Professor John Robertson OBA
The Times on 23 October 2025, has the above.
Before I respond to the ridiculous headline claim, who is Rodney?
From the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland:
Philip practised as a lawyer for more than 40 years, latterly as chair of Burness Paull. He also previously chaired the Senior Lawyers Committee of the International Bar Association and the board of governors of the Glasgow School of Art and was a governor of Hutchesons’ Educational Trust.
Philip currently sits on the board of Dunedin Consort, as well as being a Senior Adviser to Saxton Bampfylde Ltd and has previously been chair of the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre. In addition, he is a Deputy Lieutenant for Renfrewshire and a member of the GlobalScot community. Philip has written for various publications including The Times, The Herald, The Press & Journal and The Lawyer.
Philip’s interests are travel, loud music and fast cars.
I’ve been researching Glasgow for some time recently beyond the the business of the Conservatoire and screaming out of it in a fast car with Meatloaf on the stereo.
Here are just few reasons why Glasgow compares very well with any English city:
I could go on.
Of course fast car Rodney is probably not thinking of the things like those above that make the city better for the 99% when he’s screaming out of it his his fast car.
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Wait what wasn’t Glasgow the drugs capital of the world with the lowest life expectancy, city in the western world when under EnglishGov control in London, and via the Labour council there for er, forever until very recently. Poverty in the city was very high, and well, just have to look at the terrible council housing that Labour imposed on the people of Glasgow. Not very ‘great’, great people though!
No thanks Liebour and EngGov and yes Thatcher is to blame for many of the ills in the whole of the UKOK!! She ruined lives, she ruined whole communities, towns and cities and wrecked industries etc. She was a nasty, greedy, far right capitalist, and that’s putting it nicely.
I’d say things..can only get bettterrr with an SNP running the council…miles better already in fact! 🙂
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As Del Boy would say , ”Rodney , you plonker !”
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“Glasgow’s miles worse” according to Mr Rodney – on what metric and worse than where?
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) publishes economic and other statistics for ’local’ areas of the UK, including individual cities. It provides comparative analyses of the different areas.
See: https://www.ons.gov.uk/explore-local-statistics/areas/S12000049-glasgow-city/indicators
It identifies the twenty most similar areas to Glasgow according to economic statistics. I have edited the list to show only the major cities which appear in this ONS list of similars:
Newcastle upon Tyne
Sheffield
Coventry
Liverpool
Leeds
Birmingham
Bradford
Manchester
Cardiff.
The ONS also identifies the twenty most similar areas to Glasgow, according to demographic statistics. Again I’ve edited the list to show only major city similars:
Southampton
Cardiff
Newcastle upon Tyne
Oxford
Nottingham
Portsmouth
Bristol
Leeds
Liverpool
And finally, the twenty most statistically similar areas to Glasgow based on all the metrics the ONS uses for its comparative assessments, edited down to show only cities:
Newcastle upon Tyne
Nottingham
Liverpool
Middlesbrough
Stoke-on-Trent
Leeds
Cardiff
Bristol
Sheffield
Belfast.
Glasgow is in good company?
And just a few more ‘insights’ into Mr Rodney’s ‘miles worse’ city:
Glasgow Times 3 December 2024: ‘Glasgow receives top UNESCO award for lifelong learning’.
Glasgow Life ‘The Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index) published its 2023 rankings at the GDS Forum & City DNA Autumn Conference in Valencia last week, with Glasgow coming 8th. The ranking positions Glasgow as the first city outwith Scandinavia and the only UK city to appear in the top ten. The GDS-Index was launched in 2016 and promotes responsible business tourism best practice.’
The Herald February 26, 2025 ‘ As one of a select number of cities across the globe belonging to the Music City category of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Glasgow is internationally recognised as Scotland’s music capital.’
Express (October 20, 2025) ‘We live in the UK’s friendliest city – 1 thing makes it better than anywhere else
This vibrant city might get have a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges, but it’s endlessly entertaining.’
Talking about Glasgow: ‘Conde Nast Traveller has named our dear green place as the friendliest city in the UK, impressively for the second year in a row. Scoring the city with an impressive 97 points out of 100, they praised our ‘Glasgwegian charm’, saying you’re likely to encounter ‘generous people wherever you go.’
Glasgow Times (September 18, 2025): ‘Glasgow ‘European powerhouse’ in space industry’ – ‘Andrew Strain, chief technical officer at AAC Clyde Space, commented: “I did a map recently and there was a moment where if you looked up, something we built in Glasgow could be seen from every point on earth.”
The above is just for starters. Could do better, could do more – especially for the disadvantaged? OF COURSE! But Mr Rodney needs to wake up to the stark fact that the UK of Great Britain and NI is no longer ‘great’ in the terms he may value. And for Glasgow and Scotland, an appropriate 21st century form of ‘greatness’ – namely a successful well-being economy that works for the many and not the few – is not feasible for Scotland whilst in Union.
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Tory. The reason why things got worse.
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Yep, read it, https://archive.ph/ARyQS, got to this point and went ‘eh?’ with my emphasis – ” But with the help of AI, I had a go. The Greater Glasgow Conurbation, now stretching from what was Edinburgh to past Dumbarton, floats above a radioactive bog where the Clyde once flowed. Council meetings are televised bloodsport. Budget disputes are settled by bare-knuckle cage fights (the pay-per-view revenue finally solved the funding crisis). And the subway? Still only two lines. Plans for a third have been “under consideration” for 783 years“
Rodney you plonker…
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