The editor asked me to write about Glasgow City Council’s motion condemning the Labour and Conservative parties for rejecting the EU Commission’s offer to open talks about a freedom of movement scheme for 18 to 30-year-olds from the UK and the EU. I was in the council chamber on 16 May to watch the fun. I’m going to do what the editor asked, plus take a glance at Scottish Secretary Alastair Jack’s performance, when on the previous day he gave evidence to a Westminster committee. After that, I’m going off the political piste to praise musical magic. But first, to the Victorian splendour of the chamber of Glasgow City Council.
The SNP majority on the council assured that the motion, proposed by Baillie Annette Christie, was passed. Bailie Christie’s motion also restated the enormously beneficial impact EU membership had on the economy of the city, its status as a world-class cultural centre and the role it had played in establishing Glasgow’s credentials as a leading conferences, exhibitions and championship sports location.
The Labour opposition couldn’t quite bring itself to completely support the motion. After all, that would require the Labour group to openly reject UK Labour’s Brexit-supporting policy. So, Labour tabled an amendment that allowed it to save face. What was most telling though was the variety of verbal techniques Labour speakers adopted to tell us how wrong they consider Brexit to be and how damaging it is. Actually, speeches from Labour were not really needed. Body language was enough. It said that Brexit is a very uncomfortable place for Labour and that most would go back into the EU like a shot. Brexit is not quite an Achilles Heel for Labour. It is more of a bad fracture that could favour the SNP in some marginal Scottish constituencies and push votes towards the LibDems in England.
The debate on the motion was mainly good-natured, sober and serious, with the odd barbed comment on both sides. The seriousness of the issue was lost on nobody in the room (no Conservative councillors bothered to turn up). Brexit has been and continues to be an economic calamity for Glasgow and Scotland. It is greatly to Glasgow’s credit that it has continued to play a central role in European affairs, most notably its active membership of the Eurocities network. For Glaswegians – SNP, Labour, LibDem, Green and even many Conservatives – their city is a European city. Its Europeanism is woven into Glasgow’s tapestry.
Pressed on an independent Scotland’s prospects of being admitted to the EU, Baillie Christie uttered the best line of the day. “The EU will welcome us with open arms,” she said, “and not only that, they’ll also throw us a party.”
Alister Jack performs like an imperial viceroy at Westminster
Meanwhile, 400 miles away, Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, was knifing the SNP, the Scottish Parliament and Scottish democracy, when he appeared before the Westminster committee dealing with constitutional issues. Jack said he is not opposed to devolution but threw the book at the past 16 years of SNP administration. Mr Jack’s answer is to have a House of Lords committee that would scrutinise (and no doubt alter) legislation of the Scottish Parliament.
So, a Scottish Parliament voted for proportionally by voters in Scotland would have its work examined and changed by an unelected chamber in a different country, in which no representatives of Scotland’s biggest party sits. For a man who believes in devolution, Mr Jack appears to have a unique understanding of what the word means.
What it means in Scotland’s case is decisions about Scotland being made in Scotland by those MEPs elected by the people of Scotland. This arrangement is in stark contrast to Mr Jack’s Westminster government, which makes decisions about Scotland, despite the fact that his party has failed to win a majority of votes or seats in Scotland since 1956.
Farmer Jack then pulled from his agricultural brain another sparkling example of interpretation of the word devolution. Without any hint of irony, he announced that he had asked the UK energy minister to plan for a “small” nuclear reactor in Scotland. Planning, including energy infrastructure, is a devolved matter. It is specifically the legal responsibility of the Scottish government. Mr Jack felt it unnecessary to inform the Scottish government of the plan, before casually throwing it out during an otherwise obscure committee meeting at Westminster. Arrogance? Rudeness? Condescension? All of that. I have an idea of what most Scots will say about the new nuclear generation in Scotland. “Away an bile yer heid, Ally boy.”
Pure dead brilliant magic in the City Halls
From Glasgow City Chambers on 16 May, I made my way to that temple of music that is the City Halls. There’s always a buzz around on the night of a performance at the Halls. There was something extra special that night. The evening was warm. The people dressed for summer. The bars and restaurants of Candleriggs filled their outside tables. Tinkling glasses and laughter everywhere. The atmosphere drifted into the City Halls, lifting our anticipation of what was to come.
What we got was premier division, unadulterated, pure dead brilliant magic. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is at the very top of its game. German conductor Michael Sanderling lifted his baton and his players gave us a spine-tingling rendition of Arron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. As the concert notes told us, the piece was written during WW2. It expressed hope for a better future. How appropriate that a few hours before, in the City Chambers, our councillors discussed the UK’s exit from the EU. Scotland had wanted to stay in the greatest and most successful peace project in human history. It would quite like the status quo ante, probably by at least 70%, if not substantially more.
Then onto the stage to a thunderous welcome came the Scottish pianist, Ethan Loch. Winner of the BBC’s Young Keyboard Musician final in 2022, Loch gave us a flawless and exuberant playing of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. He has a personality that warms the room. As he played, the entire orchestra, most of whom have heard and played with the world’s best, sat rapt, perched on the edge of their seats. If you want a meter that tells how good a soloist is, watch the orchestra.
Blind since birth, the Blantyre-born Loch is simply captivating. So captivating indeed that the audience refused to let him leave until he had given two encores, or was it three? The senses were almost in over-load.
Electrifying New World
It was an audience with a spring in its step at the interval. Smiles everywhere. More magic was to come. Here was Sanderling and his players seeming to draw in the heat from the day to power a heart-racing performance of Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No.9 in E minor, better known as The New World Symphony.
In the second movement of the work are three silences, each of just a second or two. The orchestra and audience, indeed the whole of Glasgow, seemed utterly quiet for each of those moments. Not a noise was heard. We, the congregation in this church of delights, felt our hearts still in sympathy, then pumped back to the fullness of life as the music swelled again. Electrifying.
When it was all over and the crowd had cheered and clapped and stamped its most genuine approval, it was back out into the warm night. Happy people still crowded the bars and cafes, but I’ll warrant few were as happy as those of us lucky enough to have spent the evening in the City Halls.
Glasgow? A European city? A world city? You bet it is.
NOTE: Visit BBC Sounds to find a recording of the concert.
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