HALLOWEEN weekend in Glasgow – the city of the queues.

On Saturday I queued with a family member at Victoria Hospital’s vaccine drop in centre – the only one open in the whole of the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board.

On Monday, there were pictures of a long queue outside the Exhibition Centre as the entourages of the political leaders and assorted journos tried to wend their way past COP26 security.

There were similarities and differences between these two queues.

Both were long. The queue for COP was reportedly taking an hour. The vaccine queue took three times as much. There were more complaints in the climate queue – and less mask wearing and social distancing.

The New Vicky queue were more patient and more disciplined. We even had a contingent of nuns, which kept the language under control in the freezing cold. Order was maintained even when news spread that the vaccine was running out.

But the real connection between these two Halloween queues is patently obvious.

Glasgow is COP city. It is also a Covid city. It should be vaccine city, but it is not.

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Saturday’s queue had a variety of people for a variety of jags; second jags, booster jags, flu jags. There was no lack of enthusiasm for being vaccinated, just a lack of organisation to enable it to happen.

A small vignette provides some colour. An elderly and clearly frail gentleman behind me had missed his booster and flu jag due to illness. He then was offered an alternative in Inverclyde, well outside his mobility range, but promised a minibus to take him there. He waited a full day for no bus to arrive and then was advised to turn up instead at the Victoria. After three hours in our queue, I did the one small thing I could for him and let him take our place.

Little featured on social media about this Saturday shambles. People are reluctant to criticise, lest it be thought an attack on our fantastic health service workers who have served us so well.

However, it is not. The irresponsibility of inviting tens of thousands of people from round the planet to Glasgow without ensuring a fully vaccinated population is not the fault of doctors or nurses.

It lies full square with Government. It is inaction and crass irresponsibility, particularly when it has been freely admitted by the Health Secretary that COP will result in a spike in cases.

In plain language, there will be more infections. Some people will be badly affected and a few will die. They will be dead not because there was a summit in Glasgow, but because of the failure to ensure the safest possible environment for Glaswegians and summit-goers alike.

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Over the last week, Covid vaccinations were averaging 30,000 per day. In the spring, it was 60,000. There has been no coherent explanation as to why this should be the case.

There is no lack of demand – our three-hour queue at the New Vic demonstrates that. Tens of thousands of vulnerable Scots are now beyond their six months and are waiting impatiently for their very necessary booster shots. In England they could now book today and get jagged tomorrow.

The Government says there is no lack of vaccine and we shall have to take them at their word. So why the wait and why the delays and why the queues?

There is an irony in all of this.

The Hydro was closed as a vaccination centre in mid-July to be prepared for COP. It was, we were told, no longer required as the vaccination programme moved on to “mobile facilities and drop in at community settings in addition to appointments”.

The Health Secretary himself said the transition would be “seamless with no negative impact on vaccination capacity”. He chirped confidently: “People can always head along to one of the many drop-in clinics now operating in the area.”

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He needs to immediately address the grim and present reality. The three-hour queue was the only one in the health board area on Saturday. The sole one on Monday was in Paisley and the next one is on Friday in Milngavie.

Our summit city required three things from those in authority.

Firstly, a clean physical environment to match the enduring splendour of our great city.

Secondly, as the main city of the host nation, we needed to provide an exemplar of action to save the planet. Instead, the Scottish greenhouse targets were sabotaged by the UK Government’s relegation of Scottish carbon capture, without which our emission promises will inevitably fall shamefully short.

Thirdly, a safe, hospitable city with a population fully vaccinated and protected in the interests of all. The health and welfare of citizens and visitors is a duty of care.

The People who Make Glasgow deserve better.