Recently in Billy McAllister Category

THEY say crime is down in Glasgow.

The people I represent would beg to differ.

Given the amount of cases that come through my surgeries and the contact that is made by telephone I would have to agree with my constituents' views.

The police in my view have failed over the last three decades to tackle the serious problem of drugs coming to our communities that started in the early eighties.

WHY would the Labour controlled Council in Glasgow complain about the £40m extra money provided by the Scottish Government and COSLA to plug the gap of the reduction in Council Tax and not be grateful of the slice of pie that they would receive?

At a time when low paid working families are suffering due to tax credit cuts, housing benefit reductions and excessive fuel charges, you would think Mr Matheson, Labour Council leader, would be smiling in his office when he can offset the money he will get to help the families of this city to feel the pain a little less.

I HAVE spent many years fighting against serious and organised crime in our city.

Whilst the Scottish Government and Strathclyde Police have had some success tackling this, much of the SNP Government's recent successes have been by reducing crime more generally across the board and deploying a 1,000 additional police officers in that battle.
 
Now let me be clear, some of our communities continue to suffer from crime rates that are too high, and at times operational policing needs to use greater use of intelligence and make greater inroads into breaking the cycle of crime in some of the more deprived communities I represent.