Glasgow Life or Death by Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt

An analysis of the privatisation of Glasgow City Council’s cultural and leisure services was met with legal threats when it was published a couple of years ago. 

For the past six months, Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt has been updating this research using as many of the investigative tools at my disposal as possible. A full report is now online  http://www.shiftyparadigms.org/images/Glasgow_Life_or_Death.pdf
 
Please download it before it is threatened with removal.

Against a backdrop of growing inequality in the city, Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), or Glasgow Life as the company now prefers to call itself, has:

• failed to attract the outside funding on which its financial model was predicated, which means that vital services will have to be cut.
• run up a staggering pension deficit during its time of operation.
• trampled on the rights of its workers, which were supposed to be protected under the terms of its agreement with the council.
• prioritised the attraction of tourists to the city over the needs of the people of Glasgow.
• allowed its board members to profit from skewed procurement processes.
• bypassed mechanisms in place to ensure transparency.

In the current climate of cuts to the public sector,  it is necessary to make these findings known to the broadest possible readership, so that this devolved model of service provision is thoroughly rejected as a future option.

Please disseminate this report to anyone you think might be interested.