Taylor Swift, homeless children and Scotland’s shame

Allow me to first make clear that this isn’t an attack in any way on Taylor Swift. Rather, what Swift has done is cast the spotlight that comes with celebrity onto the cold-hearted failings of both local and central government in Scotland.

When it comes to Swift, I confess I’m not into her music. Some songs are fine; I’ll listen to them if they’re on a playlist or the radio. But it’s not my bag.

However, I do think she’s a remarkable woman. Immensely talented, beautiful, a global star, an icon to girls everywhere. Swift is a force to be reckoned with; a cultural phenomenon. I take my hat off to her.

Swift also annoys all the right people: nasty little men, mostly, who hate to see young women succeed. Trump supporters detest her, as they fear Swift might swing the vote by galvanising young women for Joe Biden. So if we’re picking sides, I’m firmly on Team Swift.

But this isn’t about Swift. It’s about what her power illuminates. World leaders - like Chile’s president - have literally begged Swift to bring her show to their countries to help the economy. The Mayor of Budapest asked Swift to consider making Hungary a stop on The Eras Tour. Her failure to visit Canada caused a political ruckus. Thailand is exhorting her to visit.

So Swift shows just how weak and desperate - how failed - world leaders are when it comes to managing economics.

Swift’s appearance can give a real, if brief, fillip to national finances. Barclay’s bank suggests Swift’s tour could increase UK spending by £1 billion.

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So while it may seem absurd that a pop star has such clout, it’s an indisputable fact that Swift matters - culturally, economically and politically.

However, it seems that in Scotland the homeless matter so little we’re prepared, as a society, to shunt them around like cattle because the Queen of Pop is coming. She plays Murrayfield between June 7-9 to nearly a quarter of a million people.

However, so many fans need somewhere to stay. It’s a facet of the shameful nature of modern homelessness that the poor souls sleeping in doorways are only the most awful, visible form of this scandal. Homelessness now affects working families on low incomes who simply can’t pay their rent.

Those homeless families are regularly put up in cheap hotels and B&Bs. In order to find tourist accommodation for all those "Swifties", homeless people are being forced out of Edinburgh.

Here’s some facts we need to know: there’s nearly 10,000 children homeless in Scotland and living in temporary accommodation, those cheap hotels and B&Bs. Nearly 16,000 household are in temporary accommodation - the highest on record. In total, there’s 30,724 people currently homeless.

Amid this scandal, the Scottish Government slashes the affordable housing budget. As any child could tell you, to cut homelessness you need to build affordable homes. Yet the SNP crows about how it prioritises homelessness. No wonder the leading housing charity Shelter accuses the SNP of “gaslighting” Scotland.

This purge of homeless people isn’t unique to Swift’s tour. It happens whenever there’s a major event at Murrayfield, like the Six Nations, or during the Edinburgh Festival. The homeless get turfed out so the rest of us can enjoy ourselves.

Back in March, Shelter told me: “Homeless people are being sent to England for temporary accommodation by Scottish councils. Scotland is exporting homelessness. We’ve heard of families sent to Newcastle, Birmingham and Oxford”.

Since mid-May, people "presenting" to Edinburgh City Council as homeless have been told no temporary accommodation is available, and they’ll be offered somewhere outside the city. That’s often Glasgow, but it’s also as far away as Newcastle or Aberdeen.

Remember: any children caught in this need to go to school. How do they go to an Edinburgh school if they’re in temporary accommodation in Newcastle?

Homeless people - including families with children - are effectively in competition with tourists for the same accommodation. What a disgrace of a society we’ve become.

Scotland’s Housing Regulator says there’s “systemic failure” in Edinburgh Council's homeless service. Here’s how acute the Edinburgh situation is: latest figures show 3749 households homeless and in temporary accommodation - the highest in Scotland, and up 11%.

There were 6797 homelessness applications in Edinburgh - again the highest in Scotland, up 15%. A total of 2,910 children were in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh, when latest figures were compiled.

It’s impossible to say how many of those moved out of our capital city to make way for Swift fans were children, but charities say it’s unquestionable that homeless families with children will be housed in tourist accommodation.

Edinburgh, along with five other councils including Glasgow, has declared a housing emergency. The Scottish Government declared a national emergency last month.

I asked Alison Watson, Shelter Scotland director, what she made of these events. “The sad fact” is, she says, that what’s happening “isn’t unique”. Watson added: “Without urgent intervention from the Scottish government, they’ll happen again when the festival kicks off.”

Alison Watson, Shelter Scotland director (Image: Newsquest)

Across the country, she said, homelessness services have “been starved of resources for years” and “simply can’t keep up with demand … The clock is now ticking on the Scottish Government to tell us exactly what they’re going to do”.

Watson deserves Scotland’s admiration for relentlessly holding the Government’s feet to the fire. The SNP has been in power since 2007, and yet this is the state of our society: the most vulnerable among us shunted to the margins to make way for a party.

Taylor Swift also deserves admiration, though in a passive rather than active sense. It’s not that she intended to highlight to the world the disgrace of homelessness in Scotland in 2024. However, the simple act of her arriving here has caused the spotlight to fall on this squalid truth.

If a society is to be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable, then surely Scotland has failed that most simple of tests.