It’s difficult to discuss the services delivered for the people of Glasgow, without thinking about our community centres, our gyms, libraries and sports centres. Those facilities have become part and parcel of our communities.

And the organisation that runs them, Glasgow Life, is synonymous with Glasgow’s remarkable transformation in the past decade.

No one could deny that the tremendous collections of art and literature the city holds, accessible for free, is one of many reasons that growing numbers of people chose to call our city home. Our city is renowned for its artistic and creative output around the world.

And, fundamentally, this is good for Glasgow’s people as well as its economy. It helps our wellbeing, emboldens our sense of community and solidarity and breaks down barriers that could otherwise prove insurmountable.

But the Covid-9 crisis has put all of that under threat - precisely at the moment we need it most. Each year, a list of horrific cuts is presented by Glasgow Life - putting the future of swimming pools, community centres and museums into question. All of this because demand and use of services are growing, while Glasgow’s budget has been cut year after year. It’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet.

We’ve known that this wasn’t a sustainable solution for a long time now. And the current crisis has exposed that more profoundly than we could have imagined. Almost a third of Glasgow Life’s budget comes from earned income - Glasgow Club memberships, venue hire, fundraising, ticket sales and others. With the announcement of lockdown over a hundred days ago now, a huge chunk of that income was lost. That earned income accounts for £38 million.

It’s not just Glasgow - look at theatres up and down the country. They are struggling. Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Perthshire, the Lyceum in Edinburgh and so many others. A recent report by Oxford Economics suggested that 6900 jobs were at risk across the industry - and that doesn’t begin to account for all of the artists and creatives who are self-employed, who’ve lost money and will lose any additional support in the coming months.

If we continue on this path it will be a disaster - for Scotland and for Glasgow. Boris Johnson’s feeble announcement on Tuesday - more DOA than FDR - underlines the point that governments need to think on a much bigger scale and be much bolder if we are truly to build back better.

That’s why there needs to be a distinct, comprehensive and ambitious programme of support for the creative sector across Scotland - with significant and lasting support for Glasgow Life and all of its facilities.

Glasgow’s facilities are world renowned. Yet they don’t receive any national support, in the same way that collections in Edinburgh do. That’s no longer sustainable.

The Scottish Government needs to come up with a support package - national support, with local accountability - to make sure that Glasgow and its people continue to flourish as we rebuild from the crisis.