caltonjock

1. June 3 2011; Former MSP Frank McAveety urged to throw his hat into the ring as council candidate for Glasgow Council 2012. In reply to a lukewarm report indicating McAveety might return a local voter offered advice.

a. Anonymous; I found your recent post somewhat bemusing. I’m a committed and dedicated Labour Party activist and I can assure you that there is little support nor desire for Frank McAveety to play an active part in Labour Party politics especially in the east end of Glasgow. Whilst Frank certainly has an impressive curriculum vitae it is exactly that – an over exaggerated, selective account of his career littered with half-truths, lies and conveniently forgotten mishaps. Over Frank’s three terms as MSP for Shettleston the constituency has gone from being the safest Labour seat in Glasgow to the SNPs second home in Glasgow (after Glasgow Southside, a new constituency made up of a significant part of Frank’s previous constituency before boundary changes).

b. If Frank and his circle of sidekicks can’t see this as a major rejection by the electorate then he (and the Labour Party) are as out of touch and egotistical as the Scottish National Party have led the party to believe over recent months. The electorate want a representative who is committed to their constituents – not their own journey up the greasy political pole, and by-god Shettleston with its abhorrent health, crime and housing figures needs a representative who puts people before power. If any lessons are to be learned – this is it! Sadly these lessons haven’t. Selection panels haven’t even opened, candidates yet to be selected and votes won’t be cast of another year, yet there is speculation that Frank will take on the leadership of Glasgow City Council.

c. It is now time for Frank, and all of his Labour Party colleagues who lost their seat’s to start to show some humility and admit defeat. It is a politicians job to win elections – they failed! It is now time for our new thinkers, young talents and experienced activists to stand up and challenge the SNP, otherwise our Party will be even more stale in 5 years time than it was this year and there will be at least one more vote for the SNP – my vote! http://glasgowunihumanrights.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/former-msp-frank-mcaveety-urged-to.html

2. September 11 2011; McAveety is held off Labour list amid probe.

a. Ex-Minister and MSP Frank McAveety has been kept off Labour’s approved list of candidates for next year’s municipal elections amid a police probe into financial irregularities as it emerges a businessman, once jailed for an alleged duty-free fraud was deselected. Labour’s Glasgow branch has ruled Mr McAveety will have to be re-interviewed following the news last week that a city Councillor and former aide of the ex-MSP for Shettleston had contacted police about the use of public money at his constituency office. http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/mcaveety-is-held-off-labour-list-amid-probe.15217796

3. November 8 2011; Analysis: What on earth is going on in Glasgow Council? http://caledonianmercury.com/2010/08/11/analysis-what-on-earth-is-going-on-in-glasgow-council/009866

a. It is hard to look at the line of extraordinary scandals which has trailed out of Glasgow City Council this year with anything other than utter bewilderment. What on earth is going on there? It is almost as if the political leaders of Scotland’s biggest city – those who should be setting an example in terms of public life for the rest of the city – have gone into collective meltdown. Each revelation has been bizarre and newsworthy on its own but it is worth putting them altogether, only then does a true picture emerge of what can only be described as a crisis.

4. November 13 2011; Council in ‘record pay-off’ scandal http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/283451/Council-in-record-pay-off-scandal

A controversial quango boss who gave lucrative contracts to millionaire Labour donors is set to pocket Scotland’s biggest ever public sector ‘golden goodbye’. Willie Docherty, head of cash-strapped Scottish council’s arm’s-length firm, is in line to receive a staggering £615,000 when he steps down next year. Part of a special super-charged early retirement package, the prospective deal includes a £465,000 tax-free sum on top of his £150,000 salary – an annual wage higher than Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr Docherty, 55, the chief executive of City Building Glasgow, is no stranger to controversy, as he was closely linked to drugs shame former Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell and has faced repeated cronyism accusations because of his links with Labour.

As part of his pay-off, Mr Docherty is also rumoured to be in line to receive a 40 year service bonus despite only having 30 years with the council and its subsidiary. A former apprentice who grew up in Glasgow’s tough Castlemilk scheme, his wife Sadie is a Labour councillor in the city

5. February 10 2012; Wheels come off Glasgow Labour Council https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIMSAoRN6Ds

Municipal politics often present an ugly, sordid spectacle, one that is mercilessly depicted in Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs feature. Few present one as sordid as Glasgow City Council, which over decades has honed the traditional script elements of cronyism, petty nepotism, influence-peddling, individual venality and payoffs allied to huge profits to the external vultures – the beneficiaries of contract placements.

6. February 10 2012; Labour stares into the abyss – fear and panic in George Square https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQg3rjAnBh4

a. The Glasgow Labour ship is aground, holed below the waterline, but may float until May. To Labour Councillors – I have this to say – you can’t avoid risk either way, so make the smart bet – move to the SNP. You’ll be welcomed, and your constituents will understand – but only if you do it now, and spend the next ten weeks or so explaining and convincing them. If you truly believe in Glasgow, you MUST do it – and you can. Don’t be part of the collapse of Glasgow Labour – be part of the future of Scotland!

b. Comments;

i. arthurdaileys minder; The wheels are coming off the Glasgow Labour cart…….a long time coming.

ii. akoustixx; Dinosaurs reign no more!

iii. MrZambology; Libelous just now wait a couple of years and you’ll see it’s the truth. I stand by everything I said. Thanks for the advice Z.

iv. MrZambology; After the illegal war in Iraq, they should have disbanded. Socialism is alive and well in Scotland without them. The SNP and the people of Scotland don’t need them, they can run back to Westminster with their tails between their legs. Their scum as far as I am concerned.

7. February 13 2012; Labour Plunge New Depths In Glasgow in Blackmail Scandal http://tommyballgovan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/labour-plunge-new-depths-in-glasgow-in.html

a. Congratulations are in order to Gordon Matheson, who took over from Labour criminal Stephen Purcell in a scandalous resignation involving drugs, gangs and blackmail, but which seemed to elicit little interest from the mainstream media or BBC Scotland. Matheson, who has never had a proper job, professed himself “delighted” to have pushed through the Glasgow budget, with its £43.000.000 cuts, including some Freddy Krugeresque jactitations of Glasgow City Council workers’ terms and conditions.

8. May 8 2012; Scottish Labour and Co-operative successful in Local Government Elections

a. Twenty four of the thirty Labour and Co-operative Party Candidates standing in Scottish Local Government elections have been elected in a very successful election for Scottish Labour. The four Labour and Co-operative candidates in Edinburgh, where Labour won the most seats and which has plans to become a Co-operative Council, were all elected as were all four candidates in Glasgow – which hopes to match the capital city’s Co-operative Council ambitions. In Glasgow, former Labour and Co-operative MSPs, Bill Butler and Frank McAveety were elected to the council. http://scotland.party.coop/2012/05/08/scottish-labour-and-co-operative-successful-in-local-government-elections/

9. July 21 2012; Glasgow City Council Nepotism – Jobs for the Boys http://discuss.glasgowguide.co.uk/lofiversion/index.php/t24707.html

a. Glasgow Labour’s murky history is clearly not in the past after appointing a failed Labour politician to a post that is supposed to be politically neutral. Not only is he a former Labour minister, he also ran the council campaign in Glasgow and has aligned himself to ensure he gets a top spot. Earning a reported salary of just under £50,000 a year is yet another slap in the face to the people of Glasgow. The list of incompetence and jobs for the boys goes on. I’ve raised my concerns with the chief solicitor at the council. Tom McCabe has mastered the art of golden handshakes and has been handsomely rewarded for his part in the council campaign. This post is supposed to be non-political – what assurances can he make to the people of Glasgow that he will not be putting his allegiances to Labour first?”

10. August 21 2012; Glasgow appoints ‘Cycling Czar’.

a. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, has appointed a ‘Cycling Czar’ who will be tasked with increasing levels of leisure, commuting and sports cycling as the city looks to build on the cycling’s higher profile ahead of its own hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The man who will take on the new role is former Scottish Sports Minister Frank McAveety, a former Labour MSP who lost his seat at the last Holyrood elections. Mr McAveety plans to publish an updated cycling strategy for the city later this year.