As an attempt to influence the outcome of the referendum, it was much more imaginative than anything the Better Together campaign has produced. A hitherto unknown outfit called the Core Cities group, made up of unknown numbers of local councillors and assorted other civic panjandrums representing eight English cities, gathered in Glasgow at the end of last week.
The municipal chiefs represented Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, and the purpose of their travelling concert party was to drive economic growth by creating jobs and igniting local economies.
It was the first time they had met outside England but, in a letter to the Glasgow Herald, their mask slipped and another purpose became apparent. "We feel at home in Glasgow, a great Scottish and British city," they averred. "And, while the question of independence is one for the people of Scotland, we need to add our voices to those who believe that devolving more power to cities to let them create jobs and grow their economies is a more radical constitutional agenda than establishing a border at Carlisle."
Quite how many medallions of office jostled with each other over the canapes in Glasgow's city chambers was difficult to ascertain. Less so would be the cost of transport, lodgings and entertainment of the civic chiefs and their retinue. We trust that all their Citylink bus tickets were booked together and well in advance for a group discount and that a similar bargain was struck with Premier Inn or some other no-frills hostel. Deploying such a frugal approach to the junket would lay down a marker for similar civic missions while "driving economic growth" and relieving the public purse of untold thousands.
The decision to invite the Core Cities group was taken by Glasgow's able and charismatic council chief, Gordon Matheson, who said that the city had more in common with such places as Liverpool and Manchester than it did with much of the rest of Scotland. "I welcome this powerful intervention against separatism from my fellow city leaders," added the local Labour leader. Matheson has drawn criticism in recent times for his city's handling of the redesign of George Square and the Red Road flats nonsense, but the thought has occurred to many that if he was driving the Better Together campaign the union would not be in such dire peril.
Matheson is right to highlight the fact that Glasgow has little in common with the rest of Scotland. That the city has a similar economic, historical and cultural narrative as Liverpool, Newcastle or Manchester is self-evident. This is also a theme that has been advanced by others, most notably, Douglas Alexander. What Alexander and Matheson, of course, neglect to mention is that Glasgow will always have much in common with these great cities, no matter the outcome of the referendum, and that trade, travel and mutual co-operation will carry on much as before.
Glasgow is not like the rest of Scotland. I have lost count of the number of times during this independence campaign when I have been told by friends and colleagues that they would far rather vote for independence for Glasgow than Scotland. Glasgow drives the Scottish economy with its 415,000 jobs and 13,000 companies. The city has the third-highest GDP per capita of any city in the UK; only London and Edinburgh possess higher. And sometimes, too, you are left to conclude that Glasgow has more in common with Kuala Lumpur than it does with its gilded, grossly privileged and boutique eastern neighbour, a city that is no more Scotland's capital than Brigadoon is.
The population of Glasgow is stated at 598,000 (more than 100,000 ahead of Edinburgh), but more than half of the population of what used to be known as Greater Glasgow still commutes to Glasgow every day and uses its free leisure, cultural and sporting facilities. The city might claim to be booming, but it is not. How can it be when 36,357 of its children still live below the poverty line, costing the economy £395m a year and when the gap in life expectancy is as much as 15 years between its most affluent and its poorest neighbourhoods? The poverty that remains in this city is of medieval proportions.
It is principally for these reasons that many Labour people, alienated within their own party, are moving towards a yes vote in September. These deeply reluctant nationalists have begun to realise that they will only have one chance in their lifetimes of bearing witness to change and participating in the construction of a more just and moral society (no matter what it costs the moneyed classes). They know it won't happen in Cameron and Miliband's Oxford-run Britain.
However, it has been a long campaign and the Scottish nationalists, admirable though their enthusiasm and eagerness can be, still have the capacity to chafe with their lions rampant and their oil and their optimism. Scotland will never become a Xanadu of lofty ideals where nation shall speak unto nation and the lion will lie down with the lamb. But that's all right. Just so long as everyone gets a fair chance to shine. Let's not pretend we'll be the Mother Teresa of the global family.
And the SNP must get out of its east coast and rural backwaters and embrace Glasgow like it has never done before if it is to win in September. And it will only do that by promising to adopt the city as its special project in the years to come and unlocking the gifts and potential of 100,000 of its poorest and most neglected citizens. No amount of saltire-waving, navel-gazing strategy weekends contemplating Scandinavian ecosystems will do that.
