My parents recently turned down a lucrative offer to let their handsome basement West End of Glasgow flat (once the home of Roy Jenkins, and briefly featured in HBO’s Succession) to COP26 VIPs. My father took an executive decision, effectively giving the proposal a two-word vernacular rejection. He has no wish to give houseroom to anyone connected to the eco-festival about to descend on his hometown, whatever the reward. He is far from alone.

Gary Smith, leader of the GMB union, and its former Scotland secretary, was not being hyperbolic when he attacked the ‘hypocrisy’ of staging a ‘global jamboree’ costing hundreds of millions in a ‘crumbling’ city with ‘filthy streets and kids go(ing) to school hungry’. The city, whose per head spending has reduced by 11% under the SNP government, has the shortest life expectancy in Scotland with Glaswegians having a 30% chance of dying prematurely. So-called ‘deaths of despair’ (drugs, alcohol, suicide) are a significant factor. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s own constituency now has the highest child poverty rate in Scotland.