So now it’s President Trump. And all who said high office would temper all the ‘false truths’ were proved comprehensively wrong. Trump had barely sworn his oath of office when the dispute with the media developed about the size of the crowds on his inauguration day.

A day later Kellyanne Conway, another loathsome Trump counsellor, was challenged on American TV about the figures. She said memorably: “You’re saying it’s a falsehood. Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.” Thus today’s world lies bleeding as truth battles with falsehoods and ‘alternative facts’.

Mind you it seems that this alternative facts business isn’t only an American phenomenon. Take our very own Finance Secretary Derek Mackay. He described his budget offer for Glasgow as ‘a fair and good deal’. Make no mistake that’s straight out of the Kellyanne Conway tradition of ‘alternative facts.’

Here’s the truth. Before Derek Mackay rose in the Holyrood parliament Glasgow’s budget for 2016-2018 faced cuts of £130million. When he sat down that had become £150m. What Glasgow had to find for the coming financial year rose from £47m to £67m. Fact to which there is no alternative.

Since the SNP came to power, almost ten years ago, every year local government’s budget has gone down and down. And Glasgow’s share of that budget has gone down and down with it. If you crunch the numbers, assuming that Glasgow’s budget share had stayed at the level it was before the SNP came to power, we’re owed almost £325m. That’s a whopping loss of £14m for every ward area in the city. The knife has now reached the bone.

It’s the scale of these SNP cuts that has forced Glasgow’s Labour administration to raise the city’s council tax by 3%. We had no alternative after the Mackay Budget, if we wanted to safeguard frontline services.

Here’s some details. Of Glasgow’s 275,000 households, one in four get Council Tax Rebate so won’t pay anything. The two lowest Council Tax bands face increases around 60p a week - little more than the cost of a pint of milk. However that’s not really the point. The real truth stands - ‘No ifs no buts’ Glasgow’s Council Tax hike has been forced on us by SNP cuts.

THOSE of you who read this column regularly will know that where Glasgow is concerned I try not to dwell on the negative. Right then Priesthill in Pollok.

Last week I announced that we will be investing more than £5m in an improvement programme for almost 200 homes there. That will transform their condition and at the same time rejuvenate the local community.

On top, in the same week, there was news of a combined £15m investment for Byres Road, in the west of the city, and Parkhead Cross, in the east. That’s new money for the environment in both areas to restore, and improve, their historical heritage. This will breathe new life into both and promises to attract further new investment. In the blink of an eye, in one week, that’s £20m put down to build for Glasgow’s future.

QUESTION: what one thing do Robbie Coltrane, Stanley Baxter, the late Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman,Tim Roth and Oscar winners, Glenda Jackson and Mark Rylance, have in common? Answer: one time or another every one of them trod the boards in Glasgow’s famous Citizens Theatre.

And if I may say so the Citz doesn’t have a greater backer than its very own city council. Of late the council has awarded the theatre a 99 year lease, which secures its future, and is also the major backer for the theatre’s total redevelopment - to the tune of £4m.

But still thy beating heart - the works won’t alter the theatre’s original auditorium. Rather a new Citizens will emerge retaining all the historic hallmarks of its 70 year past, but in what we hope will be greater grandeur. The Citz is a legendary venue and icon of the British theatre, holding a global reputation for its brave and imaginative productions. Long may that continue.