With open eyes
Iain Duncan Smith may not have been markedly successful as Conservative leader.
But I believe he is sincere in his search for solutions to entrenched problems in the most deprived areas of Britain.
Today, the Centre for Social Justice, established by IDS, sets out its vision of contemporary Glasgow.
It depicts a city with a thriving core 鈥 surrounded by layers of angry decay.
Family breakdown, unemployment, drug abuse, systemic youth violence.
I well recall an earlier visit by IDS to Easterhouse when he was trying to establish his credentials as an advocate of social justice.
Surrounded by the customary posse of eager hangers-on, IDS strode through the streets of the Glasgow estate.
Leaning out from a first-floor balcony, two worthies observed him closely, pausing only to share a comradely sip as the posse swept forward. IDS waved in greeting then moved on too.
Pause. Then one worthy queried of his pal: 鈥淚zzat no鈥 that Tory 鈥. ?鈥 Long pause.
Then a brief nod of assent.
Informed of the exchange, IDS grinned and replied: 鈥淎nd they said folk here wouldn鈥檛 know who I was!鈥
I thought then and I think now that this Edinburgh-born Tory is genuinely concerned about the conditions he found in parts of Glasgow.
Concern, of course, is not enough.
Today鈥檚 report offers a series of suggestions 鈥 such as abstinence-based rehab for drugs problems.
The city council has pointed to alternative strategies it has advanced.
Other politicians have pitched in.
However, it might also be argued that change only truly arrives, only truly lasts when it is driven from within the community, when positive local action is magnified by external support.
To be fair, that is now widely acknowledged by the city council and others.
To be fair (twice), it is valid to highlight once more the extent of the deprivation experienced in parts of Scotland.
I'm 
Comments
Tories should be banned from crossing the border...the M25 ring road i mean!
I thought the 大象传媒's Scottish News tonight was confusing in the way it was presented. It talked about Shettleston's drugs and gangs problems and on the same breath seemed to be giving statistics for the whole of Glasgow!
Also, the article about the blood transfusion Hepatitis C contamination just managed to mention at the end of the report that the public enquiry was refused (in 2006) by the lab/lib administration. This tweeking of the presentation would have left some people with the impression that it was the SNP government who had refused the public enquiry. Deliberate? Yes? No?
Hopefully there will be considered debate about this very serious issue rather than the usual knee-jerk reaction of 'He's a Tory, so he must be mad or bad'. You expect this sort of thing from student activists, as rebelling against convention and conservatism with a small 'c' is part of being young, but it's depressing to see how many middle aged Scots think like young people 20 or 30 years their junior.
Political allegiances aside, this rather lazy thinking demonstrates a lack of maturity, as you don't expect a 50-year-old to hold the same views they had when they were 21. The Tories certainly made serious mistakes in the 1980s with their over-zealous pursuit of Thatcherite policies - although it's instructive to note that Tony Blair or Gordon Brown haven't deviated much from that path - however no political party has a monopoly on good ideas or concern for their country's deprived citizens.
The first posting above betrays the mindset that has long retained the West of Scotland as a poverty struck (economic and intellectually) fiefdom of the old Scottish Labour establishment. If I D Smith, whether Tory or not, is willing to put in a sustained effort (and it has been sustained) to keep revisiting the Glasgow East street scene and seek out answers then that is to be welcomed.
But Brian I cannot agree with you that the Glasgow City Council has yet 'got it'. Just ask around the Glasgow voluntary and community sectors about what has happened to them over the past year or so under the guise of 'Community Planning'.
For one thing all their community forums were arbitrarily abolished by the Council without any meaningful discussion with those affected in order to clear the way for the Community Planning Partnership (Glasgow since the old Corporation days always has had a way with 鈥榳holesale area clearances strategies).
The Council and the now independent and wholly politically unaccountable Glasgow Community Partnership organisation is a classic 'from-the- centre' and top-down Stalinist creation. It shows exactly all the symptoms that long and bitter experience in regeneration and community development has demonstrated just do not work. Genuine community engagement and definitely community empowerment are just not on its agenda.
The statistics quoted in this report were not the product of new research at all - why have our news agencies swallowed it? It is the main story on 大象传媒 Scotland. Shame on our national broadcaster for not checking the data sources.
If you look at the report's references in most if not all of its headline statistics were published some up to 2-3 years ago.
The "Glasgow has more Gangs than London" statement is backed up by an unqualified article in the Independent in June 2006 - check it out - it is not news at all.
So anyway, the Tories say we need more family-values remedies? Who elected IDS to even comment on Scottish home affairs? Not a single voter.
This whole enterprise is aimed at convincing English voters that the Tories have a softer side.
We're not fooled by your "concern" Iain and Cameron. Or maybe we might be if our journalists don't up their game a little.
Brian you say "Concern, of course, is not enough." In so doing you come over as somewhat churlish. I thought IDS was a pretty lousy leader of the conservatives but he does seem to be trying to advance the issues through debate, ideas and as much action as he can make happen. If it does nothing else it raises these fundamentally important issues up the menu of action that is required by government, whether local or national.
Give the guy a break.
Strange for a Tory to pinpoint the only arm of the industry that is mostly private as the "solution". This is very, very, suspect.
to John McDonald (No.2):
The reason why so many scots hold the tories in such high esteem is, as you point out, to do with the policies pursued in the 1980's. Rightly or wrongly, the common perception in a lot of areas, particularly on the west coast where I am, is that the tories destroyed the shipyards and Scottish manufacturing. Now, we all know the shipyards were under considerable pressure even as far back as the 1940's. However, when the greater events of the world, with the tories official policy of discriminating against Glasgow as they were worried it would become the UK's second city, and so had an official policy of denying work to the ailing shipyards in favour of elsewhere, coupled with the tories economic policies, (which, whilst good for the South-east of england and london, were pretty naff for Scotland), these events caused the general trust of the Scottish public in both the tories and the Westminster government in general to be seriously undermined. When coupled with the fact that even Maggie's own ministers were concerned that in a "democracy", none of her party's MP's were elected from Scotland, with the less-moderate of the day crying for everything from immediate independence, to outright civil-war with the "fascist oppressors from england", this has led to (even to this day), the name Maggie Thatcher (milk snatcher) to be reviled, cursed and spat upon here on the west coast.
The general trend for people to be more conservative as they get older is indeed effected in Scotland however.
We see students and the like joining the Communist Party, the Scottish Socialist Party and their ilk, then later in life opting for either the english-leaning Labour party or the scottish-leaning SNP. What you aren't understanding is not that people are in someway being 'immature' by no supporting the tories, merely that the tories aren't trusted in Scotland; they are irrelevant in Scotland to the same degree the Green Party in england is. They aren't even the 3rd party, they're a dwindling 4th.
On a slightly different note, I challenge your perception that one naturally supports a more right-leaving party as one ages due to wisdom or maturity; I would argue tat as people get older, they feel less connected with the disadvantaged and young; hence policies that preserve the aged's wealth, and doesn't "fritter" it away on the young with the same sort of benefits the older generation were wanting when they themselves were young will naturally be more popular. Doesn't mean they're in some way "better", or more astute. Merely that people are selfish and will vote with their wallets for the party that will make them personally richer, no matter what that party will end up doing to the nation as a whole (probably selling it off in chunks to the english, enslaving the population, and turning the Highlands into a holiday retreat for overworked MP's, if we're still talking about the tory party).
How things change, the Labour party once believed in social justice and equality, looking after the less fortunate. The Tories used to hate all the above.
Now we have Mr. Brown's ministers advocating evicting tenants that can't or won't work, (a policy or idea more reminiscent of the national socialist party in the 1930's) the gap between the richest and poorest has grown ever wider under Mr. Brown and his labour government. What a surprise to find the Tories suggesting anything like social justice. Just perhaps there could be a credible alternative to the SNP, although after Maggie I almost feel sick thinking about that.
After all wee Wendy and her pal Jackie Bailey are far to busy defending the right of the labour party to break the law to even consider the less well of! I suppose that big brother Dougie and Mr. Brown would not want them to out of tune with Westminster either.
Strange for a Tory to pinpoint the only arm of the industry that is mostly private as the "solution". This is very, very, suspect.
Cant agree more with Ted, despite two degrees which involve a certain dexterity in the English Language, I agreed to take part in our local community partnership plan consultation, whilst not meaning to be patronising I think I could got my video working rather than answer questions that were contained on the sheet............ still the sheet did go in my blue recyling bin, and the glossy brochure in the green bin.
No questions addressing bread and butter issues, more a viva voce for a 2:1 or First, at least IDS is both willing to listen and think out the box, given my local ned count in the east end thank god!!!!
I hope this visit opens people's eyes, not so much to that a Tory is visiting, but the legacy of decades of local Labour rule and Labour and Tory rule from Westminster.
You simply do not find these kinds of communities in Scandinavia, but then again they have access to their own economic levers, powers and resources to deal with their own nation's problems.
Unfortunately Scotland is still not afforded this luxury.
I hope this visit opens people's eyes, not so much to that a Tory is visiting, but the legacy of decades of local Labour rule and Labour and Tory rule from Westminster.
You simply do not find these kinds of communities in Scandinavia, but then again they have access to their own economic levers, powers and resources to deal with their own nation's problems.
Unfortunately Scotland is still not afforded this luxury.
Ian Duncan Smith (IDS) is the odd one out when measured against the English Conservative鈥檚 failed Leaders of her Majesty鈥檚 Opposition:
William Hague (something of the right about him)
Ian Duncan Smith (the quiet man)
Michael Howard (something of the night about him)
David Cameron (something not right about him)
IDS was a thinking leader who perceived almost all major problems needed complex solutions, he was elected as Conservative Leader merely because he was a Eurosceptic, the views of the majority of the Conservative Party; what the majority of Conservative were not prepared to put up with was yet another example of artistic license with an MPs Curriculum Vitae and lack of charisma in their new leader.
IDS did not lose his charisma overnight; those who voted him to office were blinded to his real personality and potential by their Euroscepticism, when the dust had settled IDS鈥檚 lack of 鈥榗harisma鈥 was seen as problematic.
What the Conservative of the right needed was a charismatic leader, step forward David Cameron a true blue blood with Royal ancestry and patronage, an ex PR man, Swiss Toni.
If Glasgow miss the opportunity of the thought processes of IDS they will have committed a similar sin to the Conservative right but for an entirely different reason, one of prejudice.
Ian Duncan Smith may have a more complex answer to the problems of large cities 鈥...Family breakdown, unemployment, drug abuse, systemic youth violence...鈥 not simply throwing money at the problem; give him a chance.
The main problem is that Glasgow shed their major industries several decades ago, with nothing to replace those great creative days of shipbuilding and heavy engineering.
When you leave people who were highly skilled, very creative and very proud, (clyde built meant world class quality) with nothing to move forward with, what can you expect... except post industrial decay and hoplessness...
Tourism was never a goer in Glasgow, Its an industry that has failed dramatically in Glasgow...
Glasgow "beats" any other UK city on all, or at least most, measures of deprivation and has the poorest postal code areas in the UK within its boundaries.
As well as the unemployed some 60000 of its work age citizens are on "the sick".
Life expectancy is the lowest in the UK in districts within its boundaries and income levels are low when a UK or Scottish comparison is made.
Complacency is not really an option if the well being and life chances of its citizens are to improve. Certainly the Tories bear a heavy share of responsibility for the city's present condition but it has also been a Labour "rotten borough" for decades.
What I resent most is the pretence from the city's establishment that this is anything other than a poor city in relative decline.IDS is a Tory, I certainly am not, but he is free to comment and take part in the debate and not all of his observations are worthless because of his political affiliation.
Let Glasgow Flourish...
How times and parties have changed. The Labour party at one time claimed to serve the less fortunate in society the working class if you like. The Tories were for big business oppressing and ridiculing the disadvantaged, less well off the working classes if you like.
Yet we now have the Labour party proposing policies not disimalar to the National Socailist party of the 1930's if you do not work we will evict you as tenants,(Work sets free) where next for the son of the Manse one wonders?
We now have the Tories being concerned about social justice, even suggesting that something must be done, in Glasgow of all places!
Could the Tories actually become electable in Scotland? I still feel sick at the thought when I think of Maggie, their great dictator.
However contemplate the unthinkable, we could get Wee Wendy and the Labour party who are above the Law, just how much further would she go to please the son of the Manse, Frightening!
Or are we facing independance not because we want to leave the union, but because the SNP have the only leadership with any credibility!
In the words of one private Fraser "were doomed, doomed ah tell ye"
Fair play to IDS I say. Well done for genuinely caring about Glasgow, and at the very least trying to advance the debate without resorting to party politics.
Where were Labour yesterday? Oh yes Caroline Flint was spinning a yarn about booting benefit claiming non-workers out of their houses.
And don't forget that Glasgow has had a Labour controlled council for how long? What dent have they made in Glasgow's serious social problems in that time?
A car factory or two would help.
Thinking back to the days when pop singer Frankie Vaughn started all this in Easterhouse: Who hasn't tried this gimmick? Gimmick it surely must be since Easterhouse remains the greatest non-biodegradable item on the planet.
Easterhouse has been, is and always will be..an historical example of one Party's and one City's failure to convert certain people to the religeon of acting in a reasonable, responsible, sensible, less self-indulgent way of life. Does the expression 'dead horse' come to mind?
Tom Findlay (#8):
Tourism in Glasgow isn't a small industry, but isn't brash either. The efforts of See Glasgow (or whatever it's called these days), Glasgow Museums, etc, generally goes unnoticed.
However, what Glasgow's lacking is a clear tourist -vision-, to use such a horrible term. Given that Glasgow is synonymous with shipbuilding, why doesn't the tourism sector make a big deal out of it? Why do tourist shops have these horrible jimmy caps and "watchooterrthepolis" stickers rather than high quality merchandise emphasising Glasgow on the global scale, rather than the local scale? The new transport museum, I hope, is a step in the correct direction. If we could convince the city to build good transport links, that'd be another step in the right direction.
Lamenting the loss of an industry we couldn't support when other countries got better at it (through cheaper labour and more competitive management) will not bring back shipbuilding. But we -can- still capitalise on it, if we choose to do so.
Glasgow attracts a lot of tourists, for its art and its music scenes. If we were to emphasise the history also, then we'd be onto a winner.
Are we ignoring the leader throwing his dummy out the pram? Shame Salmond is willing to go to the electorate on this and NOT the election fiasco. Do we want a leader who manipulates and is more concerned with his vanity than opinion?
Another westminster politician paying lip service to a important social issue.
Maybe they should adopt those who they pretend to care about and pay them to be their reseachers.
Wipe your crocidile tears and go back to westminster and stop using the problems you helped create, to show the public and false sense social care.
Our politicians should be dealing with problem, if they dont we should vote them out of office, something we cant do with this clown
The Tories did not 'destroy Scottish shipbuilding and manufacturing'. In fact the Scottish Tory Industrial aristocracy probably wasted much of their wealth staying too long in a declining sector. It was ruined by inept management, second phase technological backwardness, world-infamous intransigent unions and their Luddite demarcation disputes and the investing owners who unsurprisingly took their capital elsewhere in the global marketplace where the new growth sectors were abundant. Mind you, it was a surprise to a trade union aristocracy that believed the world owed them a living.
Secondly, Scottish shipbuilding was not "under pressure as far back as the 1940s" it was in structural and terminal decline as long before as the eve of WW1. It was only a captive Empire market and two world wars that allowed it to struggle along.
I'm afraid Math Campbell's posting merely reflects a certain type of Scottish mindset I referred to earlier.
On re-reading this thread I've just read the most utter balderdash and historically ignorant piece of tosh posted by Math Campbell. A crude mix of myth, ignorance and conspiracy fantasy. Just a couple of examples -
The Tories did not 'destroy Scottish shipbuilding and manufacturing'. In fact the Scottish Tory Industrial aristocracy probably wasted much of their wealth staying too long in a declining sector. It was ruined by inept management, second phase technological backwardness, world-infamous intransigent unions and their Luddite demarcation disputes and the investing owners who unsurprisingly took their capital elsewhere in the global marketplace where the new growth sectors were abundant. Mind you, it was a surprise to a trade union aristocracy that believed the world owed them a living.
Secondly, Scottish shipbuilding was not "under pressure as far back as the 1940s" it was in structural and terminal decline as long before as the eve of WW1. It was only a captive Empire market and two world wars that allowed it to struggle along.
I'm afraid that Math Campbell's posting merely reflects a certain type of Scottish mindset I referred to earlier.
Ted Harvey (#24) knows what he's talking about. I side-stepped the WWi/WWii issue for the sake of brevity, but it's true. Two world wars propped up Glasgow's shipbuilding probably 60 years beyond its natural lifetime.