman called Mary Anne MacLeod from Tongue on the Isle of Lewis. “The marbled metamorphic rock of Lewis is two thirds the age of Earth, amongst the oldest on our planet,” Polwart told an enraptured audience. “I wonder what it might say about the inauguration tomorrow in Washington, DC, of the 45th president of the United States of America, Mary Anne MacLeod’s middle son Donald?” The song, which takes its title from the MacLeod clan motto, is a powerful rebuke to the politics of hate, told from the perspective of geological deep time. So much has changed since then, and yet so little … 

Things to do

Tuesday

Join GIOdynamics, a session of improvised music run by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, at the Glad Cafe. Musicians will break into small groups for short improvisations of 5 minutes or so. Free, from 7:30pm. Info here.

Wednesday

Celtic Connections ‘In the Tradition’ brings together artists breathing new life into traditional music, with director Anna Massie and the house band. 7:30pm at the Royal Concert Hall. Tickets from £13.82 plus booking. 

Thursday

Learn all about the history and recent conservation of Glasgow’s oldest residential building, the Provand’s Lordship. 7:30pm at the Saint Andrews West Parish Church. Tickets £6. 

Friday 

Help survey the bird life at Tramway’s Hidden Gardens for the Big Garden birdwatch, with RSPB Glasgow and Glasgow Seed Library. 10am. Free; registration required for the free lunch and afternoon activity. Info here.

Saturday

Burns events abound across the city this weekend, including a ceilidh at Sloan’s (£55 for a dram on arrival, a three course traditional Burns supper, ceilidh band and piper), as well as a wee ceilidh for families during the day (£8 per person). Info here. The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall is also running a Burns celebration, with comedy, whisky and music. Funds go towards the maintenance of the historic building. Tickets from £14 plus booking fee.