LET’S start with the news; not the “fake news” so widespread these days but real news. I’ve done the sums. I’ve added up the columns and carried forward. I’ve sharpened my pencil and have done it all again, just to check.

The real news for the citizens of Glasgow is that, since the SNP came to power at Holyrood, every single ward area in our city has lost funding worth a massive £14 million.

In my book, that amounts to Scottish Government cuts heading in the direction of £1.5m a year, for every ward in Glasgow.

Stand up Linn, Pollok, Govan, Drumchapel, Newlands and Langside, to name but a few. Nicola Sturgeon owes you £14m to date, and counting.

Of course, already I hear the usual cacophony from Holyrood’s government benches retreading Mark Twain’s three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

It is not so and here’s why. Since the Scottish governments of Alex Salmond and his successor, Ms Sturgeon, took control in Scotland, Glasgow’s share of the local government cake has gone down every year to 2017.

In the past decade, no other local authority has been affected so badly. If Glasgow’s share of the local government budget had stayed the same as it had been in 2008/9, the city would be £324m better off. Mind you, these are not the real facts the First Minister likes to acknowledge.

Rather, her Glasgow seems to be a city flowing that is with milk and honey, not one benighted by her piling austerity on Tory austerity from London.

On the Twittersphere lately Ms Sturgeon expressed her “delight” at her Finance Secretary’s sudden good fortune in finding an “extra” £160m for local government in between the cushions of the family sofa.

She said her “constituents will benefit from the extra £17m for Glasgow”. Take note of “the extra £17m”.

Almost every Scottish government minister cheered the First Minister to the echo. They crowed on social media about “extra money”, “more cash”, “additional funding” and the like in a media blitz deliberately spun to mislead the public.

What really happened was that Derek Mackay did a dirty deal with Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Green party, to get the SNP’s austerity budget through the Holyrood Parliament.

Then they pitched this as not some reductions in the scale of cuts but as a new bonanza for local government services.

Due to his autocratic dealings with local councils throughout the country, I once described the then Finance Secretary, John Swinney, as “Don Corleone” Swinney.

Continuing the Godfather analogy, Mr Mackay’s two-stage bumbling budget makes him the “Fredo of the Family”.

What Mr Mackay’s budget actually means for Glasgow is the equivalent of someone being mugged in the street for £100.

Then, when the mugger realises his deeds have been captured on CCTV, as an afterthought he throws a £10 note back to the victim.

Before the grubby Mackay/Harvie deal Glasgow had to find £67m in cuts this coming year; now that’s £53m – some bonanza.

That means the combined Scottish Government cuts for Glasgow, in the last two years, are coming in at £136m.

These cuts are the reason the Labour administration in Glasgow will today put forward an increase in council tax of three per cent.

This will raise a little over £7m and I propose to plough every last penny into protecting frontline services. There will be no cuts to community groups doing vital work in neighbourhoods across the city; no cuts to our pioneering affordable warmth dividend for our city’s oldest citizens; and no cuts to the Glasgow guarantee, delivering training, apprenticeships and jobs for school leavers and graduates.

On top of that, the increase in council tax will mean no cuts to free garden maintenance for pensioners; no cuts to free bulk rubbish uplifts; and no increased charges for school meals or school transport.

But later today, when Labour in Glasgow presents its budget, there will be much more.

We have listened to the people. They say we need to do more for cleansing; more for child care; and more for local communities in the city.

So we are going to do all of these things.

The people have spoken and Labour has listened. Enough is enough. We will find the means to put forward a people’s budget for Glasgow.

The question is this: will the SNP opposition vote for the city or obey the SNP commands emanating from Edinburgh to vote down a people’s budget?

Frank McAveety is leader of Glasgow City Council