ON Thursday, local residents in the Linn Ward will go to the polls in a council by-election.

They will be electing a new Councillor to represent them following the very sad death of Bailie Malcolm Cunning.

I want to pay tribute at the start of this piece to Malcolm. He was a tireless campaigner for the Linn community. Despite being Labour through and through, Malcolm was always a courteous, kind and funny colleague within the council. His legacy will live on here in the City Chambers from the Labour Group and I know whoever emerges as his replacement, they’ll work to build on his work.

Linn Ward residents have a very clear choice facing them though on Thursday. Vote to continue with the same or vote for change.

The reality for Glaswegians including those living in Linn is that our politics in the City Chambers is broken.

We have a SNP-Green administration that is continue to throw our working-class communities under the bus. Don’t take my word for it, just ask the thousands of taxi and private hire drivers across the city.

The SNP in Glasgow are the tail being wagged by the Greens right now. The Greens are calling the shots and are loving the power they have. They are anti-jobs, anti-growth, anti-development and anti-car. The only thing they appear to be in favour of is banning drive-thru restaurants.

As for the Labour Group in Glasgow, they are so desperate to regain power they are now sucking up to these out-of-touch pretend Environmentalists who are more interested in breaking up the United Kingdom.

Nothing showed this more than a few weeks ago when Labour voted against their own policy on our cabbies to play politics alongside the SNP and Greens.

They threw thousands of hard-working and hard-pressed taxi drivers under the bus by refusing to back our calls for a small delay in the implementation of the Low Emission Zone.

Their weak record doesn’t stop there. Labour has also supported cuts to bin collections and banning drive-thrus. Labour are now part of a problem, not a solution.

Glasgow is being governed by a SNP-Green-Labour Coalition of Chaos that has turned its back on working class communities like Croftfoot and Castlemilk.

We face really challenging times ahead with the council facing a budget blackhole of almost £120 million that means everything is on the table including service cuts, job losses and tax hikes.

Yet the SNP leadership of our council has been asleep at the wheel. They are too busy grandstanding in Egypt rather than lobbying their bosses in Edinburgh for more money.

Things can’t continue like this, Glasgow deserves better.

And fellow Glasgow Times readers that starts this Thursday in Linn. The Glasgow Conservatives have selected a brilliant local candidate in Pauline Sutherland. She is a self-made businesswoman, who takes no nonsense from anyone, and a straight talker born and brought up in Castlemilk. If elected on Thursday I have no doubt, she’ll make a fantastic addition to my team in Glasgow and our Council.

So if you live in Castlemilk, Carmunnock, Cathcart, Croftfoot or Simshill I urge you to reject the establishment parties in Glasgow. Back a candidate of change and let’s send a shockwave through the City Chambers.

Put a 1 beside Pauline Sutherland on your ballot paper on Thursday