AS the 17 members of the Council of the Nations and Regions met in Edinburgh last week for the first time, Britain’s fifth largest conurbation, the Greater Glasgow City Region, was conspicuous by its absence.

As a fiercely proud Glaswegian, it was frustrating to see our great city denied its rightful place on such an important national body, but contrary to the posturing humbug from some quarters, I also realise that it was not a deliberate snub, it is merely because there is no obvious figurehead representing Greater Glasgow to invite.

It has however served to highlight what many of us have recognised as a glaring gap in Scotland’s governance for many years – Greater Glasgow, with a population of over 1.8 million people, needs a directly elected mayor with their own mandate to properly advance our region’s interests.

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The devolution of power from Whitehall to 11 English city regions such as Greater Manchester and the West Yorkshire over the last decade or so has revived regional power south of the border – with strong figureheads, like Andy Burnham and Tracy Brabin, ensuring that their combined regional authorities have effective and strong representation on the national stage.

These metro mayors have started to reverse the longstanding notion that Britain’s cities – outside of London – are underperforming relative to their international peers. I think it is obvious to us all that Greater Glasgow has similar challenges which can only be properly addressed with a new regional level of co-ordination and government.

Since it was established in 1999, the Scottish Parliament has been transformational for this country but, as we know to be the case with Westminster, the location of the seat of power exerts an inevitable gravitational pull towards it. The accumulation of power at Holyrood has all too often come at Glasgow’s expense, leaving us the most centralised country in Europe.

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Of course, the erosion of Glasgow’s political impact and influence started three decades ago when the Tories broke up the Strathclyde Regional Council into 12 smaller unitary councils in revenge for it holding a referendum during 1994 in which 1,194,667 people (97%) rejected water privatisation. The break-up of Strathclyde, Britain’s largest local authority, inflicted immense harm to Greater Glasgow. Strathclyde once developed the largest integrated public transport system outside London. It has since been dismantled, with SPT’s executive planning powers taken by Transport Scotland.

A new Metro Mayor would restore that agency and allow for critical decisions to be made closer to home. Labour has committed to begin this process if the party forms the next Scottish Government in 18 months’ time.

The faux indignation over the apparent snub of Glasgow and other Scottish cities from the meeting in Edinburgh last week failed to acknowledge that no council leader from any British city was present and that the SNP has so far rejected calls to introduce elected regional mayoralties in Scotland when it is well within their gift to do so.

SNP figures have instead referred to the existing regional structures in Scotland, such as the Glasgow City Region Cabinet, as a reason why metro mayors are not needed in Scotland. The city region cabinet of 8 local authority leaders meets only a handful of times a year and voters have no say on who ultimately leads it. It administers, it does not govern.

Greater Glasgow needs a governing mayor and a strong voice advocating for us on the national – and international – stage. As we approach the 850th anniversary of Glasgow’s burgh charter, a fitting legacy would be to create a metro mayor to properly represent us among the nations and regions of Britain.