Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotland

Click on the above.

Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04  Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON

From BBC Scotland today:

Council tax in Glasgow is set to rise by between 5% and 6%, after the SNP and Greens agreed a deal to pass a budget. Free school meals are expected to be extended to all children in primary seven and the council also plans to invest in cleansing, including more gully cleaning to prevent flooding.¹

The average in Scotland, looks like being around 7-9%, well above that in Glasgow.

In Birmingham City, now more than a year into a bin strike with no collections, the figure is 7.49%, around 50% higher.than in SNP-run Glasgow.

In Birmingham, 4 to 7 year-olds get free school meals but for those 8 to 11 only if their family earns less than £7 400 per year.^{2, 3}

Any other benefits of living in SNP-run Glasgow?

Here’s a good (very) one:

In Birmingham, for 2025 the combined rate of violence and sexual offences was 48 per 1,000.⁴

In Glasgow, non-sexual and sexual offences are reported separately but for the former the rate was 18.6 per 1 000 and for the latter, 3.5 per 1 000.

Combining the two Glasgow figures to produce a figure of 22.1, we get a violent crime rate in Birmingham that is more than twice as high.

Sources:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g8ely14pmo?at_medium=social&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_id=28D0740A-10AD-11F1-8D33-9181C6547D82&at_format=link&at_link_origin=BBCScotlandNews&at_link_type=web_link&at_bbc_team=editorial
2. https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals
3. https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20014/schools_and_learning/687/free_school_meals
4. https://crimerate.co.uk/west-midlands/birmingham
5. https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-year-ending-june-2025/documents/

Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotland

Click on the above.

Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04  Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON