'AN administration-in-waiting.' You will hear that phrase a lot about Glasgow's opposition SNP group over the next 18 months.
This week, with eye-catching plans to axe events from the city's main civic space, they made arguably their first real pitch to run the country's biggest council in 2017. They may also have made their first big error.
One of Europe's great plazas it isn't, nor has it ever been, but George Square is totemic, laden with historic significance and still a national magnet for mass gatherings.
Recent follies over its redesigns are smeared with the fingerprints of the current and previous Labour leaders of the council, generating social media storms and literally years of news headlines.
Now the SNP want the square to be underpinned by its official status as a public park, somewhere for people to "congregate, meet and relax" according to its leader Susan Aitken. Commercial events, too often clogging up space, would be moved elsewhere.
But in effectively proposing a ban on Christmas festivities from the city's main focal point the SNP is guilty of the very thing it's spent years accusing its Labour opponents of: imposing its ideas with zero public consultation.
Brash and overpriced one could say but the George Square 'Glasgow Loves Christmas' attractions are hugely popular and location is crucial. An average of 1500 people-an-hour pass through the picket fence during the holiday period. That's 200,000-plus over the piece, a lot of people to potentially hack off.
For its first big-ticket idea the administration-in-waiting appears guilty of policy based on hitching their wagon to high-profile Twitter and Facebook campaigns and vocal protests.
To quote one source, there's a "huge dollop of naivety" in conflating loudhailer views with those of a general public more interested in ice rinks and carousels than an ideological opposition to Piping Live or the Street Football Cup tournament being held in the dead centre of town.
And what's in or out: the Great Scottish Run, Rugby 7s promotions, candle-lit vigils for peace? If, as some suspect, barely concealed beneath the surface are dogwhistles that events like the controversial Orangefest are out, supporters will be disappointed when the same restrictions apply to an SNP administration over use of the square as they do Labour. To ban 'the Orange Lodge' would require an extension to Armistice Day, May Day rallies or anything where a Saltire on a stick is de rigueur.
Riding the crest of a mood that every poor decision by Glasgow City Council is born of Labour politics could create quite the rod for Ms Aitken's back.
Right now George Square is a heavily polluted roundabout with some grass, benches and statues. And with major construction due to commence at nearby Queen Street station an overhaul is some way off. Any ban on events will do little to enhance the ambiance and environment.
By making this a flagship policy you wonder if the Glasgow SNP have just created their Jim Murphy "bevy at the football" moment.
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