Glasgow - Government

Government

Although the Glasgow Corporation had been a pioneer in the municipal socialist movement from the late 19th century, since the Representation of the People Act 1918, Glasgow increasingly supported Left-wing ideas and politics at a national level. The city council has been controlled by the Labour Party for 30 years, since the decline of the Progressives. The left-wing support emanates from the city's legacy as an industrial powerhouse, and the relative poverty of many Glaswegian constituencies and wards.

In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and German Revolution of 1918–1919, the city's frequent strikes and militant organisations caused serious alarm at Westminster, with one uprising in January 1919 prompting the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George to deploy 10,000 troops and tanks onto the city's streets. A huge demonstration in the city's George Square on 31 January ended in violence after the Riot Act was read.

Since 2007 when local government elections in Scotland began to use the single transferable vote rather than first-past-the-post system, the dominance of the Labour party within the city has declined (though it remains one of only two local authorities - along with North Lanarkshire, where Labour maintains an outright majority over the other parties)

Industrial action at the shipyards gave rise to the "Red Clydeside" epithet. During the 1930s, Glasgow was the main base of the Independent Labour Party. Towards the end of the 20th century it became a centre of the struggle against the poll tax, and then the main base of the Scottish Socialist Party, a left-wing unity party in Scotland. The city has not had a Conservative MP since the 1982 Hillhead by-election, when the SDP took the seat, which was in Glasgow's wealthiest area. The resultant general political bias against the Conservative party continued and currently they have only 1 of the 79 councillors on Glasgow City Council, despite having been the controlling party (as the Progressives) from 1969-1972 when Sir Donald Liddle was the last non-Labour Lord Provost.