ALL political administrations, no matter how much unity of purpose they might previously have exhibited, collapse eventually amid recrimination and paranoia. During the end of days there are secret meetings, shifting alliances and sullen glances. It’s unusual though, to detect evidence of such behaviour at the start of a shiny, new executive stretch. Thus I was somewhat taken aback to learn from an impeccable source that a recent column of mine for The Herald had been the subject of some casual paranoia at a recent social gathering of the newly-installed SNP officer class at Glasgow City Council.

In my piece I had highlighted how the outgoing Labour administration had moved to shut down any debate over its decision to award CGI, the Canadian technology giant, Glasgow’s lucrative IT business. Thus the final act of the self-styled People’s Party was to ensure CGI received Glasgow’s business without any tendering process. The decision bore all the hallmarks of the Labour Party’s long, slow demise in Scotland. There was arrogance, a sense of entitlement and a failure even to give Scotland’s indigenous IT community the chance to compete for the business.

I’d simply encouraged Susan Aitken, the new SNP leader of the council, not to hide behind Labour’s supine and cowardly behaviour and to call in the decision. After all, Ms Aitken had spent the entire local election campaign telling us she would “stand up for Glasgow” and put an end to Labour’s old and discredited networks of power. This was an early test of her resolve to do things differently. Yet, 11 weeks on, Ms Aitken has failed to lift a finger to prevent this highly questionable deal going through.

Instead there has been idle and inaccurate title-tattle about the identity of the person alleged to have briefed me for my column. A wee word of advice here, Ms Aitken: some of us do not require the services of an army of highly-paid advisers, paid from the public purse, to do the work you and your newly-elected colleagues can surely do themselves.

What ought to be concerning the fledgling administration and commanding all of what exists of its collective intellectual finesse is the fragile nature of its mandate. The first 100 days are now recognised as being a key and defining indicator of the direction, tone and strength of your administration. In the case of Ms Aitken’s new team we had all better hope she and they emerge energised from their summer break and armed with something – anything – that shows she is ready to begin the task of “standing up for Glasgow”.

So far, she has indicated she will establish a first XI of councillors who will form the council equivalent of a full cabinet, each with responsibility for key areas. It carries the promise of empowering local politicians to take proper control of major issues affecting the city and laying down the law to unelected officials. At the moment though, Glasgow City Chambers is in the grip of a troika of senior officials: the Chief Executive Annemarie O’Donnell; Director of Governance Carole Forrest and Director of Communications Colin Edgar.

These three ran rings round Ms Aitken’s predecessor, Frank McAveety, and have become much more influential in the running of Scotland’s most important local authority than any unelected public servants ought to be. Instead of worrying about the contents of newspaper articles, Ms Aitken should be soliciting some advice from Mr McAveety and his predecessor Gordon Matheson about the modus operandi of some of these senior officials. Her lack of action on the controversial CGI deal means the trio are already a goal up.

Ms Aitken promised to dismantle the old networks of unelected power in Glasgow and there is none older, more unaccountable or more powerful than the George Square Three. She ought to have faced them down over CGI, avoided the prospect of expensive litigation and shown how she meant to go on. She needs to remind some of her officials who make the big decisions on public spending that she is the boss.

Ms Aitken’s leads a minority administration and has not yet been able to reach a deal with the eight Greens. She needs them on board if she is to navigate her all-important first budget early next year.

The upcoming Cardonald by-election, occasioned by the sad passing of the universally-admired Alistair Watson, is of vital importance to the new council leader. If Labour was to win this comfortably it would be an early indicator of how the other by-elections that will inevitably occur in a city of this size might go. The Greens have shown they won’t easily be bought by LED Lampposts while the Tories voting with Labour is an ever-present danger.

Ms Aitken’s senior officials will soon be delivering their draft budget analyses and she must already know Holyrood kept back some tough announcements on cuts until after the election. How does she go about persuading the Greens to vote for austerity handed down by a national government that has never shown any sympathy for Glasgow’s unique challenges?

Mr McAveety should be pressurising the SNP daily. Little, though, has been heard of him either. Perhaps he’s smarting from the knowledge that if he and Labour’s national leadership hadn’t pursued such an ultra-Unionist agenda during the council elections his party might actually have remained as the biggest party.

And just to show I’m not in any way biased, here’s a wee word of advice for Mr McAveety too: you should be tasking your key lieutenants to discover the identity of the two SNP councillors talking openly about resigning the party whip, and deploying your renowned gruff charm to make them walk across the floor.

Glasgow is a hard city and it plays politics hard. To steer a majority administration requires proper leadership, a degree of charisma and the nerve of a Mississippi hustler.

We’ll know soon enough if Ms Aitken has any of these. By now, she should have announced some bold actions aimed at targeting record deprivation levels in the city she pledged to stand up for. In the meantime, watch your back, Susan.