GLASGOW, you’ve had enough.

I’ve had enough. Glasgow Labour have had enough.

Our city is in crisis.

Glasgow’s streets are filthy, our education services are over-stretched, and our communities are being decimated following the fiasco of the Communities Fund. This year will mean more than £400m of cuts to our city since 2013.

Enough is enough. For the first time, Glasgow Labour will not propose an alternative budget at the council’s budget meeting next week.

This was not a decision we took lightly, but we are putting it back to the SNP sitting in Holyrood that we need more money. And that’s not the view of just Labour councillors and Labour council leaders. That’s a view held just as strongly, and just as widely, by SNP councillors. For the first time in perhaps the history of the SNP, there is a very public chasm between those in their leadership and those representing communities.

In yesterday’s Glasgow Times, Susan Aitken broke cover for the first time. She noted that the Scottish Government is increasingly overreaching and undermining local democracy and accountability.

This is not to celebrate that fact, but to note what might become a watershed moment. To hope that it is a wake-up call, that the SNP cannot stand up for our city.

But no matter the seeming protestations from the SNP in councils, their parliamentary leadership appears to be unmoved. The education secretary has placed 11th hour restrictions on local councils and pays lip service to the serious consequences of those restrictions.

It is evident that there is no additional funding coming. It is evident that there is no additional support. It is evident that the SNP are running local councils and local services into the ground.

We will not take it any longer. Over the last 15 years of SNP rule, Glasgow Labour have acted responsibly each year. We have negotiated hard to improve the settlement for our city and put forward budget proposals that we believe best reflect our values – and those of the people of Glasgow.

This year, we will not do that. The chaos at Holyrood and the ongoing turnstile at Westminster has left us in a position meaning we cannot deliver on our values. The effect of the SNP’s decisions is to pit healthcare workers against social care workers. To pit teachers against cleansing staff. To pit classroom assistants against rail workers.

All public services have been starved of funding. All public services need significantly more funding, to fund improved pay awards and to fund additional investment in frontline services. Respect for Glasgow is not in words, it is in action.

By not submitting a budget amendment, we in Glasgow will be standing up and saying that this simply cannot go on. The people that we serve in this city deserve so much better. They need investment and growth in our economy.

The decisions by the SNP at Holyrood make that simply impossible. And the consequences of this awful situation will be laid squarely at their door.

SNP and Green MSPs need to get off the fence. Are they ready to stand up for Glaswegians and fight for fair funding?

Teacher numbers are at risk. Bin collections are under pressure. Social care is barely treading water.

Something needs to change. Glasgow deserves better. 

It’s time for a fairer Glasgow. A cleaner, greener, stronger Glasgow.

A Glasgow that only a Labour government can deliver.