A tale of two cities

Calton is so glad he doesn't live in Glasgow. This is nothing to do with the usual Glasgow-Edinburgh rivalry. It's because he listened to the contenders for the leadership of Glasgow City Council on Brian's Big Debate earlier today. If he was a Glasgow voter in the upcoming council elections he'd be wanting a box that said 'none of the above'. It will be a particular indictment on the erstwhile ruling Labour group if the SNP manage to scoop it under the leadership of Allison Hunter, whose performance on the debate was really poor, in Calton's opinion. She was completely unable to answer questions on the SNP's local income tax policy. That, combined with the abandonment of the same policy by the Libdem leader Paul Coleshill in favour of some sort of property tax, means that we won't be seeing a local income tax any time soon, if ever, which is a pity, as it has always seemed to Calton to be the fairest way of paying for local services. Meanwhile, back in the capital, it seems that the Libdems have a death wish and the SNP have ambitions above their station. Perhaps Calton spoke too soon about Glasgow.