Henry MacFarlane (born 1995) was a Lib Dem member of the Glasgow City Council from 6 April 2015 and its mayor from 25 June 2018 (succeeding Aiden Thomas).
Biography[]
Henry MacFarlane was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1995 to a middle-class family. He was politically active while in university, and he was elected to the city council in 2015 at the age of 20. As the Liberal Democrats' leader on the Glasgow City Council, he opposed the SNP's nationalism and Labour's censorship policies, emerging as the leader of a protest movement that, from 2017 to 2018, rallied Glaswegians against a lack of media freedom. This produced a liberal revolution in which the Lib Dems swept the city council election and became its largest party. With Labour and Tory support, MacFarlane became the new Mayor of Glasgow, replacing the Labour incumbent Aiden Thomas.
Mayoralty[]
MacFarlane inherited a budget of 170 million GBP which fell by 5 million on a weekly basis. The council voted 14-7 to recognize same-sex marriages, 25-1 for fishing regulations, 23-2 to create new parks, 23-1 for a port tax, 24-2 for dog licenses, 21-4 for anti-money laundering measures, 24-2 for a church tax, 21-6 to abolish media censorship, 20-6 for a luxury tax, 22-4 to protect plant varieties, and 20-4 for a junk food tax.