Let Glasgow Flourish

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Edinburgh will boom after independence. A huge number of countries, companies and NGOs will be want to establish a presence in the capital of the newly independent country, which will create thousand of jobs building and staffing all these embassies and headquarters.

Aberdeen is already booming, thanks to the oil, and independence won’t put a damper on that at all.

However, Glasgow to some extent is the sick man of Scotland at the moment. The number of “to let” signs in the city centre is worryingly high, and apart from temporary measures (such as the Commonwealth Games), it’s not obvious how the situation is going to change.

Steven Purcell (the former leader of Glasgow City Council) had the right idea when he “urged Glasgow to plan ahead for a possible Yes vote so that the city could capitalise on any benefits, including the thousands of jobs which could be created by new government departments. He said that if Scots did back separation from the UK, Edinburgh should not automatically reap all the benefits of more public sector work. Glasgow and other cities needed to develop plans now to make sure they did not miss a trick.”

However, given how important Glasgow is for winning the independence referendum, I think this is too important to be left to Glasgow City Council.

The Scottish Government urgently needs to flesh out ways in which Glasgow (and its suburbs) will benefit from independence. For instance, they could announce that the Scottish Stock Exchange would reopen in Glasgow, and that several government departments will be placed in Glasgow and East Kilbride.

To win this referendum, it’s imperative that all Glaswegians understand that Glasgow will flourish in an independent Scotland.