THERE is an old story about how gallus Glasgow can think it is. The city’s lord provost, the tale goes, got a gushing letter from an admiring American mayor offering friendship.

The Scottish civic head did not reply. Why? It was “only” Chicago getting in touch.

Glasgow – at times in its history – has had a high opinion of itself. And – at others – a very low one. Sometimes the dear green place almost has a love-hate relationship with its own image.

It was the second city of empire, not the kind of thing it does to boast about these days in polite company. Then it was a poster girl for post-industrial squalor. Think of those pictures French photographer Raymond Depardon captured of Glasgow in 1980. The grim high rises. The black, black tenements. The drinking in the street.

Finally, the soot sand-blasted of its sandstone buildings, Glasgow reinvented itself, even if it was never exactly sure as what. A shopping destination? Pfft. That aspiration, like some of the samey box stores it generated, did not last long.

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With global leaders pitched up on the Clyde for COP26, is it worth thinking about where Scotland’s pre-eminent city now stands in the world? And where it should aspire to be?

I ask this question. But I am not sure I know the answer myself. Is Glasgow, even if its local authority boundaries do not reflect this, the nearest thing Scotland has to a “world city”? I want to say yes.

The Clyde conurbation certainly does not have the postcard Scottishness of smaller Edinburgh, or the increasing administrative importance of our capital.

When, for example, US broadcaster CNN wanted a suitable backdrop for their live reports from COP they parachuted their star anchor Wolf Blitzer in to a vantage point under Edinburgh Castle. The poor man was mocked relentlessly on Twitter.

But maybe Glasgow, once marketed as “Manhattan with a Scottish accent”, was not quite "shortbread tin” enough for an American audience?

It was not just US television executives who did not take a shine to Glasgow. I thought a lot of Scots, even a lot of Glaswegians, seemed uncomfortable, self-conscious about the city’s image during the big summit. We Scots are not used to attention.

So we fretted about the look of the place, about bin strikes, about what foreigners would make of our bickering politicians jostling for face-time with Biden and Macron, with Draghi or von der Leyen.

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And, sure, trash politics and bad-tempered industrial disputes are rarely pretty. But Glasgow and Scotland do not have a monopoly on rubbish, political or literal.

The last really big COP was in Paris. The once city of lights has now been – perhaps unfairly – rebranded “the city of litter”.

The rubbish crisis in the French capital is probably mostly to do with the pandemic, as in much of the rest of Europe. But if you believe France’s rightist commentators, the trash is all the fault of left-wing mayor Anne Hidalgo or of socialism in general. Hidalgo, by the way, is one of the world leaders hobnobbing this week with Nicola Sturgeon and Glasgow heid yin Susan Aitken.

COP did not just come to Glasgow because it owns a bloody great shed that can accommodate tens of thousands of lanyard-wearers (though conference infrastructure will not be insignificant in the choice).

World leaders are also in the city because it is quite such a typical and, well, average example of a major post-industrial community in the developed world.

There was a wee stooshie on social media this week when a travel journalist suggested COP “gives the rest of the world an incredible opportunity to discover that Glasgow isn’t nearly as good as Glaswegians bafflingly think it is”. Cue nearly Wolf Blitzer levels of slagging. Glasgow councillor Mhairi Hunter came to his aid. “I feel sorry for the guy,” she tweeted. “Glasgow is a strong flavour. It is not going to be for everyone.” True that.

The journalist, a chap called David Whitely, added a joke about a delegate saying they loved Glasgow, it was easily as good as Dortmund, Liege and Cleveland.

So not Chicago, I guess. But I thought Mr Whitely was giving not bad examples of developed world second tier cities that have experienced industrial decline after pumping out much of the carbon responsible for global climate change.

In fact, Glasgow in recent years has reflected this in its municipal foreign policy. It is twinned with Marseille, not Paris, and the earthy southern port shares a lot of Glasgow’s problems, including a pandemic-era bin strike. Glasgow is also developing a relationship with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s not unimpressive post-industrial second city, having snubbed Chicago all those years ago.

Cities and regions – local and substate governments – have a hugely important role in tackling climate change, which is why leaders like Ms Hidalgo were at COP. Glasgow and Pittsburgh are pitching themselves as pathfinders for net zero. This is not trivial stuff, not junketeering by thickset men with heavy chains of office. It is global local politics. And it is mostly done on Zoom.

There were lots of ways of measuring and even league-tabling settlements. Glasgow does not get to the top of any list. That is usually filled by the New Yorks, Londons and Tokyos. Some of these measures can look arbitrary, some are more practically based on the size of markets, populations and connectivity. Geographers even argue about what city is, never mind what constitutes a global one. There is not a threshold for Glasgow to prove it has reached to be global again. But that should not stop the city having its own aspirations.

Me? I think being a world city is a cultural attitude as much as anything else. It means reaching out internationally. It means being open to foreigners and foreign ideas.

Right now that is probably best reflected in the power of Glasgow’s universities, even after Brexit, to lure world-standard academic talent.

There is no reason why it cannot be a core part of local government and business too. We just have to brush the chips off our shoulder first. Maybe Glasgow could learn from the Windy City? Chicago got its nickname because of its shameless self-promotion. Nothing wrong with that.

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