The Glasgow Effect by Ellie Harrison

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14 the glasgow effect and action in the world. From very different backgrounds, Darren McGarvey and I have arrived at similar critiques of the city, the society and the economic system within which we live. I can’t say that this book has been an easy undertaking, but it was a necessary one. I have emerged stronger and with more conviction than ever that in order to address the ‘climate emergency’ we must urgently reduce the amount we travel and the amount of energy we consume. Not least because a happy, healthy and sustainable life can and should result from committing and contributing to the community where you live. Ellie Harrison July 2019 Ellie Harrison (right, aged nine), with her sister (left, aged ten), at Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988. (Family photograph)
Introduction i first came to Glasgow 30 years ago, in summer 1988 when I was nine years old. Margaret Thatcher had had a plan. Her government thought that by imposing ‘Garden Festivals’ and the associated twee middle-class values onto five of Britain’s most deprived post-industrial cities, she could miraculously raise the standard of living for everyone. It was symbolic of how her vision of ‘trickle-down economics’ was meant to work. You only need look at vast swathes of derelict and vacant land still left in Glasgow (9 per cent of the city), 2 including much still around the ‘Festival Park’, and at Glasgow’s persistent and worsening inequalities of wealth and health, to judge this policy’s effectiveness. What it did succeed in, however, was luring more middle-class cultural tourists on ‘city breaks’ to see the sights and spend their money. And this was indeed why my family came. My memories of the trip are hazy. I remember having a ‘Coke float’ in Deep Pan Pizza Co. somewhere in the city centre (which I now assume was Sauchiehall Street, though Deep Pan Pizza Co. has long-since gone bust). 3 I remember this weird reconstructed house thing (which must have been the Mackintosh House at the Hunterian, completed in 1981). I remember the thrill of riding to and from the West End on the newly refurbished Glasgow Subway (public transport got me excited back then too). And, I remember I wasn’t allowed on the Coca-Cola branded rollercoaster because I was too short. That was it. The holiday was over. Armed with our Garden Festival merchandise (my sister had the t-shirt and I had the keyring, which we both still have – how’s that for ‘legacy’?), we returned to suburban London to tell teacher about our trip. I had no cause to return to Glasgow for another 20 years. And once again, it was ‘culture’ that led me back. Glasgow’s Garden Festival could be seen as the beginning of the city’s post-industrial renaissance as a global capital of culture. It was promptly followed by Glasgow being awarded the mantle of European City of Culture in 1990, and a slew of investment in the arts sector: Tramway opened in 1990, the Gallery of Modern Art in
Page 3 and 4: I will not travel beyond Glasgow’
Page 5 and 6: The Glasgow Effect A tale of class,
Page 7 and 8: For my beautiful mum
Page 9 and 10: Contents Foreword to the Second Edi
Page 11 and 12: Chapter 6 Creative Destruction 183
Page 13: Food 322 Healthcare 323 Housing 325
Page 16 and 17: 4 the glasgow effect used to promot
Page 19 and 20: Summary of Key Ideas ideas are intr
Page 21 and 22: summary of key ideas 9 Universal Lu
Page 23: summary of key ideas 11 long learni
Page 28 and 29: 16 the glasgow effect 1996, The Lig
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The Glasgow Effect by Ellie Harrison

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