Since the Go Ape proposal for Pollok Park, especially with the councils huge conflict of interest came to light, I’ve found myself wondering what else Glasgow council has been up to. I also got to wondering what councillors have to say on this, and other matters. So I thought I’d have a look around and see which of our illustrious councillors maintained a weblog of any sort. Whilst I know weblogs may not be to everybody’s taste, I’ve felt for quite some time that they provide an excellent means for elected representatives to explain what it is they’ve been up to. And after last years elections, where I found little or no internet presence for most councillors, maybe a bit more encouragement was what was needed.
Sadly, unlike in America where they’re very much de rigour, politicians over here have been very slow to catch on, even if it’s just a place for election material rather than an ongoing dialogue with their constituents. Where there are local political weblogs, I’ve frequently been rather disappointed to find many of them just seem to consist of little more than cheap party-political point scorings, or (even worse) silly pictures caricaturing some other party member in some way, rather than something more constructive, like explaining what they’ve been doing, the reasons for their decisions and (perish the thought) attempting to engage with their electorate.
So anyway, here’s an initial attempt at a round-up of Glasgow councillors weblogs. Perhaps I’ll turn this into an aggregator in due course, and look more carefully at the content. There are 79 councillors in Glasgow. After an hour or two of searching using various criteria, I was really rather disappointed to find that the list is really rather tiny. Even smaller than I’d imagined at the outset. Here they are:
- Aileen Colleran (Lab, Partick West): aileencolleran.wordpress.com
- Jennifer Dunn (SNP, East Centre): threetargets.blogspot.com
- David McDonald (SNP, Bailleston): notworkingfortheclampdown.blogspot.com
- David Meikle (Con., Pollokshields): www.david4pollokshields.com
- Alison Thewliss (SNP, Calton): bellgrovebelle.blogspot.com
- Grant Thoms (SNP, North East): tartanhero.blogspot.com
Yup, fivesix councillors out of 79. 7.6%. Less than 10%. Whilst these councillors are to be commended (notwithstanding that I’ve not really checked the content too carefully other than to identify it’s a councillors weblog and up to date), it is, frankly, a derisory showing from the total elected council.
Why is that? Do Glasgow council’s councillors feel the internet isn’t a good place to be campaigning and putting across their views? Seemingly so. Badly photocopied party political“newsletters” seem to be the preferred (occasional) notification we receive, and having read most of them I’ve had, rarely say that much of interest. But it’s at odds with my own website stats which had a big spike ahead of the council elections, as my own webpage was often the only place where information on my local ward (and MSP constituency) was available. Frankly, that worries me.
Ignoring the fact that David Meikle (one of my wards councillors) is the only Conservative councillor, and probably needs to reach out and make himself visible, the SNP are doing the best job of the other parties. Most puzzling of all The Liberal Democrats and Green party are absolutely nowhere to be seen. Labour, well, they’ve run the council for decades, so probably don’t feel the need to explain what they’re doing.
There are some localised group weblogs (GlasgowGreens.org and GlasgowNorthLabour.net), but I don’t feel they’re very personal, and don’t seem to present that much of a dialogue. But even that’s better than nothing.
I’d very much welcome corrections and additions! Drop me a note in the comments, or drop me a line via my contact page.
Here is the complete list of councillors, with those marked as having weblogs or a solid presence in bold. You could say this is a hall of shame to those without any sort of online presence:
- Danny Alderslowe Green Southside Central
- Dr Nina Baker Green Anderston/City
- Ruth Black Labour Craigton
- Philip Braat Labour Anderston/City
- Shaukat Butt Labour Govan
- Elizabeth Cameron Labour Garscadden/Scotstounhill
- Paul Carey Labour Drumchapel/Anniesland
- Patricia Chalmers Labour East Centre
- Margot Clark Lib Dem Linn
- Stuart Clay Green Partick West
- James Coleman Labour Baillieston
- Paul Coleshill Lib Dem Langside
- Aileen Colleran Labour Partick West aileencolleran.wordpress.com
- Stephen Curran Labour Newlands/Auldburn
- Gilbert Davidson Labour North East
- Colin Deans SNP Newlands/Auldburn
- Alex Dingwall SNP Maryhill/Kelvin
- Sadie Docherty Labour Linn
- Frank Docherty Labour East Centre
- James Dornan SNP Langside
- Stephen Dornan Labour Govan
- Jennifer Dunn SNP East Centre: threetargets.blogspot.com
- Kenneth Elder Lib Dem Hillhead
- Jonathan Findlay Labour Drumchapel/Anniesland
- John Flanagan Labour Govan
- Patricia Gibson SNP Greater Pollok
- Iris Gibson SNP Craigton
- Alex Glass Labour Greater Pollok
- Archie Graham Labour Langside
- Phil Greene SNP Springburn
- Jahangir Hanif SNP Southside Central
- Douglas Hay Labour Baillieston
- Graeme Hendry Hendry Garscadden/Scotstounhill
- Allison Hunter SNP Govan
- Ellen Hurcombe Labour Canal
- Matthew Kerr Labour Craigton
- Bill Kidd SNP Drumchapel/Anniesland
- Gerald Leonard Labour North East
- Craig Mackay SNP Anderston/City
- Jim Mackechnie Labour Canal
- Khalil Malik SNP Pollokshields
- Hanzala Malik Labour Hillhead
- Dr Christopher Mason Lib Dem Partick West
- John Mason SNP Baillieston
- Gordon Matheson Labour Anderston/City
- Billy McAllister SNP Canal
- David McDonald SNP Baillieston notworkingfortheclampdown.blogspot.com
- Elaine McDougall Labour East Centre
- Jean McFadden Labour Garscadden/Scotstounhill
- John McKenzie Labour Linn
- Tom McKeown Labour Shettleston
- John McLaughlin SNP Shettleston
- Kenny McLean SNP Partick West
- Euan McLeod Labour Shettleston
- Catherine McMaster Labour North East
- James McNally Labour Newlands/Auldburn
- David Meikle Conservative Pollokshields www.david4pollokshields.com
- Anne Marie Millar Labour Southside Central
- Tommy Morrison Labour Greater Pollok
- William O’Rourke Labour Greater Pollok
- Mary Paris Lib Dem Maryhill/Kelvin
- Steven Purcell Labour Drumchapel/Anniesland
- Irfan Rabbani Labour Pollokshields
- Mohammed Razaq Labour Maryhill/Kelvin
- George Redmond Labour Calton
- David Ritchie SNP Linn
- George Roberts SNP Hillhead
- Paul Rooney Labour Garscadden/Scotstounhill
- George Ryan Labour Shettleston
- James Scanlon Labour Southside Central
- Ruth Simpson Labour Calton
- Allan Stewart Labour Springburn
- Alison Thewliss SNP Calton bellgrovebelle.blogspot.com
- Grant Thoms SNP North East tartanhero.blogspot.com
- Jim Todd Labour Springburn
- Martha Wardrop Green Hillhead
- Alistair Watson Labour Craigton
- Kieran Wild Green Canal
- Robert Winter Labour Maryhill/Kelvin
And an update history:
- 27/Jan - Added Grant Thoms
February 26th, 2008 at 9:09 am
[...] Cross Glasgow! weblog is well worth adding to your bookmarks and feeds as it takes shape. Maybe the Glasgow councillors (most of whom don’t appear to have heard of the internet) will start sitti… before the next election? If not, they may get a bit of a [...]
March 18th, 2008 at 10:43 am
On the web generally you will find G41 and G42 the local free paper (web and print) for most of my ward (Langside) and I contribute 150 words to that every month, in addition I have posted comments on Go Ape ( as it happens) on Newspaper comment websites. Paul Coleshill Lib Dem Cllr Langside ward.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
More web presence is needed by local councillors, to not only make them more contactable but explain their voting on issues as well as their thoughts on local issues.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
[...] well in our ward). He is, after all, one of the very few Glasgow councillors who feels it’s appropriate to put a public record of what he’s up to and thinking (See http://www.davidforpollokshields.com, but feel free to skip the party political stuff; I certainly [...]
June 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
[...] current media storm doesn’t put him off maintaining it. If only more politicians would do so (Glasgow councillors in particular), we’d all perhaps know a tiny bit more about what our representatives think. This entry [...]