3 December 2019: Police Watchdog chief Susan Deacon quits SPA claiming the system is “fundamentally flawed”
In her resignation letter, the former Labour MSP for two terms and health minister said there was “little more” she could do to make the governance and accountability of policing work effectively.
Independent observers commented that her resignation and criticism of the way the national police force is scrutinised and held to account could be construed as a political grenade thrown into Scottish politics just before the December 2019, General Election
The vice-chairman of the SPA, David Crichton, who will lead the SPA until a new appointment is made did not support the assertions of Prof Deacon. He stated:
“I and our team believe that the system of governance and accountability for policing in Scotland that was envisaged by the founding legislation is a sound one and works effectively. While we respect Susan Deacon’s right to resign from her post our collective focus will be on working together with our dedicated staff team to build on recent progress, deliver the actions and improvements already identified, and redouble the SPA’s focus on the issues of greatest importance to policing and the public.”
In Parliament, the three stooges, sensing blood, piled into the First Minister
Scottish Labour said the resignation “raises serious questions” about the SPA’s ability to oversee Police Scotland”.The Scottish Conservatives described the SPA as “an organisation in crisis”.
Wee Willie Winkie Rennie said the police was “in crisis once again” and claimed there was a “toxic mix of chaos and complacency”.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon rejected opposition claims and said, “The police are not in crisis and I think it does a disservice to police officers around our country who are working so hard to keep us safe to say so. The SPA will continue with the improvements which were being made to governance and accountability”.
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said there had been “significant improvement across many facets of the police service in Scotland.
Adding, “As Ms Deacon, herself acknowledges, our police service is in a much stronger place now than prior to her appointment”.
She certainly knows just when to raise her profile gaining maximum right-wing media coverage but the words of the vice-chairman of the CPA hold more potency. But a dig into her past is revealing since it exposes the incompetence of the Labour Party and herself at the time they held power over Scots.
11 January 2000: The NHS is coping with the crisis, says Health Minister Susan Deacon.
Really? That is not how things will look to the vast majority of the public.
The health service of the fifth largest economy on the planet should be able to deal with an outbreak of winter flu, no matter how virulent, without hospitals having to go on red alert, cancel hundreds of non-emergency operations or trawl around the country in search of intensive care beds.
This is not a picture of a service ‘coping’, but of one seemingly on the point of collapse.
The Minister’s insistence that hospitals and GPs are handling the enormous strain of the epidemic is at odds with the anecdotal evidence from medical staff around the country.
1 May 2000: It’s Desperately Leaking Susan – Deacon Accused of Spinning Stories
Health Minister Susan Deacon was last night accused of being the source behind a bid to destabilise the Scottish Cabinet.
Senior Labour figures believe she is behind briefings aimed at discrediting pretenders to Donald Dewar’s job.
Yesterday it emerged that the First Minister is likely to step down next year. He fuelled speculation by claiming he would not “cling to the office” if he was no longer wanted.
His departure looks certain to spark a bruising leadership battle and many believe Deacon is already staking her claim.
Other, more experienced, candidates include Wendy Alexander, Tom McCabe, Jack McConnell and favourite Henry McLeish.
Weekend reports claimed a “stop Henry McLeish” campaign was being run by senior members of the Cabinet.
17 May 2000: Heart hospital abandons surgeon search Heart surgeon crisis ‘will last a year
Glasgow Royal Infirmary has moved to end the crisis in Scotland’s heart transplant service by trying to train a home-grown team of surgeons.
The development comes after failing to recruit experts from elsewhere, a senior cardiologist revealed last night.
However, it will take up to a year to have a trained team in place.
The hospital is in discussions with three city surgeons with previous experience of performing heart transplants, in the aim of resuming the life-saving operations, suspended this month, at the start of next year.
The move to train its own team reflects the GRI’s continuing failure to recruit transplant surgeons from elsewhere in the UK or around the world.
6 July 2000: Lanarkshire mafia in the frame as Susan Deacon takes the rap for poor Health Service Delivery
She looked, said one Labour MSP yesterday, “completely hyper”.
Another added a particularly Glaswegian twist to descriptions of the health minister’s demeanour during that fractious meeting of the Scottish parliamentary Labour group – “She had a face like fizz”.
If Susan Deacon was annoyed by the dressing down delivered to ministers in front of her colleagues, it is not hard to see why.
There was some delight taken in her discomfort, but still, the impression exists that Deacon is yet another victim of the party’s Old Labour-style “Lanarkshire mafia”.
That is the loose term given to the group of male ministers which employs the tactics of the old party machine to stop those they regard as too radical or a threat.
30 August 2000: Hospital waiting lists rise by 5% – Health Minister Susan Deacon warns poorly-performing NHS Trusts they can expect a visit from hit squads
Hospital waiting lists have grown by 5% in the space of three months, according to figures published yesterday by the Scottish Executive.
They show that in-patient and day-case waiting lists totalled 86,549 at the end of June, 4215 up from the end of March.
The number of patients waiting more than 12 months grew by 81 to 553 at the end of June.
NHS Trusts which have contributed to the increase can expect a visit soon from the Executive Health Department’s hit squads, or performance management teams said Health Minister Susan Deacon.
But she pointed out that more patients were being treated more quickly, with eight out of 10 Scots now receiving treatment within three months of joining a waiting list, and hospitals across the country increasing their activity.
7 November 2000: Labour Party Rob NHS – Outcry as Money Is Transferred to Pay off Council House Debts
A massive £44m has been transferred from the Scottish health budget to pay council house debts.
The move has embroiled Health Minister Susan Deacon in a new row over NHS spending.
It will also shock hard-pressed hospitals – Tayside alone has a £12m.
Most of the £44m will be spent reducing the £1b council housing debt in Glasgow.
The money had been left over as a result of changes, made by the Labour Government in 1998, to the way hospital trusts were run.
It is being transferred despite a Labour Party manifesto pledge at the 1997 election that any savings from abolishing the Tory system of running the NHS would be spent on direct patient care.
Last night a health department spokesman defended the decision, saying it was ‘old money’ generated before devolution and held by the Treasury in London.
The only way it could have been accessed, he said, was by paying off debts.
He insisted it would have been lost to Scotland altogether if it had not been switched to the housing budget.
8 November 2000: The Truth about Health Service’s Missing Millions
The truth behind £44m of NHS money transferred out of the health budget was exposed last night after officials admitted it could instead have been invested back in hospitals.
On Monday they insisted the cash had to be spent on reducing council housing debt in Glasgow or it would be lost altogether because of strict Treasury rules.
But 24 hours later, after persistent questioning from the Scottish Daily Mail, health department officials agreed that, despite the complex financial procedures, the money could all have been spent on health.
The admission placed fresh pressure on Health Minister Susan Deacon to fight to have all the money returned to her budget.
18 November 2000: Waiting Lists Scandal; Health Minister under Attack as NHS Queues Increase by 15 Per Cent
The Scottish Executive faced criticism last night after it emerged that hospital waiting lists have risen by 15 per cent in the past 12 months.
Official figures show that there are now more people waiting for operations than there were when Labour came to power in 1997.
The number of people on waiting lists has risen over the course of the past year by 11,187, or 14.8 per cent, and there are now 86,540 people on waiting lists, way above the Government’s target of 75,000.
23 November 2000: ‘Clueless’ Health Minister Is in the Dark over Waiting Lists
Health Minister Susan Deacon came under attack yesterday after making an embarrassing blunder.
On a visit to Tayside, she was forced to admit that she did not know the hospital waiting list figures for the area.
Her admission was in spite of a massive 47 per cent increase in the list in the past year.
Miss Deacon was being interviewed on a local radio station during a visit to Dundee to meet new Tayside Health Board chairman Peter Barnes, and Jim McGoldrick, the new chairman of the Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Asked to comment on the increases in local waiting lists, she said: ‘I don’t know the figures for here’.
She then tried to divert the question to Paul White, chief executive of the Tayside NHS trust.
15 December 2000: Deacon’s Shot in the Arm for NHS; as the Health Minister Unveils Her Blueprint for a Major Overhaul of the Health Service, Labour Is Again Snared in a Row about Rising Waiting Times
Health Minister Susan Deacon promised a shake-up of the Scottish health service yesterday to speed up treatment and give patients a better service.
Miss Deacon published the Executive’s National Health Plan, which set out a series of targets and deadlines for treatment and revealed plans to streamline the management of local health boards and trusts.
The plans were given a cautious welcome by many health professionals, but some medical experts warned the proposals were too general and did not contain enough detail to bring about real change.
Experts drew up the plan in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the way the Executive was running the health service.
The results of a poll conducted for the Executive and disclosed exclusively in the Scottish Daily Mail, showed eight out of ten Scots believed Labour had failed to make any improvements to the health service.
Miss Deacon admitted patients were concerned about the care they received. She said:
“There were many concerns. Too many delays, too much fragmentation and too much waiting. Too little information and poor communication came up time and again. People felt that too often the NHS did things to them, rather than with them. They wanted to be cared for as well as cured”.
The plan also includes a series of new targets for waiting times, proposals to involve patients in decision-making and a determination to streamline the structure of health boards and health trusts.
Miss Deacon said no patient would have to wait more than nine months for hospital treatment – three months less than current waiting times.
The Health Minister said reducing waiting times was a priority for the Scottish Executive, and said she also wanted to ensure a patient’s journey from GP to the hospital to home was better and faster.
Miss Deacon also announced a shake-up of the structure of the NHS with trusts and boards to be replaced by a single board held accountable for the whole of the local health system.
She also plans to end the so-called ‘postcode lottery’ of treatment, which means some drugs and treatments are available in different parts of the country, depending on local decisions made by boards and trusts.
Miss Deacon said:
“We will work to end the postcode lottery of care which grew up under the Tory internal market”.
15 March 2001: Strike threat at four Glasgow hospitals
Hospitals in Glasgow face the threat of chaos after a decision by medical secretaries to hold a ballot on strike action.
Union leaders warned yesterday that the dispute over pay and conditions could bring major disruption at the Royal Infirmary, Gartnavel, Stobhill, and the Western Infirmary.
More than 500 secretaries, employed by North Glasgow University NHS Trust, are demanding more money and better conditions.
Glasgow NHS hospitals faced disarray last night when medical secretaries began a three-day strike over pay.
As hundreds of secretaries marched from Glasgow’s George Square to the City Halls, hospital bosses conceded that waiting lists and non-emergency operations could be affected.
Nearly 300 secretaries at ten hospitals voted 91.3 per cent in favour of strike action after talks broke down between health workers union Unison, and North Glasgow NHS Trust after 14 months.
Staff in the north of Glasgow rejected a national offer that would see many staff awarded a 30 per cent pay increase over four years and voted to continue their own dispute.
They felt the deal would not apply to every member of staff and failed to recognise their skills.
2 November 2001: Medical secretaries walkout over pay
More than 300 medical secretaries walked out yesterday after claiming health chiefs had reneged on a deal to improve pay and conditions.
The secretaries, who work for North Glasgow NHS Trust, opted to strike indefinitely after negotiations to settle the dispute collapsed. Unison, the health service union, accused trust officials of going back on a promise to grade medical secretaries on the same scale as hospital managerial staff.
Unison claimed they had changed the timescale when secretaries would receive pay rises.
The trust confirmed that it would not upgrade secretaries until April.
Carolyn Leckie, branch secretary of Unison, said yesterday:
“The trust has failed to honour an agreement and that is why we have taken this stance.”
21 Feb 2017: Malpractice’ claim at Glasgow City Council
Police have met senior figures at Glasgow City Council amid allegations of malpractice, it has emerged. It follows claims of cronyism within the land and environmental services department. A long-running internal investigation has been looking at a number of issues, including alleged procurement irregularities. The department’s executive director resigned last November.
Police Scotland said their inquiries were at an early stage but it is understood officers have taken an interest in issues that arose through Glasgow City Council’s internal investigation and that the local authority would be willing to co-operate with police. It is also confirmed that a meeting took place recently between the council and police and that some of the issues spoken about involved people outside the council.
The land and services department looks after services such as cleansing, bin collection, park, roads to environmental health and trading standards. The department has about 4,000 employees and a revenue budget of £190m. In November 2016 its executive director Brian Devlin – whose salary was about £120,000 – resigned after five years in the role.
It is understood that Mr Devlin was spoken to during the internal investigation. The others interviewed by the internal investigators included two members of staff with close personal links to housing repair company Mears Scotland, which had also been at the centre of a local controversy over council contracts in neighbouring North Lanarkshire.
One is the son of its managing director who is married to Glasgow’s Lord Provost Sadie Docherty. The other is the partner of an executive with Mears who is now working in a different role at the council. Mears currently has no major contracts with Glasgow City Council and the company has denied wrongdoing.
A spokesman for Labour-run Glasgow City Council said it would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing internal investigation but the broader issue of openness and transparency within Glasgow City Council is set to be a key theme in the campaign ahead of May’s local elections.
Supporters of the Labour administration may argue that the internal investigation demonstrates that they take such matters seriously. But, the SNP believe that, in general, the council could do more to ensure it is transparent and seen to be so.
The leader of the SNP group on the council, Susan Aitken, stressed she did not wish to comment on this specific investigation or any of the individuals concerned. She said: “Glasgow SNP have already expressed serious concerns about public trust in the council in the light of a number of incidents over the years and have committed to appoint an independent expert to conduct a root and branch review of governance if elected.”
Councils are expected to follow tight procurement rules and statutory procedures to ensure an open and transparent process is followed for any contract being awarded – major contracts also have to comply with EU law.
They should never be awarded on the basis of personal connections and no company tendering for a contract should be given an unfair advantage or disadvantage. It would be seen as bad practice – and possibly a breach of rules – for anyone with a close personal connection to a company to be involved with decisions on whether or not they are awarded a contract. Any allegation a council employee was able to give one company bidding for work an unfair advantage, through for instance sharing information, would also be taken very seriously.
Recommendations on who to award significant contracts to are made by council officials, although the actual decisions are taken by committees of councillors. It is unusual for these committees to go against the officials’ recommendations. Police Scotland said: “A matter has been raised with the police and inquiries are at an early stage to assess this information.” (BBC Scotland news)
16 Jan 2016: Glasgow Labour split over ‘missed opportunity’ to appoint a woman as City Treasurer
A split has opened up in Glasgow City Council’s ruling Labour group over the elevation of Philip Bratt to City Treasurer.
Concerns were raised at a recent meeting of Labour councillors that the leadership was failing to honour a commitment to gender equality. The Labour group recently passed a motion in support of the Women 50/50 campaign which calls for legislative quotas for women on public boards, in the Scottish Parliament and in local councils. The drive for equality was launched in September 2014 by Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and has since been backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as well as dozens of MSPs and councillors.
Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety has increased the number of female Labour councillors on the executive committee from one to three, with the Labour group also contributing seven men. But it has been claimed that recommending Philip Bratt to replace Paul Rooney as City Treasurer was a “missed opportunity” to increase women’s representation at the top of the local authority. It is understood several councillors criticised the leadership when the Labour group was told at a private meeting last Monday that Mr McAveety would put forward Mr Bratt.
One Labour councillor, who asked not to be named, said: “It flared up because of the appointment of Philip Braat. Some of the group members argued it should be a woman because of the motion. During the discussion Frank (McAveety) asked Archie (Graham, Labour’s equalities spokesman and deputy leader of the group) to try defend the line on woman not needing to be appointed.”
Councillor Judith Fisher, who spoke out at the meeting, said: “It’s a matter of public record that the Labour group unanimously agreed to support the Women 50/50 campaign and the realisation of gender balance of Labour appointments at all levels of the council. The progress of moving from one woman executive member to three should be appreciated. However, I will continue to press for full gender balance to become a reality. A council that reflects the city it represents leads to better decision making.” (The Evening Times)
7 Feb 2016: Glasgow Council leader Frank McAveety makes threat of legal action after complaint about leadership
Glasgow council leader Frank McAveety has taken legal advice after a complaint about his administration was sent to Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.
An individual claiming to be a party councillor made a number of claims about his leadership and said morale in the city chambers was at “an all-time low”. However, a spokesperson for McAveety described the claims are “completely untrue” and raised the prospect of legal action.
McAveety became council leader for the second time after succeeding Gordon Matheson in the post. However, his spell in charge has been marked by tensions in his group and damaging leaks.
The Sunday Herald revealed McAveety’s allies had been critical of council chief executive Anne-marie O’Donnell over a perceived lack of detail on budget cuts and McAveety, a Labour MSP between 1999 and 2011, declined to offer his full support for her when asked.
The new leader also faced questions from his colleagues over the appointment of councillor Phil Bratt as city treasurer. Bratt is perceived to be one of a number of McAveety allies handed key posts and some councillors believe the leadership has failed to give enough top jobs to women.
It can now be revealed that an anonymous letter, written on local authority headed notepaper and signed by a “concerned Labour councillor”, was sent to Dugdale directly at Holyrood. The author provided unflattering commentary of McAveety’s leadership and made a number of claims about the mood inside the council. The individual wrote: “Morale is at an all-time low amongst elected members and council officers.” A party source said the letter was received and passed to Labour headquarters in Glasgow’s Bath Street. (The Glasgow Herald)
17 Feb 2016: Glasgow City Council in open warfare as under-fire Labour boss McAveety removes spin chief
The deepening rift ripping through Scotland’s largest council has erupted as its leader removes one of his senior officers in the clearest sign yet of a civil war tearing through the Labour-run authority. Frank McAveety, leader of Glasgow City Council, has forced his director of communications Colin Edgar out the door and into one of the authority’s arms-length organisations.
McAveety has had a long-standing distrust of his media chief, linking with with both the previous regime at the council under Gordon Matheson and connected to senior figures in the Labour Party hierarchy the leader and his inner circle claim actively oppose them. Edgar, who has held the post for almost a decade and was a former communications boss of Scottish Labour, will take on a similar role at Glasgow Life, the council-owned arts and leisure trust.
Part of his remit will be taken on by McAveety’s special advisor, the former BBC journalist and media chief at quango Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Bob Wylie. Councillors and fellow officers are being told today that Edgar’s new post is to improve the communications operation within Glasgow Life, as it prepares to merge with the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and bid for international events.But it has been an open secret that there had been a communication breakdown between McAveety and Mr Wylie and their communications chief.
One senior Labour figure said: “Colin is a highly respected professional, who has been in the fire with two council leaders before Frank, so why he would need to do this is not entirely clear. He knows how to speak to the press, has their trust and has a subtle professionalism which is invaluable to his senior officers as it should be to the political leadership.” Another said: “Several people in the administration have made no secret of their views on senior officers. Who’s next then? Is this how they want to run their administration?”
Susan Aitken, leader of the council’s SNP group, said: “Cllr McAveety’s hapless administration just seems to be lurching from one calamity to another. “Not only is the Labour group itself rife with infighting, it now also seems that the leader of the council is unable to maintain decent working relationships with highly experienced senior council officers. “Cllr McAveety’s mind is quite clearly not on his day job and that shows in the complete lack of constructive ideas coming out of his administration to address the real problems in service delivery that many Glaswegians are experiencing.”
(The Glasgow Herald)
13 Mar 2016: Problems Mount for Frank McAveety at Glasgow City Council
Frank McAveety’s leadership of Glasgow council has suffered another blow after one of his top officials was signed off sick. Brian Devlin will be recuperating away from the city chambers amid claims morale amongst senior officers is low.
McAveety replaced Gordon Matheson as local authority leader last year, but his Labour administration has lurched from one controversy to another. The former MSP’s internal party critics believe he lacks vision and has appointed male loyalists to key posts. However, there has also been tension with the council’s top officials, who are key to pushing through the leader’s policies.
As revealed by the Sunday Herald, McAveety’s political allies criticised the council chief executive Anne-marie O’Donnell at a Labour group meeting in December over a perceived lack of detail on budget cuts. McAveety refused to give the official full backing.
The leader then removed Colin Edgar from his post as head of communication and service development after a breakdown in their working relationship. McAveety reportedly had a “long-standing distrust” of Edgar, a respected PR professional who has been given a similar job at the council-owned Glasgow Life.
It has now emerged that Devlin, the executive director of Land and Environmental Services, was signed off sick last week. Devlin is in charge of a huge council department including cleansing, parks, roads, environment and sustainability and other related services. The remit spans the management and maintenance of the road transport network and the array of parks and open spaces under the local authority’s control.
A spokesman for the council refused to say whether Devlin had signed off with stress, or whether he had complained about any Labour councillor. He said: “We have a duty of care to all of our employees. Mr Devlin is absent from work on sick leave and we cannot comment further on personal matters.” A council source said relations between the McAveety camp and top officials was “very poor”.
A spokesperson for the SNP Group on the city council said. “There is chaos at the heart of Glasgow Labour and until they are removed the city will be continue to be plagued by poor leadership and score settling. The people of Glasgow are the losers here.” (The Glasgow Herald)
15 Apr 2016: Glasgow City Council “shoring up” public relations operation as ex-BBC journalist bids for contract
Cash-strapped Glasgow City Council could be about to bolster its public relations operation by handing a lucrative contract to an ex-BBC journalist. Former political correspondent John Morrison is among the consultants contending for the chance to provide “independent analysis” of the local authority’s digital presence.
Last year council leader Frank McAveety handed a well paid senior special adviser job to another ex-BBC reporter, Bob Wylie, who was previously in charge of public relations at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) during an expenses scandal.
It emerged in 2010 that officials had clawed back more than £100,000 and gone on foreign fact-finding trips. Mr Wylie later handed back expenses racked up during a junket to Manchester on the day Rangers played in the 2008 UEFA Cup final.
Sources claim the council’s public relations programme has been “floundering” recently and Mr McAveety is thought to be keen to “shore up” the operation. A council spokesman confirmed that the local authority is “conducting a review of council communications, with special reference to developing digital communications”.
Mr Morrison, who runs a Glasgow-based public relations company, said: “They’ve spoken to me but there is nothing agreed.” He later issued a statement which said: “Morrison Media Strategies is a communications and media training company. We have discussions with companies and organisations every day. We don’t talk about them.” ( The Barrhead news)
Brian Devlin
22 May 2016: City Council’s perfect storm as senior boss suspended and prominent politician quits Labour administration
Scotland’s largest council has faced a day of trauma following the suspension of one of its senior officers and a political resignation which leaves the ruling Labour administration’s majority teetering on the brink.
Glasgow City Council announced it had suspended its £120,000-a-year-plus head of land and environmental services Brian Devlin pending an internal investigation, understood to focus on the award of contracts. Mr Devlin had recently returned to work following a period of ill health amid claims of low morale and deep divisions between senior members of the administration and top officers. It is understood Mr Devlin’s lap top has been retained by the council as part of the probe.
The announcement followed the unrelated resignation of former chief whip and chair of the Labour group, Aileen Colleran, who will continue as an independent until next year’s local elections.
Ms Colleran, who is married to SNP MP Chris Stephens, cited disillusion with the party nationally and personal circumstances, including claims she has been treated with “suspicion and mistrust”. Her resignation, combined with a number of suspensions and by-election defeats, has brought the Labour administration within a seat or so of losing its overall majority on the council.
A coup or vote of no-confidence in council leader Frank McAveety is unlikely, whoever it is certain to add a burden to what is expected to be a tumultuous year for the authority in the run up to next year’s council poll. (The Glasgow Herald)
Frank McAveeety
4 Jun 2016: Investigation into allegations of council corruption intensifies
The assistant to a key Glasgow City Council official has been suspended amid ongoing internal investigations into procurement irregularities. Joan Parr was sent home on the same day as her superior, the £120,000-a-year director of land and environmental services, Brian Devlin, last month.
Sources said internal auditors have seized computers from the pair as they look in to a series of concerns insiders say include the “award of contracts”.
Ms Parr is the partner of Steve Kelly, an executive with housing repair giant Mears Scotland, whose friendship with the leader of North Lanarkshire Council, Jim McCabe, helped sparked a civil war in Labour last year.
Her suspension comes as councils across west central Scotland apply intense scrutiny to public procurement contracts after North Lanarkshire Council announced an investigation into sweeping allegations of corruption.
A council spokesman said: “A member of staff has been suspended on a precautionary basis, pending an internal investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further while that is ongoing.”
Mr Devlin picked Ms Parr, an existing council employee, to work as his assistant when he was hired by Glasgow to head his department, which deals with everything from roads maintenance to rat catching, in 2011.
He was suspended shortly after returning to work following a period of ill health amid grumbling about low morale in his department and talk of divisions between officials and the new council leadership of Frank McAveety.
A source said Mr Devlin was under scrutiny “both on performance and integrity”. The executive, who is originally from North Lanarkshire but lives in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, came to the council from engineering firm Amey after a career in local government.
At the time of his appointment, he said: “I’ve been responsible for very similar services in previous jobs, but I’m well aware that what sets Glasgow apart is not only the scale of the operation, but also the expectation that we will be bold and take a lead in meeting the many challenges public services face, while delivering better for communities.”
He hit the headlines shortly after taking up his post when it emerged he had helped to hire the now late former Labour cabinet minister Tom McCabe – no relation to Jim McCabe – as a £50,000-a-year policy adviser.
His department then hit the headlines again in 2013 when it emerged it had failed to renew planning permission for its only landfill, Cathkin Braes, which lies just outside Glasgow’s boundaries in South Lanarkshire. (The Glasgow Herald)
16 Jun 2016 Half of Labour’s female councillors in Glasgow to quit over “macho” council
A Major exodus from Glasgow’s ruling Labour administration is set to deepen rifts within the authority, with almost half the party’s female councillors expected to quit politics.
It is understood that six female politicians, including Lord Provost Sadie Docherty, have signalled they will not to seek re-election amid claims of a “macho culture” within the council.
Mrs Docherty is the only one of those standing down next year to have served more than one term of office, the others having only entered front-line politics in 2012. ( The Herald Scotland)
All about Frank McAveety from 1997 to 2015 -Enough to make your hair curl
Frank McAveety
Frank McAveety – The Silver Fox- His Rise, fall and Resurrection
A young New Labour supporter came to prominence in Glasgow City Council in the late 1990’s. His promise to the electorate was to eliminate corruption and modernise the Administration which had been in power for many a year. With the backing of Tony Blair and Gordon Dewar Frank proceeded to exercise a night of the long knives getting rid of the Lord Provost Pat Lally and his supporters.
The saga caused immense damage within the Labour party in Glasgow and lasted for around 2 years. Frank and his supporters emerged victorious and full of confidence in his ability he undertook his new job with great gusto to the chagrin of many Glaswegians.
Blair & Dewar
13 Oct 1997: Frank McAveety Elected as New Glasgow City Leader
6 Feb 1998: Put labour Party before Lally says McAveeny
Glasgow council chief Frank McAveety last night pleaded “Put loyalty to Labour before loyalty to Lally.” McAveety said his council comrades must ditch veteran Lord Provost Pat Lally to let Glasgow flourish again. And the 36-year-old council leader used the language of a Mafia don when he said: “When there’s a disagreement in the family it’s always painful. But the head of the family has to make the right decision. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
McAveety is now locked in a power tussle with Lally, who at 73 is 37 years his senior. Labour’s highest disciplinary court handed Lally an 18-month suspension from party office last week after a sleaze busting probe. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-61464316.html
Pat Lally
6 Feb 1998: Dewar thought to be orchestrating Labour moves to oust Glasgow leader; Lord Provost Lally is hanging by a thread
The future of Patrick Lally as Lord Provost of Glasgow appeared to be in even greater jeopardy last night after strong indications that Labour Party moves to oust him are being driven by Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar. Sources in London disclosed yesterday that Mr Dewar has been detailed to oversee the civic crisis in Glasgow and support a modernising strategy aimed at restoring the city’s tarnished image.
The disclosure emerged as the new council leadership team of Councillors Frank McAveety and Charles Gordon were today expecting a letter from the Scottish Labour Party. The letter will detail the conclusions of a National Constitutional Committee inquiry last weekend, which applied an 18-month ban on the Lord Provost attending Labour Group meetings along with an 18-month ban on holding Labour Party office. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23675303.html
Donald Dewar
17 Feb 1998: McAveety to take first steps to unseat Lally
Glasgow Council leader Frank McAveety is expected to win his spurs with the Labour Party hierarchy today by taking steps to unseat the man whose support helped him into the post. Lord Provost Pat Lally and his depute, Baillie Alex Mosson, face removal from office after being found guilty by a disciplinary hearing of breaching Labour Party rules.
The party’s National Constitutional Committee banned them from the Labour Group for 18 months and suspended then from holding party office for a similar period. Although the NCC has not specified in what way the two civic leaders have offended.
The new leadership team of Mr McAveety and Councillor Charles Gordon seem to be following the the party line nationally that if they are not fit to be members of the Labour Group, then they are not fit to be Lord Provost and Deputy Lord Provost. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23679150.html
Pat Lally Veteran Politician and former Lord Provost of Glasgow Pat Lally
4 July 1998: Lally Sues Labour over Sleaze Crisis
The Labour leadership received another blow last night when Pat Lally revealed he is to sue them for damages over his suspension from the party following sleaze allegations. His action will outrage party leaders still smarting at the embarrassment of being forced to drop their action against Mr Lally, Lord Provost of Glasgow.
Mr Lally’s decision also dashed any hopes Labour had of drawing a line under the issue, and raised fears that if the legal action drags on it could damage the party as it begins campaigning for next year’s elections to the Scottish parliament. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110680813.html
Frank McAveety
19 Feb 1999: The Lord Provost who took on his party and won makes a dramatic exit from local government; Lazarus decides to walk
He is a man who divided a city and a local Labour Party. LAZARUS has finally decided on an exit from his colourful career in local government. It is a decision of his own making and not imposed by his enemies, primarily his bitter opponents in the city council Labour group and their sponsors in the Scottish Labour Party.
Lord Provost Patrick Lally will go down in Glasgow folklore as the man with more resurrections than his Biblical comparator, and also the man who took on the Labour Party and won. His detractors will hail the departure of a politician who set up “a system” – some say presidential – that many had to struggle against for years. Http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23727872.html
9 Apr 2000: How the Party I Once Loved Let the Flag of Justice Fall
As Lord Provost of Glasgow, Pat Lally – known as Lazarus because of his many political comebacks – faced his toughest battle in 1997 when Labour launched an inquiry into alleged sleaze within the local authority. Council leader Bob Gould publicly claimed that members had been willing to trade their support for overseas trips.
The accusations were never fully investigated. But caught in the political fallout, Lally found himself accused of bringing the party into disrepute by abusing his position. They were widely held to be trumped-up charges.
In the second and concluding extract from Lally’s autobiography, Lazarus Only Done It Once, the veteran politician reveals how he stood up to the might of the party machine and ultimately forced it into a humiliating climbdown.
The hearing into the sleaze allegations that had been brought against me took place in a ground floor committee room of Scottish Labour Party headquarters in Glasgow on a cold but bright day in January 1998. But, given the circumstances, it might just as easily have been the April of George Orwell’s novel, 1984. The party’s National Constitutional Committee, with national officer Mike Penn playing the equivalent role of ‘procurator fiscal’, had gathered to ‘try’ me.
But from the tone of the committee’s introductions, it was apparent they wished proceedings to be conducted in an informal manner. Their mood seemed light-hearted, almost chummy. While I regarded 48 years of membership of the Labour Party something of great value, I felt that these people did not see it that way. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109691360.html
Pat Lally
Frank McAveety was a strong willed character whose time in office as Leader of Glasgow City Council was likened by some to 1930’s Chicago. He courted personal publicity and media attention.
There were some who earmarked him for high office in the wider labour Party. His star was in the ascendency. But the public and City employees did not always agree with his chosen method of operation which to many was over much dictatorial. Consensus was not his strongest quality.
Frank McAveety
13 Mar 1998: McAveety makes surprise switch in home rule race
The leader of Scotland’s largest local authority plans to desert his post to seek a seat in the new devolved parliament. Frank McAveety, who was installed as head of Glasgow City Council by Labour chiefs last year, wants to be one of the first intake of MSPs.
His decision will surprise many in Labour circles, who expected him to see through reform of the council, which has suffered from a litany of sleaze allegations. Mr McAveety joins some of the most senior Labour councillors in Scotland in applying to be a Labour candidate. Party leaders will be acutely aware of the problem posed by selecting too many candidates from local government backgrounds. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109825411.html
23 Apr 1998: You can’t vote me out, says McAveety
The Labour leader of Glasgow City Council has agreed every one of his colleagues can be challenged for their posts – except for himself and his deputy. Frank McAveety was attacked by opposition politicians for agreeing impending elections which exempt any challenge for his job. He was accused of Stalinism by Conservatives, who urged him to open his position to the vote. As well as across-the-board elections at the Labour group meeting, the council’s standing orders will be changed to make it easier to oust senior figures.
Mr McAveety has been in touch with national Labour Party officials to agree the holding of an annual general meeting. But Mr McAveety and his deputy, Charlie Gordon, will not accept challenges to their own positions at the meeting, which they hope to hold next month. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18653663.html
Jack the Lad
5 Aug 1998: Strikers say McAveety to blame for care protest
Striking social workers yesterday accused Frank McAveety, the Labour leader of Glasgow City Council, of engineering the circumstances that led to their protest.
A mass meeting of more than 1,000 home carers voted to continue the unofficial strike that began when three colleagues were suspended for following union advice and opposing new working practices. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18663604.html
Donald Dewar
26 Aug 1998: McAveety backs council tax crackdown
The Labour leader of Glasgow City Council gave his personal backing yesterday to an investigation into staff who have not paid their council tax. Frank McAveety, who was elected on a mandate to root out corruption, is understood to have been deeply embarrassed by the disclosure that 7,700 employees, including some in the finance department – responsible for collecting council and poll tax – had arrears of £4m.
Mr McAveety said “We have identified staff members who are in arrears and asked them to make the payments of their debts. We have issued them all with a letter and we now expect them to pay. If they don’t, then under the finance regulations the council will be able to collect the money at source by arresting wages”. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18669901.html
Tony (me me) Blair
19 November 1998: Price of 800 jobs for zero council tax rise
Glasgow’s Labour administration warned yesterday of a further 800 redundancies to prevent a council tax rise, provoking union and opposition anger. Labour leader Councillor Frank McAveety infuriated council workers by stating: “Our purpose on the council is to deliver services to the people of Glasgow.
We’re not an employment agency. But we’ll have to work with the unions to ensure minimal impact on jobs.” With the possibility that many of the redundancies might be compulsory.
Unison’s Glasgow branch secretary Angela Lynes accused Labour of sacrificing workers to enhance its election prospects in May. “The tone of Councillor McAveety’s statement is disgusting,” she said. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23713537.html
SScots in the square
30 Mar 1999: Sign or lose your jobs, city librarians warned
Glasgow’s Labour leadership took striking librarians head-on yesterday by demanding they sign a new contract of employment or lose their jobs, writes John MacCalman, Municipal Correspondent. The contract offers pay enhancements to librarians in exchange for more “flexible” working practices. Labour leader, Councillor Frank McAveety, said: “It’s quite clear what the new contract is indicating. The contract is enhancing the core payment. “It’s addressing the concerns about loss of allowances and it is making the libraries provision central to change in Glasgow.
Those staff who believe in that agenda will have no difficulty in accepting this contract.” He refused to state what would happen to staff who refused to sign but the implication was quite clear – they would be regarded as having dismissed themselves. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23730935.html
17 Feb 1998: Glasgow Council Apologises For Ripping Up George Square
Council chiefs last night apologised to the people of Glasgow after bulldozers ripped the heart out of George Square. City council leader Frank McAveety admitted the Policy and Resources Committee had decided on the pounds 200,000 facelift without the public being told.
Work started last Thursday when the square’s famous Swedish white beam trees where chopped down by workmen with chainsaws. Council bosses said the 75-year-old trees were felled because they had Dutch elm disease.
And yesterday, bulldozers moved into the square to tear up the colourful flower beds and the grass. The move sparked angry protests from green pressure groups Friends of the Earth and the Scottish Tree Trust. But Mr McAveety said: “The work will leave the square as green as ever. “The work can only enhance what is a most important public space. “We have apologised. We can’t deny that the public were not told about the work. “We regret the inconvenience the work has caused but the surface of the square needed upgrading.”
18 Feb 1998: Council leader Frank McAveety – the man who turned the heart of Glasgow into a huge building site
Daring to enter George Square, even though citizens want his head on a plate he posed proudly beside diggers ripping it up. Voters are furious at him for ordering workmen to fell 75-year-old trees and rip up flower beds. But braving the wrath of voters, he beamed widely as he told of his plans for a new, improved city centre. As Glasgow gears up to become the City of Architecture and Design next year, the George Square development has become the 16th in the city centre.
From the Broomielaw to Sauchiehall Street, clanking machines are tearing it apart. McAveety insisted that just as we have New Labour, Glasgow would have New George Square. But the council have come under attack for letting work begin without telling the public. Bidding to save face, he posed smiling beside the eyesore. Yes, McAveety conceded, the pounds £200,000 project had come as a surprise to businesses but insisted it’s for everyone’s good.
People were sickened to see the scenes of devastation. McAveety said: “We’ll have an upgraded surface and permanent entertainment space. We will replace the trees which have Dutch Elm Disease. This is a reasonable upgrading, but any substantial change to the square would involve all the citizens of Glasgow.” But some are unconvinced. One, Graeme Robertson, said: “This is a disgrace – we’re supposed to be attracting tourists and the politicians have ripped the place apart.” Sheila McIntyre added: “The square looked fine as it was.” Environmental groups have also expressed dismay at the devastation. McAveety said: “I understand the concerns, but would ask people to wait.”
Other projects which have turned the city into a massive building site are causing chaos. On Buchanan Street, pavements are littered with debris from a huge shopping centre. Pedestrians have to dodge scaffolding on West George Street outside a new hotel. Work is under way on a bar, restaurant and flats in Renfield Street and housing in Sauchiehall Street. Renovation at Central Station, the refurbishment of an office block and another conversion have created “chicanes” on busy Hope Street. And contractors are working on a restaurant and pub on North Frederick Street, a tax office on Montrose Street and refurbishment in George Street. ( The Free Library)
George Square (winning design)
14 Years later: 12 Jul 2012: George Square redevelopment: We ask the councillors
It’s been dubbed ‘red square’ by those who are scathing of the choice of bright floor colour. For some it is just an embarrassment but for others who are more cynical, the crimson carpet which smothers George Square was nothing more than a gleeful snub to the opposition from a triumphant Labour in the post 1997 era. Regardless of its heritage, the red asphalt which covers the area at the heart of the city could be soon set to disappear in yet another multi million pound development.
In a plea to residents, Baillie Matheson is appealing for ideas and opinions from local people on what should be done in the form of a consultation which will take place online and in focus groups. He wants to hear everyone’s views and has pledged to listen to any ideas put forward. “Glaswegians regard George Square as the very heart of the city, so whatever goes on there is very important to the people. But at the moment, George Square looks tired. We deserve to have a square of international significance. I want the people of Glasgow to get a public square they deserve.” he said. (STV News)
13 Apr 2013: Glasgow City Council leader defiant over George Square allegations
Embattled leader Gordon Matheson of Glasgow City Council believes he will lead the city beyond the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He made the prediction as he stands accused of multiple breaches of the councillors’ code of conduct centering on the controversial design competition to revamp George Square.
In an interview with STV’s Bernard Ponsonby on Tuesday, Mr Matheson was defiant over his conduct and stated that he believed his position was safe beyond the Games that are being hosted in Glasgow next year. The Public Standards Commissioner for Scotland is looking into the allegations he acted improperly during the redesign process, which collapsed amid public outcry.
The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland submitted a complaint about Mr Matheson, alleging that the Labour leader compromised the legal nature of the process and showed improper bias towards a particular design. Kerr Robertson, the former lead architect and projects director with the local authority, has also submitted evidence to the commissioner, saying he was told by council staff “Gordon Matheson would be allowed to choose the winning design”. STV understands that at least one other council official is ready to corroborate Mr Robertson’s claims regarding Mr Matheson. (STV News)
Devolution In 1999 the newly formed Scottish parliament presented Frank with the opportunity to progress his career. He stood down from the position of Leader of Glasgow District Council and gained a seat in the newly formed Scottish Government.
He was promoted to the role of Deputy Minister of Local Government. His future seemed assured. In the period 2000 – 2004 Frank proved to be a controversial character who maintained a high public profile. But progress he did .
10 Mar 1999: McAveety accused of transfer conflict
The controversy over Glasgow’s housing stock transfer reached new depths of bitterness yesterday when leader Councillor Frank McAveety found himself being reported to the council’s Standards Committee for an alleged conflict of interest.
The complaint has been made by Scottish Socialist councillor, Tommy Sheridan who feels his Labour opponent should not have been “proposing and pushing forward” the stock transfer after having been appointed Labour’s housing spokesman for the new Scottish Parliament.
Councillor Sheridan said: “That is a severe conflict of interest which deserves to be investigated by the Standards Committee and I will be calling on the chief executive to call an emergency meeting of the committee in order that this can be raised. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23729400.html
25 Jun 1999: Are You Trying to Take the Michael Portillo – Frank? McAveety Is Dyeing to Look like Tory Ladies’ Heart-Throb
He’s so vain he probably thinks this item is about him – and he’s right. Deputy Minister for Local Government Frank McAveety is the softer face of socialism.
There have been quips about his smart appearance and even suggestions he is slightly vain. Female admirers have even said he rivals Tommy “Sunbed” Sheridan for the post of First Minister Of Good Looks. And yesterday the 36-year-old gave his critics more ammunition when he admitted that he had dyed his hair brown to get rid of traces of grey beginning to show through. To make matters worse, with a swept-back new style, he now bears a startling resemblance to former Conservative minister Michael Portillo – darling of the Tory blue rinse tendency.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60417912.html
17 Aug 1999: Not again, Minister; McAveety told by Labour not to dumb down but it was a photo call too good to miss
It seemed like the perfect opportunity for a politician who likes to get in front of the camera. Slip on a pair of trendy sunglasses and join an aspiring teenage rap band for photo call. But Frank McAveety, the newly-appointed Deputy Minister for Local Government, been officially instructed to stop participating with the more outlandish requests of photographers.
Labour spin doctors believe the trendy politician’s behaviour is out of step with position as a serious Scottish statesman and they have informed the New Labour devotee to be more ‘conservative’ in his approach and acquire some gravitas. Even then Mr McAveety just had to get in on the act and adopted a hip-hop stance for the young band. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109790501.html
22 Sep 2000: The Scottish Labour Lib/Dem Government and the New Scottish Parliament
It took nearly 300 years to get a Scottish parliament back up and running, but only one year to make people wonder if it was worth the struggle. “All right, heads up and pay attention” the Scotsman said welcoming the legislators back this month for their second try at proving whether Scots can govern themselves. “The silly season is officially over. Time now for the totally absurd season to begin.”
If the political news from the tumultuous first session was bad, the headlines the same day in, The Record suggested that the summer off had not made things any better “Exam Chaos Spreads. Waiting Lists Soar. Beleaguered Ministers’ Careers Take Turn for the Worse. Union Chiefs Threaten Autumn of Discontent.”
The new Parliament — the first in Scotland since 1707 — the fruit of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s program known as devolution, which aimed to decentralize power in the United Kingdom and give more self-determination to Britons who live here, in Wales, in Northern Ireland and eventually in the regions of England.
While the new Parliament can weigh in with decisions on issues like agriculture, education and health and housing, Scotland retains ties to the British Parliament, which continues to regulate strategic areas like defence and social security. For that reason, 16 Scots are Peers in the House of Lords and 45 are members of the House of Commons.
When it first opened, the Scottish Parliament set itself up for a bruising first round, awarding members commemorative medals before they had done anything more substantive than working out their salaries, bonuses, parking spaces and vacation grants.
Then it laid out plans for a grand new home in an inaccessible part of Edinburgh that was to cost $75 million by first estimate and $300 million by current ones. All of this was gleefully chronicled by Scotland’s 21 robustly competitive papers, which turned from a passionate commitment to the idea of devolution to ferocious resentment of the real thing.
“There is a real schizophrenia in this country, said Frank McAveety, the Deputy Minister for local government. The Scottish press lobbied harder than anyone for a parliament, but now that they’ve got it, they’re queuing up to give it a good kicking.”
The lawmakers found themselves heckled in the streets and sneered at in the newspapers. Billy Connolly, the Scottish comic actor and playwright, dismissed them as ”a wee pretendy parliament.”
A seemingly innocuous motion to remove a regulation that limits teachers’ freedom to discuss homosexuality with students seeking counsel provoked a multimillion-dollar campaign of loudspeaker trucks, pickets and billboards accusing the lawmakers of condoning sexual perversion.
When a scandal erupted in the spring over a badly flawed new system of college entrance exams, the Parliament was blamed for letting it happen.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers were seen to be neglecting the real problems affecting Scotland — a feudal landowning system, decrepit housing, an urban drug epidemic, homelessness, an underperforming tourist agency, and inadequate health services for people who live in Britain’s harshest climate and are known for eating too much fried fatty food and indulging in too little exercise to work it off.
Frank McAveety, the gravel-voiced Glaswegian deputy Minister for local government, was perhaps just a little too gallus for his own good. Famous for his quick wit and terrible jokes, he was known to be a supporter of Jack McConnell in the run-up to the leadership election.
Mr McAveety let it be known he would be switching his support to Mr McLeish, a move widely condemned as brazen opportunism, even by his own colleagues, who were preparing to support Mr McLeish themselves.
Mr McAveety presumably thought this would save his skin, just when the huge Glasgow housing stock transfer was making progress, with the potential to save his home city up to £1bn of desperately needed money. McConnell won’t forget. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23824810.html
In 2004 Frank’s fortunes started to look less rosy due to a number of adverse events which exposed his lack of effective political judgement.
6 Mar 2004: Scottish Opera lovers express concern over future direction in letter to culture minister
The Friends of Scottish Opera has launched a campaign asking Frank McAveety, the culture minister, to preserve the future of “an essential part of the fabric of Scotland’s musical life”. The group sent a letter to Mr McAveety, demanding Scottish Opera remains able to produce major performances in the main Scottish theatres.
Several hundred people have already signed the letter, and 150 others have written directly to their MSPs. There are about 1,700 Friends of Scottish Opera, paying £28 to £70 to support opera in Scotland and receive early news of tours and concerts. The group’s manager, Anne Higgins, said she was driven by concern over a letter from Scottish Opera’s chief executive, Christopher Barron, to supporters last month. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-13041347.html
24 Apr 2004: five months of deliberations on a cultural strategy for Scotland, arts minister Frank McAveety announced yet more deliberations
Being Scotland’s arts minister can apparently feel “like a whale swimming in some vast ocean, hoping that someone, somewhere will get the message”. The real effects, says Frank McAveety, begin to emerge 10 to 15 years down the road.
As a youngish politician, McAveety has time on his side, yet he was in a rush on Thursday morning. The marine reference was not his, but that of playwright David Greig, read on the train through from his native Glasgow to his Edinburgh workplace and hastily added to the final version of his long-awaited and much-heralded statement on the arts, to set its course for a generation.
That amendment was why opposition MSPs got the statement only 10 minutes before it was made, which they gave by way of an excuse for lamely producing a series of desultory questions which failed to grasp the significance of the moment. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10002057.html
14 Jun 2004: Scottish Opera’s Armstrong Describes Executive’s Behaviour as “Brutal and Shameful”
Sir Richard Armstrong, Artistic Director of Scottish Opera, speaking out for the first time about the emergency funding plan which will reduce the company to half of its current staff and will result in a “dark season” in 2005-06, described the Scottish Executive’s behaviour as “brutal and shameful,” and claimed that the executive had an “agenda to reduce the size of the company,” writes Phil Miller.
Miller writes that Armstrong claimed the Executive “had deliberately targeted the opera’s main scale work because it believed it was watched only by a select and elitist audience. I listened the other day to Radio Scotland and caught an interview with Frank McAveety,” Armstrong is quoted as saying. “My jaw dropped in disbelief when the question of the dark season came up and he said ‘Well, Scottish Ballet went dark for two years’. “The ballet went dark because the company was on its last legs . . . the opera is there, delivering what is considered to be the best work of its kind in the UK. Shut it down – why? These constant calls for ‘excellence’ (from the executive): it is there, standing right in front of them, and all they want to do is destroy it. I just don’t get it. It’s a desperate situation for Scotland, not just for Scottish Opera. Where are they going next – who are they going to target next?” (Opera News Scotland)
16 Jun 2004: Sheriff Ridicules Minister’s Fear
A sheriff ridiculed the Tourism Minister Frank McAveety as he cleared two anti-war protestors of terrorising him in the street. Mr McAveety said he had felt the “worst intimidation in his life” while canvassing on Glasgow’s south-side. Sheriff Graeme Warner said the Labour MSP “must live a very sheltered life”.
School teacher Nicola Fisher, 32, was found not guilty and John Harper, 33, not proven of causing a breach of the peace and harassing Mr McAveety. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard the incident took place in the Govanhill area of the city last April. Sheriff Warner said the Labour MSP had “completely blown his credibility” by claiming intimidation. (BBC News Scotland)
18 Jun 2004: Frank McAveety’s uncharacteristic reticence
As a former member of the Scottish Opera Chorus in the Alexander Gibson, Arthur Oldham, Peter Hemmings era, I am deeply saddened at the proposals for the company’s future. If the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Opera board implement the planned nine-month “shutdown” and make the full-time chorus redundant it will be a national disgrace.
Much has been written in The Herald and other newspapers throughout the United Kingdom (and further afield) – by and large condemning the proposals – but what concerns me is that, in spite of the anger which has been generated, the culture minister, Frank McAveety, has been uncharacteristically reticent. Surely we are due another sparkling performance on the BBC’s Newsnight programme at least? http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23570280.html
19 Jun 2004: McAveety has the dreaded ‘full support’ of first minister – McConnell backs arts minister amid Scottish Opera fiasco
Frank McAveety, the beleaguered arts minister, last night received what many football managers have long regarded as an effective death sentence – a vote of full confidence from his boss. The statement from Jack McConnell’s official spokes-woman – “The first minister has full confidence in his minister for culture” – was possibly not what he wanted to hear after a week in which Mr McAveety was condemned by a sheriff, and the Scottish Opera crisis came to a head with the sacking of the chorus. Some observers believe the cumulative damage is now too great to save Mr McAveety, the man who once led Glasgow City Council, but is almost as famous for his record collection and love of Celtic FC. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23570388.html
24 Jun 2004: Out to lunch’ minister’s apology
Tourism Minister Frank McAveety has been forced to apologise unreservedly for misleading parliament after turning up late for question time. Mr McAveety told MSPs he was detained on ministerial business, but was actually having lunch in the canteen.
Presiding Officer George Reid accepted the minister’s apology over what has already been dubbed “porky pie-gate”. First Minister Jack McConnell told Mr McAveety that his behaviour fell below the standard expected of a minister. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said: “The first minister and Mr McAveety have spoken.
“The first minister has accepted his apology for, and his explanation of, the events at question time today. The first minister has made it clear to the minister that he feels his behaviour today falls below the standards he expects of his ministers and must not happen again.” Mr McAveety, whose portfolio also includes culture and sport, was due to have answered the very first question of the hour-long question time session. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3837403.stm
29 Aug 2004: The political interview: Culture Minister Frank McAveety entertains
Frank McAveety thinks Scotland has a real story to tell about its culture. He gets passionate about involving people, especially children. And he isn’t eating humble pie about the Scottish Executive’s much-pilloried invention of “cultural entitlements’.
If rumour is right, though, Scotland’s minister for tourism, culture and sport may not be eating much pie at all in the new parliament canteen. He has had a troubled year: in early June he trespassed on the territory of the theoretically arms-length body, the Scottish Arts Council (SAC), to announce a £7m “rescue” package for Scottish Opera. Rescue actually meant redundancy – of the entire chorus. Only recently has the company announced that 20 chorus contracts will be temporarily extended, with 54 jobs to go from other fields. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10004780.html
6 Sep 2004: McAveety charges jacket to taxpayers
Culture Minister Frank McAveety has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after he bought a £280 jacket on expenses. The Glasgow MSP charged the public for the dress kilt jacket, using regulations that allow ministers to claim the cost of clothes for official duties. Mr McAveety wore the jacket at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Tory finance spokesman Brian Monteith said: ‘I think it is outrageous. The trews I wear at official functions I have paid for myself and I don’t think ministers should expect the taxpayer to pay for theirs.’ The row is the latest of a series to hit Mr McAveety in recent months. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-121732974.html
Frank had been returned to his MSP post in the 2003 and 2007 and gave impression he was content with his lot taking on chairmanship of some committees. But true to form he could not avoid the attention of the media for long.
19 Jul 2009: Labour MSP Frank McAveety-People in Glass Houses!!!
Labour MSP Frank McAveety has attacked the SNP’s record on physical education in schools, calling on Ministers to ‘get serious on sport’. Former Sports Minister McAveety is a fine one to talk. Not only did he once miss a vote because he was busy eating pies, but his Labour five-a-side football team played so poorly in a recent Holyrood tournament that they were relegated to the consolation cup.
15 Jun 2010: Top Scots politician quits committee chair post after lecherous comments about ‘dark, dusky’ girl, 15, in public gallery are picked up on parliament microphones
The girl lusted over as ‘dark and dusky’ by a senior Labour politician is just 15 years old. Frank McAveety was caught on camera ogling a girl he spied in a public gallery of the Scottish parliament. He last night quit as convener of Holyrood’s petitions committee after lurid comments he made about the girl, who was on a work placement with another MSP, were inadvertently picked up on TV.
The married former Scottish culture minister was seen ogling the dark-haired girl in the viewing gallery while speaking to his committee clerk. He was then heard to say: ‘There’s a very attractive girl in the second row. Dark and dusky. ‘We’ll maybe put a wee word out for her. She’s very attractive, very nice, very slim. ‘The heat’s getting to me. She’s got that Filipino look – the kind you’d see in a Gauguin painting.’ The girl at the centre of the comments was on a work placement with the Green Party.
Yesterday the gaffe-prone MSP – who has two children – handed in his resignation as committee convener to Labour leader Iain Gray, apologising for any offence his actions may have caused. But opposition parties last night questioned why Mr McAveety had not been sacked when his comments were first revealed.
Nationalist backbencher Sandra White said the Glasgow Shettleston MSP’s departure called Mr Gray’s leadership into question. She said: ‘Frank McAveety’s comments were utterly inappropriate and he has done the right thing by resigning – it’s just a shame his party leader does not seem to know what that is.
‘Iain Gray should have taken action yesterday as soon as this matter came to light.’ As well as falling foul of Labour bosses, 47-year-old McAveety is likely to be in hot water with his wife Anita.
Mrs McAveety, a blonde and fair-skinned primary school teacher, was at home yesterday afternoon. Speaking from the door of the family’s modern semi-detached house in North Glasgow, the mother-of-two seemed upset. But, when asked about her husband’s comments, she said: ‘I have nothing to say.’
SNP petitions committee member John Wilson, MSP, said: ‘It was clearly an unguarded comment and he has been caught out. Every politician has to be on their guard when they are in front of a microphone or camera.’
Labour last night replaced Mr McAveety as convener of the petitions committee with Midlothian MSP Rhona Brankin. His other role as the party’s sports spokesman will be taken over by Glasgow Anniesland MSP Bill Butler.
Tendering his resignation yesterday, Glasgow Shettleston MSP Mr McAveety said: ‘I would not want the incident to detract in any way from the work of the committee.’ (The Daily Mail)
20 Jun 2010: George Square – Let’s Party
Oh look! There are big tents up in Glasgow’s George Square. Oh, goody! Something exciting must be happening. Maybe it’s a summer version of that sweet little skating thing that happens at Christmas. It’s great. We all look forward to that. So this is bound to be great too, since this is the start of our tourist season, and the council will doubtless be acutely aware it’s important that visitors think well of us, in our progressive, modern, world-class country. Let’s go closer and see what the city fathers and mothers have arranged for us. It’s a competition. Bottom-of-the-barrel “celebrities” will stare at a succession of young women in tight swimwear and decide which one has the biggest breasts, the longest legs, the whitest teeth and the shiniest hair. We’re back in the Dark Ages … the proof is Frank McAveety. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-25221532.html
25 Aug 2010: Frank McAveety under fire for hiring ‘coffin dodger’ remark candidate
The disgraced Labour MSP has come under fire after it emerged that he had hired a former Labour election candidate who had been sacked after making derogatory remarks about old people and ethnic minorities.
An SNP MSP has reacted angrily to the news that Stuart McLennan had been employed by Frank McAveety to work in the Labour MSP’s constituency office in Glasgow. MacLennan was sacked as Labour’s candidate for Moray during the general election campaign when it emerged that he had labelled old people “coffin dodgers”. He also made offensive references to ethnic minorities and alluded to sectarian football songs.
Mr MacLennan is not the first person suspended by the Labour party to have been controversially re-employed. In July, developers Allan Stewart and Stephen McKenna, both Labour party donors, announced they had given disgraced former Labour boss Steven Purcell a post with their charitable foundation.
The businessmen are behind several housing projects in and around Glasgow. In 2007, shortly after the Labour controlled Glasgow council agreed to pay them £1.7 million for a plot of land, one of their firms gave £5000 to Scottish Labour. In 2006 Mr Stewart gave £4100 to his local Labour party in East Kilbride. (Newsnet Scotland)
6. Frank lost his seat at Holyrood in the 2011 SNP landslide victory. Cast out to the ranks of the unemployed he beavered away in Glasgow local politics with the purpose of rehabilitating his career within local government, where he had enjoyed great success before hanging on the coat-tails of the Labour Party.
But first there were issues from his time in Holyrood that had surfaced and needed to be resolved. The “McAveety Bus” issue rumbled on for months, (he bought the bus using his parliamentary allowance allegedly for use within his constituency. There were also alleged abuses of the expenses allowances levelled against him by a previous colleague. All a bit messy.
16 Jun 2011: Labour Naive, says McAveety
The Scottish Labour Party failed to win the 2011 Holyrood election because it was naive, failed to give people a reason to support it and did not distinguish between ruling parties in Scotland and Westminster. The claim is made in an article in The Herald today by former Glasgow Shettleston MSP Frank McAveety who lost the party’s third- safest seat in Scotland.
As Labour starts a review into its collapse, Mr McAveety said those leading the review – Eastwood MP Jim Murphy and Sarah Boyack, who lost her Edinburgh Central seat and is only back at Holyrood because of the list system – said the party “failed to give people a reason to vote Labour and more worryingly we failed to understand that it is about who runs the Scottish Parliament, not who is in power at Westminster”. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-28922387.html
7 Sep 2011: Labour councillor cull continues as more big names face the axe
The Herald reports that so far 17 of Labour’s 47 councillors in Glasgow have been deselected for the elections next year. Not quite clear if there will be more to deselections to emerge but given that there will also some standing down voluntarily it is clear that most of the current Labour Group will not be Labour candidates next time.
Certainly councillors, of any party, should not take being reselected for granted. But it is by no means clear that the deselections in Glasgow have been carried out for the right reasons. Apparently someone from London called Ken Clark has been carrying out the interviews and has been “brutal.”
The report adds: It is understood candidates are quizzed on their political guile, local activities and asked to describe “the Nolan Principles”, which govern standards in public life. It comes as Labour faces the biggest challenge to its grip on the council in over 30 years on the back of the SNP’s buoyant performance in May’s national election.
But names are also emerging of potential replacements, including former MSPs Frank McAveety and Bill Butler, ex-councillor Chris Kelly, James Adams, an RNIB campaigns manager who works with Anas Sarwar, Soryia Siddique, a lecturer at Cardonald College, and Aileen McKenzie, another ally of the Sarwar dynasty.
A Labour spokesman said: “We have had huge interest from party members in Glasgow, with over 100 applying to stand for the council for Labour, so competition is tougher than in previous years. “Labour will be fielding Glasgow’s finest in May but we are taking nothing for granted.”
Political guile is all very well but there is a case for having a mix of strengths in a group of councillors. There might well be those with experience in residents associations or through their jobs (businessmen, teachers would be examples) which might well be practical beneficial to them as being effective councillors. But they might be less strong on making speeches or writing press releases. Should they be ditched? Not if there are others who can cope with the political cut and thrust.
Also if you are deselecting someone it should be done diplomatically and sensitively. Labour are the nasty party in trying to make it as unpleasant as possible. This ritual humiliation of asking councillors what the Nolan principles are is pointless. (Incidentally for any Labour councillors reading this who are yet to have their selection interview the principles are Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership.)
Talking of selflessness the councillor allowances in Glasgow and the other Scottish councils (imposed by Holyrood) are quite excessive. The basic allowance in Glasgow is £16,234. Furthermore 59 of the 79 councillors are paid an extra allowance of one kind or another. At the moment Labour have 49 councillors. In this context for them to have “over 100” people offering to be Labour candidates does not strike me as particularly impressive. (conservativehome)
17 Sep 2011: Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do to You
As a former English teacher, Frank McAveety should have been aware of this quotation from John Dryden “Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet ’em on your way down.” When McAveety first cut the hours of one of his constituency staff and then sacked him because “he was not fulfilling the duties expected of him”, he might have felt that Cllr Andy Muir was dispensable.
In fact he did, because McAveety was then allegedly part of the Labour cabal that decided that Andy Muir was also useless as a councillor and had him deselected (leaving an opening for the same downward travelling Frank McAveety to stand for Glasgow Council next May).
Employers are not always transparent in their reasons for dismissal of their employees, and there is an alternative reason for cutting McAveety’s staff. The MSP Expenses Scheme gives an allowance for Members’ Support Allowances split into two categories – Office Cost Provision and Staff Cost Provision.
Most MSPs reasonably transfer money from office cost to staff. It has always been unusual to transfer money the other way round. However McAveety was one of the rare examples of an MSP cutting his staffing costs, to fund his office costs – including his mobile surgery (the infamous “McAveety’s bus”).
Mr Muir may either have been disgruntled, or found a core of moral fibre not previously apparent. Whichever, Muir has just gone off to Strathclyde Police to allege that information in his possession, relating to Mr McAveety’s allowance claims as an MSP, suggests that the claims may have not been as pure as snow.
At least Muir was fulfilling an election pledge. Back in 2008 his campaign literature said “Andy Muir will work hard to direct our share of extra police where local people feel they are needed”. Strathclyde Police are probably very well aware that disgruntled employees will be bearing grudges, but can also give very useful information on activities that need investigation.
Since Muir is a member of the Strathclyde Police Authority, and sits on the Complaints and Professional Standards Committee, his complaint could hardly be summarily dismissed.
Newsnet Scotland has an interest in this story too, because on 8 March this year, they published an article on “McAveety’s bus”. Unlike Mr Muir, they never alleged that McAveety did anything illegal but noted that his response to their suggestion that his use of public monies had been inappropriate was to say that “the costs have been approved by the Parliamentary authorities and are within the overall cost envelope for office costs.”
The implication, of course, in that statement is claims have been subjected to forensic enquiry before approval. This is wholly misleading. The job of the staff at the SPCB is to ensure that there is an appropriate invoice for the claim and that it fits in with the appropriate head of expenditure, and that there is sufficient balance left to meet the claim.
The total responsibility is on the MSP to certify that the claim is appropriate in terms of “value for money “ and “efficiency and effectiveness” in line with para 1.1.2 of the Members’ Expenses Scheme.
Although Mr McAveety suggested that there were “significant inaccuracies” in their report, he failed to respond to their request that he specify these so that they could be corrected prior to publication. Should the polis come knocking on his door, he will be required to give answers to them. (Newsnet Scotland)
19 Sep 2011: Cash probe for former minister McAveety
Former Labour MSP Frank McAveety is facing a police probe into overtime and bonus payments claimed on his Holyrood expenses. The ex-culture minister is facing allegations of ‘financial irregularities’ at his former constituency office in Glasgow.
Andy Muir, a former parliamentary assistant to Mr McAveety and a Glasgow councillor, has given a statement to police about events during his employment in the office between 2008 and 2010.
It is understood the allegations centre on payments running into several thousands of pounds paid to Mr Muir, who was sacked last year. Reports yesterday suggested the police probe was looking into the trail the money took after it was paid into Mr Muir’s bank account.
18 September 2011: Pressure grows over McAveety cash probe
Labour was under pressure last night to suspend former Culture Minister Frank McAveety as police launched an investigation into bonus and overtime payments claimed through his parliamentary allowances. Strathclyde Police confirmed on Friday it was investigating a complaint about alleged financial irregularities at McAveety’s former constituency office in Glasgow Shettleston. Andy Muir, a serving Glasgow Labour councillor, volunteered a statement to CID officers this week about events during his employment in the office between 2008 and 2010. ( The Herald Scotland)
24 September 2011: McAveety is held off Labour list amid probe
Ex Minister and MSP Frank McAveety has been kept off Labour’s approved list of candidates for next year’s municipal election amid a police probe into financial irregularities. 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. Mr McAveety said he was “happy” to be re-interviewed, a move which he described as “procedural”. However, Labour sources said the re-interview plans “did not look good” for the former culture and sport minister. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-29712270.html
15 January 2012: The poverty campaigner who walked away with £500k of poor kids’ cash
The head of a charity set up to tackle poverty in one of the poorest parts of Scotland has been given a golden goodbye worth £500,000 by Labour councillors.
Ronnie Saez landed a package worth around six times his salary after being made redundant from his post as chief executive of Glasgow East Regeneration Agency (GERA). His exit deal comprised a “severance payment” of £42,000 and a £470,000 boost to his pension, which included a discretionary £208,000. According to an internal report leaked to the Sunday Herald, the pension top-up was paid using reserves earmarked for the redevelopment of a school in Dalmarnock, a deprivation black-spot.
Three of the five GERA directors who approved the Saez deal were Labour councillors in Glasgow. The GERA chair was James Coleman, a former deputy council leader; the vice-chair was Councillor Catherine McMaster; and the third councillor was George Redmond, who signed off the accounts last month. Since leaving GERA, Saez has set himself up as a consultant, briefly going into business with Frank McAveety, the former Labour MSP.
15 May 2012: From Holyrood to George Square – the return of Frank McAveety
Returning to Glasgow City Council – the place where it all began 24 years ago for the former English teacher – he’s just been through a week of induction and is setting up home in his new office. Twelve months after the shock loss of his Scottish parliamentary seat in the east end of Glasgow, Frank McAveety is once again representing the people of Shettleston. Some might say he is a glutton for punishment. He last entered the city chambers as a councillor 13 years ago, and there have been many changes in the administration of local government since then.
For the last year, McAveety has worked as a consultant helping to get young people into jobs and then for sports outfit Sidekix as an education coordinator. He says the experiences more than prepared him for the slog of the Labour doorstep campaign – where candidates were ordered by party chiefs to chap hundreds of doors and meet constituents every week. Despite numerous boundary changes, McAveety represented the east end of the city for 23 years, first as a councillor, then as an MSP. As an MSP, he was a government minister on three occasions, so surely it might seem like a bit of a step down to return to local politics after the prestige of ministerial positions? “With local government and Scottish Parliament you’ve got two very different roles,” he says.
I don’t think one is any more important than the other. I think the role of being an effective local councillor and delivering services that are effective and make a difference to the citizens of Glasgow is a noble role. I’ve got a lot of commitment. I was brought up to believe you should put something back. The local Labour party wanted a strong group of candidates to stand. On assessment they certainly believe I still have a lot to offer.” http://news.stv.tv/west-central/99809-from-holyrood-to-george-squarefrank-mcaveety-returns-to-politics/
4 Jul 2012: Glasgow East End Derelict Primary School Arson Attack leads to asbestos Scare
Councillor Frank McAveety met with members of the Shettleston community on Tuesday to discuss the recent asbestos scare in the area. The public meeting saw discussion around the possibility of asbestos exposure after a derelict school building was set alight in May, scattering asbestos fibres into the air. St Mark’s Primary School on Muiryfauld Drive, Shettleston was closed in late 2010 and lay derelict until it was torched by vandals in May this year. Now the community may be at risk after Glasgow City Council confirmed that asbestos fibres had been identified in the gutters of houses in the surrounding area. Asbestos exposure has been linked to the development of diseases like malignant mesothelioma, a rare and untreatable form of lung cancer. The community meeting prompted worried residents to vent their frustration about potential asbestos exposure and the perceived lack of care shown by the local authority.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen” said one of the first residents to arrive at the St. Mark’s Church Hall for the community discussion. “The school was sitting there, empty, for ages and we knew it would be targeted by bored kids in the neighbourhood. What we didn’t know was that it was full of asbestos” the worried resident continued. “It was a sunny day and most people in the area were outside when the fire broke out. No-one told us about toxic dust or anything, and we all carried on regardless.” “I’m furious that me and my kids have been put in danger.”
Frank McAveety, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting, said “It was great to have everyone under one roof at a time when concerns are running high. The worrying accounts of local residents who didn’t receive accurate information on the incident demonstrate a real need for the Council to be more proactive in reassuring the public. There are other buildings in the East End that are equally vulnerable. Lessons must be learned from this. Now is the time for action, and I’m working with the people of Shettleston to get answers to key questions that arose last week. (BBC Scotland News)
St Marks School on Fire
20 Aug 2012: Councillor Frank McAveety has been given the job of making cycling the most popular activity in the city.
The former sports minister said he was determined to see biking overtake walking, football, swimming and dancing as the city’s favourite sport. Following the Olympic success of Sir Chris Hoy and the prospect of top-level track cycling at the eponymous velodrome and mountain biking course at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the campaign hopes to encourage all forms of cycling.
As reported in the Evening Times, Bradley Wiggins’ recent victory in the Tour De France resulted in a rise of interest in the sport. Mr McAveety said: “We are looking for ways we can drive forward radical changes for cycling in the city. (The Evening Times)
31 Mar 2013: Thousands March From Glasgow Green to City Chambers – To say ‘Axe the bedroom tax.’
Labour MP Ann McKechin, MSP Frank McAveety and Glasgow City Councillor George Redmond were among the group who marched. Arriving in George Square, Westminster MP Ann McKechin said ‘I’m not surprised at this turnout. People are shocked by the scale of this unfair and unjust tax. The Westminster government doesn’t understand the full impact it will have.’
But Labour politicians were castigated by different speakers. Said one: ‘They might have marched near the front but it is inconsistent with what they are doing to the families they are victimising in the learning disability community in Glasgow. Glasgow City Council has these families on its hit list by closing three of the seven day centres they use.’
Campaigners against the closure of Glasgow’s day centres were out in force. Another speaker put it more bluntly: ‘Glasgow City Council should be ashamed of themselves. They have influence and power. They should tell all Housing Associations in Glasgow and Glasgow Housing Association that there must be NO EVICTIONS in the city. We need to know who’s side they are on.’
The same speaker highlighted the £100 billion cost of the Trident refit and warheads for Faslane nuclear base. She urged people to support a March on Easter Monday from Glasgow to Faslane which they intended to shut down for the day. ‘All these things are connected. They say there is no money, so attack the poor. But they can spend billions on weapons which can wipe out half of humanity. If we stand together we have the power, strength and determination to stop evictions and end this bedroom tax policy.’ http://www.localnewsglasgow.co.uk/tag/msp-frank-mcaveety/
Frank is reportedly readying himself for the post of leader of Glasgow District Council, if Gordon Matheson is elected to the post of Deputy leader of the Labour party in Scotland. Lazarus rising indeed!!!!!!
Gordon Matheson
28 Jun 2015: Pressure builds on Matheson as coup plotters push on
Gordon Matheson is under growing pressure to quit as Glasgow City Council leader after it emerged his Labour colleagues had drafted a letter designed to topple him within weeks ( The Herald Scotland)
5 Jul 2015: Labour rebels dig in after disciplinary threat over Matheson
Rebel Labour councillors in Glasgow last night said they would defy a “heavy-handed” attempt to stop them discussing the future of city leader Gordon Matheson. Around half the ruling Labour group have so far signed a motion demanding an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on August 10 in order to oust Matheson. ( The Herald Scotland)
10 Sep 2015: Glasgow Labour elect a not so new council leader to take the administration towards the 2017 Scottish local elections.
Frank McAveety, a former Scottish Government minister who led the council from 1997-99, won the support of his councillor colleagues by 24 votes to 19 over competitor Malcolm Cunning. McAveety’s election marks a transfer of power after Gordon Matheson left the role following his failure to be selected at deputy leader of the Scottish Labour party.
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, McAveety said: “I’m delighted for the opportunity to lead my home city for the second occasion. Ultimately, yesterday [his election meeting] was a conversation about how we want to move the city even further forward. “Obviously Labour face a major challenge in Scotland and we need to rebuild. One of the ways to rebuild is by good and effective local government.”
McAveety also gave his explanation for why a majority of Glaswegians had backed Scottish independence: “In the later few weeks of the referendum campaign there was a desire for a fairer Scotland and a fairer Glasgow, and also a sense of protecting public institutions like the health service. “Those are core Labour values…it’s not a surprise that there were people persuaded by the Yes Campaign that [independence] was the best way to do that.”
McAveety lost his seat in the Scottish parliament at the 2011 election, but was then returned as a Glasgow councillor the following year. He has been involved with culture and local government policy over the past 20 years, including serving on the board of The Arches (which is now being shut down).
McAveety previously resigned from the Scottish Parliament’s petitions committee after inappropriate comments about a 15-year-old audience member.
He was also forced to apologise for “misleading parliament” after failing to show for ministerial questions due to eating a plate of mince pie and beans. The incident was termed ‘Piegate’. In the same year McAveety took anti-war protestors to court for alleged harassment, but had his claims dismissed by sheriff Graeme Warner. Warned said McAveety “over-egged the pudding” in his evidence. An SNP activist in Glasgow said McAveety had too much “baggage” to stop an SNP victory. https://commonspace.scot/articles/2389/frank-mcaveety-faces-snp-challenge-as-new-leader-of-glasgow-city-council
24 Sep 2015: Glasgow is not a nationalist city says Frank McAveety
In his first in-depth interview since taking the biggest job in Scottish local government, Frank McAveety said he had inherited a pro-independence city because voters wanted a different style of politics. Describing himself as a “believer in making big shifts”, he questioned whether First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had delivered for constituents in Glasgow, accusing her of a “selfie” approach to politics.
Questioning the impact the SNP has had in its eight years in power, the Glasgow City Council leader accused it of taking “a showbiz variety of what it is to be a Government”, adding that it created an illusion of change but shied away from major decisions.
The former Scottish Executive minister and MSP took the reigns at Glasgow a fortnight ago following the decision by predecessor Gordon Matheson to stand down after his failed bid to become Scottish Labour’s deputy boss.
Since then he has been taking stock of the scale of his challenge in both running the country’s largest city in the context of dwindling financial resources and being the figurehead for Labour at a time when it looks like losing control of Glasgow for the first time in four decades.
Speaking ahead of his first council official business as leader, Mr McAveety said he had “clear ambitions” which would materialise in the coming months over what the council under his leadership would do. He said local government had caught itself in a “Gordian knot” with the Scottish Government over finances and was seeking a meeting with Ms Sturgeon to discuss areas of mutual interest.
He said, “I’m a product of a city that gave opportunity because of the values of the Labour Party. And I don’t believe its a city defined by nationalism. The Yes vote that was narrowly returned was because people wanted politics to be different and they also wanted people committed to “how do we build fairness and opportunity”.
Glasgow’s SNP group leader Susan Aitken said: “Frank McAveety’s astonishing arrogance is all-too-typical from Labour in Scotland. Mr McAveety may be content to stick his fingers in his ears and attempt to ignore reality but he simply won’t be able to avoid his own party’s legacy of failure in our city, compared to the SNP’s record of delivery in government.” ( The Herald Scotland)
Anne Marie O’Donnell
13 Dec 2015: Glasgow Council leader Frank McAveety declines to offer full support for chief executive Anne Marie O’Donnell
Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety has refused to give full backing to the local authority’s first female chief executive. McAveety’s allies criticised Anne Marie O’Donnell at a private Labour meeting last week over a perceived lack of detail on budget cuts.
Asked if he had “full confidence” in her, the leader told the Sunday Herald: “Given the scale of the unprecedented budget cuts we are facing, everyone in the council leadership – councillors and senior officials – is working together to meet these challenges and protect vital services in Glasgow.”
Glasgow City Council, which has had to make huge spending cuts in recent years, is expecting further bad news this week when Finance Secretary John Swinney announces his budget. Local authority leaders are privately expecting a five per cent cut that will severely impact on front-line services. McAveety, who is enjoying his second stint as leader after succeeding Gordon Matheson, is said to be worried about the political impact of the cuts in the run-up to the next council elections.
A council insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three of McAveety’s allies criticised the chief executive at a recent Labour group meeting. The frustration was borne out of a belief that O’Donnell had not come with good enough ideas on how to redesign services and make up the looming budget shortfall.
It is understood her presentations to Labour councillors have not gone down well. Another council source said O’Donnell was appointed when Matheson was leader and was perceived to be closer to him than McAveety. O’Donnell secured the post last year after the retirement of long-standing chief executive George Black.
She was the council’s executive director of corporate services from 2011, with responsibility for legal services, elections, human resources, procurement, city resilience, customer and business support, and corporate governance.
A solicitor, she joined Glasgow District Council in 1991 and, following local government reorganisation, was promoted to chief solicitor in 1996. She has also been assistant head of legal and administrative services and had a two-year secondment as depute director of social work services.
O’Donnell said last year after being unveiled as chief executive: “I am delighted and humbled to have been appointed. This is a really exciting time for Glasgow. “There is no doubt the next few years will be challenging for everyone in local government, but I believe we have the energy, the ideas and, crucially, the best people to meet those challenges.”
Susan Aitken, the SNP group leader on the council, said: “It’s a sure sign that an administration has run out of ideas when they start attacking council staff. Glasgow Labour are in a mess – riddled with in-fighting and patently lacking in strategy, vision or effective leadership. “Frank McAveety should take responsibility, do the job he’s paid to do, sort out the disaster area that is his own group, and stop trying to dump the blame for his mess on council officers.”
29 May 1998: Stirling Council staff take to streets over jobs
Council services in the Stirling area were badly affected yesterday by the first all-out strike to hit a Scottish authority since local government reorganisation three years ago. More than 1,000 members of the public service union, Unison, took part in the action in protest at 20 compulsory redundancies which the council said are necessary to save £400,000 this year. Pickets were mounted on all the main council offices in Stirling and more than 200 banner-waving strikers marched from the council headquarters at Viewforth to a rally outside the Albert Hall. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18659533.html
19 June 1998: Labour debt row hits Stirling Council.
Opposition politicians last night called for an immediate public inquiry after it was revealed that a third Labour-controlled council has recorded substantial losses with in-house contracts. After recent revelations of ‘black hole’ debts of more than £4m in North Lanarkshire and £3.5m in East Ayrshire, it has emerged that the Direct Labour Organisation at Stirling Council has debts of £500,000. This figure look likely to rise by another £400,000 because of a dispute with the Scottish Office over road management work. Stirling wants £388,000 for lost business when the Government allocated road closure work to other organisations. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109836624.html
15 August 1998: Private guards for Big Mags Brood and Taxpayers Will Foot the Bill
Members of the notorious Haney clan are to get private security protection paid for by the taxpayer. They’ve been targeted by irate neighbours since being rehoused in Bannockburn, Stirlingshire. Nearly £8,000-worth of damage has been done to homes occupied by John Haney – ex- husband of infamous Big Mags – and their daughter Valerie. Most of the 16-strong family from hell are convicted criminals and they were driven out of Stirling’s tough Raploch estate last year by residents fed-up with constant trouble. Since then they have lived in temporary accommodation. But, last week, John and Valerie were allocated council homes on a previously quiet Bannockburn estate. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60664628.html This family saga went on for years
15 August 1998: Private security protecting houses planned for Haneys
A Private security firm has been called in by a local authority to protect houses that were to be occupied by two members of a so-called family from hell. Stirling Council said the move followed discussions with police after several thousand pounds worth of damage was inflicted on two houses in a Bannockburn estate due to be occupied by a daughter and former husband of “Big Mags Haney”. Feelings have been running high in Bannockburn after it was confirmed that Ms Valerie Haney, 30, and Mags Haney’s ex-husband John, had been allocated houses within 800 yards of each other in Bogend Road and Douglas Street. A petition was raised and poster campaign begun after news of the council’s plans to house the Haneys became clear. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23705084.html
11 September 1998: Government taskforce urged over DLOs
The Government was yesterday urged to set up a special task force to investigate the problems of council direct labour organisations. The demand by the Scottish Liberal Democrats follows the publication of an independent report which warns Stirling Council to take action to end poor management practices or face continuing losses in two of its key DLOs. The Labour-controlled council admitted in June that its road and building maintenance DLOs had lost more than £1.1m between them in the past financial year. The authority confirmed yesterday it was “concerned” at the contents of the confidential report by consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Its publication comes as Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar continues his review of all council DLOs in Scotland. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23701916.html
12 September 1998: Stirling Council warns that more jobs could go
A Labour-controlled council has announced it is considering another wave of redundancies in order to prevent its loss-making Direct Labour Organisations from producing further deficits. More than 50 jobs have already gone from Stirling Council’s DLOs, and yesterday it was forecast that 30 more could disappear soon. In June independent consultants were called in after the council admitted that its roads maintenance DLO had lost £586,000 in the last financial year, and its buildings maintenance DLO had lost £500,000. Their damning report, leaked but still not published by the council, warned that drastic action was needed to prevent the two DLOs, which together employ 250 people, from being a continuing drain on the council’s finances. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23701813.html
23 September 1998: The Council Paying Its Staff More for Not Doing the Job
Council workers are being paid bigger bonuses if they do not get the job done, it was revealed yesterday. Stirling Council’s roads bonus scheme means employees pick up more money the longer a job takes and acts as a disincentive to improved productivity, accountants said yesterday. It was also revealed that the works organisation is on target to make a second massive loss. The Labour-controlled council heard yesterday that its Direct Labour Organisations are set to lose another £800,000 this year, on top of the £1.1 million announced in June. In a report to members of Stirling Council’s resources committee, technical services director Arthur Nicholls admitted yesterday there was a ‘crisis’ in the authority’s buildings maintenance and roads DLOs. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109803464.html
28 December 1998: Petrol-Bomb Gangsters; Thugs Set Street Ablaze in Lawless Village That ‘Needs a Wyatt Earp
Gangs of youths threw petrol bombs, terrorising a village and leaving residents afraid to go out at night. Their latest mindless act of vandalism follows several assaults and acts of destruction with 2,000 street lamps being bent in half. The growing reputation for ‘near anarchy’ in the former mining village of Plean, Stirlingshire, has led to a call for ‘a latter day Wyatt Earp’ to clean up the crimewave. The new outbreak of trouble came on Thursday night when a gang threw the makeshift petrol bombs, Molotov cocktails, in the main street and set fire to the roadway as the fuel spread. An off-duty fire officer who was passing at the time alerted the fire station at Maddiston.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110693229.html
8 March 2002: The Corrosive Culture of the Labour Party’s Rotten Little Fiefdoms; Cronyism and Corruption Hand-in-Hand across Scotland
Amid the storm raging this week over the revelations about Labour party cronyism in Fife Council, one question has arisen from the maelstrom. Is this just a little local difficulty – or does it highlight the situation throughout Scotland? After 23 years in local council politics and another three on the national stage at Holyrood, I can safely vouch for the latter. Labour cronyism is so embedded within our political life that we almost take it for granted, and deem it acceptable. The situation in Fife is not an isolated incident, no matter how hard Labour try to blame it on poor old Henry McLeish. It is a microcosm of the wider malaise. Something is rotten in the state of Scotland. Nowhere is that more the case than in Glasgow, my own political territory. It is widely said that when parents are seeking a present for their son’s 21st birthday, no gift does more for their career prospects in the city than a Labour Party membership card. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-83709823.html
15 March 2003: Provost suspended as trust’s land deal is investigated by police
A proposed land deal involving one of Scotland’s leading businessmen and a council provost is under investigation by police. The deal involved Tom Allison, chief executive of Clydeport, and Tommy Brookes, provost of Stirling Council, who was last night suspended by the Labour party. Mr Allison, a non-executive director of Celtic FC, said there was nothing clandestine about the deal and he would be happy to co-operate with police. It is alleged Mr Brookes broke a code of conduct for councillors by becoming too closely involved in Mr Allison’s bid to buy seven acres of land near Stirling Castle to build a house. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23530773.html
21 March 2003: Provost stripped of title after land deal; Stirling Council acts over code of conduct breach
The Labour provost of Stirling was ignominiously stripped of the title yesterday after breaching a national code of conduct. The move was thought to be a first of its kind in Scotland. Tommy Brookes was also removed from Stirling’s planning panel, its licensing board, Central Scotland police board, and Stirling Tourist Board, although he remains a councillor and JP for the time being. Mr Brookes’s fellow councillors sealed his fall from grace in a unanimous vote after hearing a report about his recent activities and alleged “irregularities” in a proposed £395,000 land deal. Last night, Mr Brookes, 62, who had been provost since 1996 and a councillor since 1984, apologised for his actions, but insisted he had acted honestly. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23526354.html
3 May 2003: Dirty tricks claims and jeers as former Stirling provost is beaten
The vote in Stirling was marred when Tommy Brookes, the former provost, lost his Sauchenford seat to Michael O’Brien, the Labour candidate, by 176 votes. The result was booed by Mr Brookes’s supporters, who accused Labour of dirty tricks in the suspension of Mr Brookes from the party following an inquiry into a proposed land deal last month. Mr Brookes, who stood as an independent, was sacked as provost after becoming the centre of a police corruption inquiry over allegations that he abused his position in an attempt to help a director of Celtic Football Club to buy a derelict farm. He was also stripped of the chairmanship of the 377-year-old council-administered charity which owns the land at the centre of the allegations, and from membership of the Central Scotland Police Board after the council felt he breached the national code of local government conduct. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23537312.html
8 June 2004: ‘Midden’ City Facing Rats Danger
A Scots city faces being overrun by rats because of a wheelie-bin fiasco. Stirling Council switched the main collection of household waste from a weekly to a fortnightly schedule. Now rubbish is left to rot in the streets for weeks because of faulty equipment and an intransigent workforce, it is claimed. As a result Stirling has been branded a ‘medieval midden’ by tourism chiefs and health experts have warned of a return of diseases not seen since the Industrial Revolution. Since the switch, rats have been on the increase, as have the danger of Weil’s disease – an infection spread by the vermin’s urine – and food poisoning. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-118056677.html
18 May 2007: Labour Links With the Unionist Party’s to Take control of Stirling Council
In Stirling, former teacher and now Labour councillor Margaret Brisley was elected to represent the authority as its new provost. She was nominated by Labour group leader Corrie McChord and seconded by Liberal Democrat group leader Graham Reed. Ms Brisley’s appointment was made at the first meeting of the new council since the election. It returned eight Labour councillors, seven SNP members, four Conservatives and three Liberal Democrats. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/6668951.stm
20 April 2008: PPP plan approved against expert advice – Johann Lamont refused to call in £100m plan for government consideration
A Former Labour minister rejected advice from senior officials to delay a deeply flawed and highly controversial £100m plan for new schools and homes in Stirling and Dunblane, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Top-secret documents disclose that the deputy communities minister in 2005, Johann Lamont, was strongly urged by government planners to call in the application for consideration by ministers. The plans were lambasted by advisers as “questionable”, “worrying” and “poor”. Stirling Council, which promoted the development, was also accused of “procedural failings” and of maximising profit at the expense of decent housing. “Stirling Council’s judgement in carrying out its statutory duty under the terms of planning legislation has been heavily clouded by its conflict of interests, ” warned the official advice to the minister. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-16428457.html
Calls For Print Firm to be Investigated for Providing Bogus Invoices To Jim Devine
There have been calls for an investigation into the printing firm that provided bogus invoices for ex Labour MP Jim Devine after it emerged that the company’s director is also a Labour councillor. Mr Devine is currently awaiting sentence after being found guilty of fiddling his MP’s expenses by using bogus invoices to claim public cash. It has emerged that a director at Armstrong Printing Ltd, Margaret Brisley, is also a sitting Labour councillor at Stirling council. Armstrong printing was named in the ex Labour MP’s trial as the firm that supplied Mr Devine with receipts for work that was never undertaken.
Witnesses told the court how the former Scottish Labour MP contacted the printing firm in March 2009, asking them to send him receipts for thousands of pounds worth of work that was never done and that he never paid for. Mr Devine subsequently received two sets of invoices for over £5000 marked “received with thanks” after director and shareholder Bill Lockie overruled former company secretary Jennifer McCrea, who had refused to sign off Mr Devine’s “strange” request.
In May 2009 documents leaked to the Telegraph newspaper caused outrage after it revealed the extent of expenses abuse at Westminster and investigations were carried out into the claims of several MPs. A short while later in July 2009 company director Jennifer Coyne resigned from Armstrong Printing. Bill Lockie’s directorship was terminated just a few months later in November that same year.
Jim Devine was eventually charged with fraud relating to public cash claimed using the bogus invoices. A few months after Mr Devine was charged, Jennifer McCrea had her employment with the printing company terminated. At his trial the ex Labour MP claimed to have received advice from senior Labour whips who he alleged told him to obtain receipts for work. This was denied by the MPs during questioning when they gave evidence. The printing company received thousands of pounds for work carried out for other Labour politicians. The revelations have led to calls for an investigation into the companys’ links with the Labour party.
John Wilson, an SNP MSP for Central Scotland, said there were questions the firm had to answer. Mr Wilson said: “Armstrong Printing has to state whether the practice of providing receipted invoices to MPs before the work was carried out was common or not. All the MPs who used their publicly-funded allowances to give work to this firm need to list all the jobs that were carried out. The company’s links to Labour need to be fully investigated.”
28 November 2012: Armstrong Printing in voluntary liquidation owing up to 30 creditors
The £300,000 turnover company, which produced publicity materials such as flyers and brochures, placed itself in voluntary liquidation on 29 October 2012. But like a Pheonix rising Companies House states that on 16 October 2012, Armstrong Printing’s Brisley registered a new company called Armstrong Printing (Alloa).
Comment: This is so wrong, they were still ordering supplies right up to the moment they placed themselves into liquidation. They created this new company while they were still trading. Paid themselves off and then said what is left can be handed out to suppliers by Baker Tilley. As you can imagine……no money will be paid out!! The new company they have created is being used as a print management company/digital print. They have contacted all their old clients with a view to retaining them via this new company. All I can say is if you trade with them now…..you deserve to get stung! http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1135503/armstrong-printing-voluntary-liquidation-owing-creditors
21 February 2011: John Park and Claire Baker deny any wrongdoing over ME2 Communications printing work
Two Labour MSPs from Fife have staunchly denied any wrongdoing after questions were raised about £11,000 of public money paid in their name to a company set up by a party official. John Park and Claire Baker are under scrutiny for £11,283.33 of printing work carried out by ME2 Communications in March 2008 — just months after the firm was founded by Sarah Metcalfe and her husband John. Sarah Metcalfe is Labour’s director of research and strategy in the Scottish Parliament.
The SNP have likened the revelations — which emerged on the NewsNet Scotland website at the weekend — to the case of shamed Labour MP Jim Devine, who earlier this month was found guilty of making two dishonest expenses claims totalling £8385. During his trial, Mr Devine claimed he had been told by a senior colleague to get a “friendly printer” to provide false invoices. However, Mr Park and Mrs Baker said the work was above board and had been approved by the Scottish Parliament’s allowances system.
Mr Park said the firm was paid £4720.38 to design, print and distribute an annual report from his first year in the parliament in 2007. It was also paid £2533.92 for similar work on a consultation document on an apprenticeships bill he proposed that year. That document is still available on the Scottish Parliament website and clearly states it was “designed and produced” by ME2 Communications. Meanwhile, Mrs Baker, who is married to Labour’s justice spokesman Richard Baker, said the £4029.03 paid to the firm in her name was for her annual report that year. The firm designed the documents and then sourced and paid other firms to print and distribute them. The printing costs for the annual reports, which were distributed to thousands of homes across the Mid Scotland and Fife region, would have been considerable. ME2 Communications invoiced the parliament authorities directly, meaning Mr Park and Mrs Baker were not involved directly with the financial transactions. “We paid what I thought was a reasonable price for the newsletters we got sent out,” Mrs Baker told The Courier. “I was pleased with the quality of the work.” She added that the payment was signed off by the parliament’s allowance watchdog as being reasonable. Mr Park said he had an audit trail for the work and the origins of the firm had been reported in the press at the time. “I still have copies of the documents, and anyone who is interested can see where the money was spent,” he said.
However, a spokesman for the SNP said, “This could have very serious implications for the MSPs involved and for Labour. Dodgy accounting and false expense has plagued the Labour Party, and this story sounds all too familiar in the aftermath of Jim Devine’s invoices. “John Park and Claire Baker must be fully open with any investigation that follows these revelations. Dodgy expenses may be no shock to those at Westminster, but at Holyrood we have a much more transparent system, and I hope that there has been no wrongdoing here.” ME2 Communication was compulsory dissolved by Companies House on August 21, 2009, for failing to submit accounts. Mr Metcalfe, a designer, subsequently went to work in Gordon Brown’s parliamentary office in Kirkcaldy. http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/john-park-and-claire-baker-deny-any-wrongdoing-over-me2-communications-printing-work-1.39546
18 February 2012: Stirling council’s £214m budget defeated over detail
An SNP-led local authority has been left in limbo and embroiled in bitter recriminations after it failed to pass its budget. The deadlock came after Labour members of Stirling Council rejected an amendment they had proposed themselves, causing the motion to be defeated at a meeting. The minority Nationalist administration had been prepared to accept the Labour amendment to its original plans, which sought to change a fraction of the £214m budget. Labour accused the SNP of attempting to “steal” its alternative proposal and voted against its amendment, having been told it was too late to withdraw it on Thursday evening. Yesterday, Provost Fergus Wood said no progress could be made until the parties reconvene at the earliest opportunity. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-30746110.htmlhttp://asairfecht.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/conversations-with-my-mp-willie-bain.html
25 February 2012: Council’s tax cut decision condemned
A local authority yesterday became the first in four years in Scotland to cut its council tax. Stirling Council agreed to the 1% cut which takes the average band D levy down from £1209 to £1197. The decision to shave £12 a year off the average household bill was taken as councillors passed the 2012-13 budget at their second attempt. Labour and Tory councillors voted the measure through in an “alternative” budget, after rejecting the minority SNP administration’s proposals. It will mean the majority of households in the area will see a weekly saving of 23p. The SNP group called the cut “fiscally imprudent” and “irresponsible”, while the LibDem group leader said it was a “cynical” vote-grabber ahead of the council elections on May 3. http://asairfecht.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/conversations-with-my-mp-willie-bain.htmlhttp://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2012/mar/confusion-continues-over-labours-vote-no-show
11 May 2012: Labour and the Unionists Will Run Stirling
Labour will run Stirling in a pro-Union administration with the Conservatives, which means the SNP will not have control of landmarks such as Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument in the run-up to the independence referendum. It is a major blow for the Nationalists, who have been running the city as a minority and had more councillors elected at last week’s Stirling council elections than any other party. Labour had earlier struck deals to run the three largest cities, ruling as a majority in Glasgow and as the largest party in coalitions in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-289319316.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-18008844
11 May 2012: Rainbow Coalition of Tories, Liberal Democrats and Independents force SNP out of Office Despite being the Biggest party
The SNP is being “frozen out” of power in councils across Scotland, as the local government map becomes clearer after last week’s election.The Nationalists suffered major blows yesterday as they lost control in First Minister Alex Salmond’s backyard of Aberdeenshire, as well as the key stronghold of Stirling – despite being the biggest party in both areas. Labour also seized control in West Lothian and East Dunbartonshire and governs almost half of Scotland’s 32 councils. Mr Salmond is the MSP for Aberdeenshire East and the Nationalists claimed 28 seats in the local council last week, twice as many as the second placed Conservatives. But a rainbow coalition of Tories, Liberal Democrats and Independents has combined to form a ruling alliance on Aberdeenshire Council. …
22 June 2012: Weapons Ban at Anniversary Rally Sparks New Battle of Bannockburn
It is revered as the place where Scotland won its freedom from the ‘auld enemy’, with a victory in battle that has resonated down through the ages. But now people wanting to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn this weekend have been banned from carrying replicas of the very weapons used in the historic clash as they make their way to the battlefield. For decades a colourful rally has been held on the site of the battle, near Stirling, with a procession through the town beforehand. In recent years, many of those taking part wore traditional Jacobite or medieval costumes complete with swords, axes, daggers and shields. However, following reports of an “incident” at last year’s march, where a car on the route was allegedly hit with a shield and a Union Flag was burned, Stirling Council ordered those taking part to lay down their arms, saying no weapons would be allowed to be carried during the march, even if they were safely sheathed in a scabbard. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-31615613.html
18 April 2013: Stirling Council Impose Shambolic Bus Cuts
The announcement of a number of bus cuts in the Stirling area has been dubbed ‘shambolic’ by opposition councillors. Last week Stirling Council’s Environment and Housing Committee agreed policy savings of around £313,000 from the Support Transport Services budget. The cuts were quickly met with criticism from opposition councillors, including Green Councillor Mark Ruskell who said: “The way these bus cuts were made in committee was utterly shambolic, with no consultation, mis-leading information about services and costs, and no analysis on how these cuts impact on services across the remaining network. Guillotining bus services at this scale using blunt criteria not only fails to recognise the impact on ordinary people, it plays directly into the hands of operators like First Group who are driven by maximum profitability rather than service. Watch this space.” On Dunblane High School S8 bus service he added, “It will be a shock for many Dunblane parents to learn that from after the Summer their children will have to walk up to two miles out and two miles back in all weathers to get to school. Having a single bus service run for pupils entitled to free travel beyond two miles and paying users within two miles made sense, the decision to cut the S8 just puts the cost pressure onto Education to run their own entitlement only service.” http://www.stirlinggreens.org.uk/?p=204
27 August 2013: Labour’s Stirling Disgrace
Threatening to sack staff unless they agree to work longer for less money comes straight from the Margaret Thatcher school of economics. But for it to be happening at a Labour-led council is utterly astounding. Labour are the people’s party, set up to protect the rights of workers. Staff at Stirling Council, which Labour run in an unhealthy coalition with the Tories, have been sent a letter warning that if they don’t agree to an attack on their terms and conditions they will be out on their ear. To their credit, many of the workers refuse to be bullied and went on strike yesterday. You might hope it is the Tory influence that has led to this outrageous attempt to bully workers. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-340863832.html
28 August 2013: Pay-Cut Council Blew £8000 on Office Revamp: Fury over Provost’s New Curtains
A cash-strapped council who want staff to work longer for less money splashed out almost £8000 doing up their provost’s office. Almost half of the cost went on carpets and more than £2500 was spent on curtains. Stirling Council have to save £24m over the next four years. And they are in the middle of a dispute with workers after asking them to take a 0.5 per cent pay cut and work an extra hour a week. But our sister paper the Stirling Observer has found out that the authority – run by a Labour-Tory coalition – agreed to a revamp for Provost Mike Robbins’s office. SNP councillor Alasdair MacPherson said: “I have constituents who are struggling to keep the roof over their heads and are losing their jobs as a direct consequence of the provost’s unholy alliance with the Tories. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-341060821.html
10 October 2013: Row over Bid to Replace Saltire with the Union Flag at Council
Labour and Tory councillors have launched a bid for the Union flag to replace the Saltire as the main symbol over a local authority’s headquarters. The parties, who run Stirling Council in coalition, said they were standing up for “symbols the men and women of Stirling have fought and died under for 300 years”. They added that it was a bid to form part of the debate over next year’s independence referendum and would reflect the diversity of views in the area. However, the move has been criticised by opposition leaders, coming at a time of tens of millions of pounds worth of cuts and industrial action at the council, and by academics, who have said it is a turn-off for voters.
11 October 2013: Councillors Back Down in Flag Row
Plans to replace the Saltire with the Union flag as the main symbol over Stirling Council’s headquarters have been dropped. Labour and Tory councillors who are part of the ruling coalition between the parties said they were standing up for “symbols the men and women of Stirling have fought and died under for 300 years”. However, Tory Callum Campbell and Labour’s Danny Gibson cancelled their motion hours before a meeting at which it was expected to be passed. Cllr Gibson blamed the decision on “an atmosphere of negativity”. Cllr Campbell said it had been undermined by “the vitriolic tone of Nationalists”. Dr Peter Lynch, a history and politics lecturer at Stirling University, said the episode had made the city and council look dreadful.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-35302997.html
19 February 2014: Wrecking Amendment Delays St Margarets Primary New School Build
Initial plans would have seen the new school completed by October of this year, but this was delayed when Councillors Neil Benny and Margaret Brisley tabled a motion to instruct officers to “commence consultations with the Cowie community about a potential new community facility to include a joint campus arrangement for the schools” which Cllr MacPherson described as a “wrecking amendment.” And now the Tory-Labour administration’s capital budget plans suggest the building of the school will be extended into 2018 – five years after the initial proposal.
The minutes of the October meeting read “Cllr MacPherson pointed to the separate identities of the two existing schools and the funding that had already been spent on upgrading Cowie Primary School. He also expressed concern that the timetable to replace St Margaret’s Primary School could be adversely impacted by this additional consultation and asked where the funding for the campus would be found from.”
Cllr MacPherson cammented “On the night the Council was due to approve the funding for the new school Councillor Brisley and her Tory coalition partner Cllr Benny tabled a wrecking amendment which proposed the possibility of building a joint campus for the two schools in Cowie. I did not support this proposal for several reasons, the main one being the delay it could create. Council officers were sent back to consult with the Cowie community on the proposed joint campus. I attended one of the briefing sessions only two weeks ago and was astonished to learn that the wrecking amendment campus idea was no longer on the table. Their budget proposals clearly showed that the new school and nursery is to be built over a 4 year period from 2014 and would not be completed until 2018 at the earliest. http://www.stirlingnews.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2014/02/19/489062-questions-raised-over-apparent-delays-to-plans-for-new-school-for-cowies-st-margarets-primary/?mode=print
29 June 2014: Stirling Council conspired with Westminster and the media to spoil Battle of Bannockburn anniversary
It seems somehow fitting that there was a political battle in Stirling yesterday. The city was host to two sets of military-themed festivities, with the UK government having decided to hold Armed Forces Day there in a move transparently aimed at wrecking the commemorations of the 700th anniversary of the Battle Of Bannockburn.
25 June 2015: Unionist Stirling Council Cabal in SNP Snub at New School
You would think that after the recent seismic events in Scottish politics, Labour locally, would have learned its lesson?
First in 2012 there was their toxic alliance with the Tories at Stirling Council in the shape of a formal coalition; this was later affirmed during the Better Together campaign when once again they both stood side-by-side. Strangely enough, most of us could fathom what electoral fate awaited them (Labour seem to have been blissfully unaware), and sure enough to their cost, they achieved near wipe out in Scotland during May’s General Election which saw 56 out of 59 SNP MPs returned to Westminster with Labour reduced to just one! On the night the disastrous campaign they fought locally, which was full of anti-SNP rhetoric and lies, was largely mirrored on the ground when their candidate (and Stirling Council leader) polled her worst results in the Castle ward, where SHE is the ward Councillor. Talk about the proverbial slap in the face?
But it appears that lessons have still not been learned as once again the Tory/ Labour administration play games by thinking they can simply ignore the biggest party on Stirling Council in the hope that they will just go away. This morning I was saddened to read an article from Bannockburn ward Councillor, Alasdair MacPherson, someone who is held with a lot of regard by his constituents, and is known not only as a champion of the worker, but also for his dislike of anything Tory, whatever the colour. The article reads:
“It’s a massive day for Cowie tomorrow. After many years of campaigning the first turf will be cut for the new St. Margaret’s primary school and community nursery. I and my fellow SNP elected members have campaigned for this day for nearly ten years.” said Alasdair.
“The Tory and Labour coalition who run Stirling Council have disgracefully not invited me, Stirling’s MSP Bruce Crawford, or our new MP Steven Paterson to the event. You would have thought Labour would have learned their lesson by now about jumping into bed with the Tories. I emailed Labour and the Tories asking for a formal invitation to the event – but they ignored my email. However as tomorrow’s event is taking place on publicly owned land I am inviting myself to the event so I do not miss out on the big day. It will take more than a cabal of Tories and Red Tories to stop me attending.”
So readers, Alasdair will turn up tomorrow, like the awkward uncle at a wedding, and do his bit for the community he was elected to represent. No amount of politically motivated skulduggery will keep him from the task in hand and I’m sure he will receive the warmest of welcome’s from his constituents.
To those who are denying him the courtesy of even an invite for something he has fought tirelessly for, for nearly ten years – you should hang your heads in shame! The lack of democratic decency which you show now will be reflected through the ballot boxes at the Stirling Council elections in May 2017.
The Labour Party in Dunbartonshire – A lifetime of unfettered power – A local governance of corruption and abuse of the trust of the electorate. What follows provides a brief record of local political events, primarily in West Dunbartonshire from 1996. It is not comfortable reading but a “Yes” vote in the referendum and election of an SNP MP in the 2015 General Election gives hope that the voters have decided enough is enough and get the rest of the Labour acolytes out of office.
Caroline Glashan
28 April 1996: Dumbartonshire – The Council of Cowards – Cameras near Murder Scene Removed after Drug Threats
On the morning of 24 August 1996, the severely battered body of 14 year old Caroline Glachan was found by a drug addict in the Leven river near Loch Lomond. She failed to return home after she had gone to meet a new boyfriend the previous night. She was not robbed or sexually assaulted. More than 14 years later, the apparently motiveless murder has still not been solved.
Surveillance cameras that could have trapped the killer of schoolgirl Caroline Glachan were removed only months before by the council because of threats from drug dealers. Caroline was last seen alive on Saturday night by friends at a small shopping centre in a Dunbartonshire housing estate which, until May, had been monitored by closed-circuit television cameras.
Her battered body was discovered the following afternoon semi-submerged in the River Leven where it runs through a known haunt of drug addicts. The cameras at the Ladyton shop row in Bonhill, where Caroline lived with her mother, were dismantled three weeks after being installed when a primary school janitor, who monitored the equipment, was theatened by drug dealers.
27 September 1997: The O’Malley’s – Ten relatives linked with a Council sports complex under financial investigation
In The heart of a bleak Scottish housing estate a building meant to improve the lives of the community stands empty – a monument to local authority sleaze. Thousands of pounds have gone astray and, amid a raft of accusations of abuse of powers, councillors met this week to discuss how they came to lose control of a publicly funded project to one family. Meanwhile the head of the family, nine of whose relatives served on the staff and management committee, continued to protest his innocence in the face of an unexplained and irretrievable overspend of more than £46,000.
The case of the O’Malleys and West Dunbartonshire Council shows in miniature the problems Labour face in their efforts to tackle corruption all over Scotland. West Dumbarton Activity Centre will remain firmly shut as council, police, Inland Revenue and Department of Social Security investigations continue. This week the council revealed more findings of its continuing investigation into the running of the centre.
A report by Michael Watters, chief executive of West Dunbartonshire Council, alleges six relatives of unemployed painter and decorator John O’Malley served on the centre’s management committee at various times. They included his sisters Esther O’Malley and Mary Gregg, his son John O’Malley junior, son-in-law Ian Devlin, sister-in-law Yvonne Harrison and brother-in-law Gordon Casey. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110768368.html
30 January 1998: Labour faced a fresh wave of sleaze accusations last night.
In West Dunbartonshire, chief executive Michael Watters wrote to the provost to complain about two senior councillors. And in Edinburgh, a councillor accused fellow members of exerting pressure on officials to secure extra funding for their wards. Mr Watters made a series of allegations against council leader Andrew White and Labour group secretary James McCallum. He accused them of trying to dismiss him, and of attempting to dig up dirt on his deputy, Ian Leitch. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110684142.html
4 February 1998: West Dunbartonshire questions
The SNP group on West Dunbartonshire Council believes that there is a concerted effort being made by the Labour Party at all levels to cover up the doctoring of reports, intimidation, and dirty tricks being carried out by Labour councillors in West Dunbartonshire. A comparison of the final paragraph of the letter to The Herald from Angus Macleod of the Labour Party with the notice of motion submitted to the council by the Labour group reveals remarkable similarities (February3). “This council affirms that it requires an authority which is efficient, effective, and responsive to the community” (Labour group). “Our councils should be efficient, effective, and responsive to their local communities” (A Macleod). http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/the-temperature-of-in-council-fighting-can-be-gauged-by-two-letters-how-wattersgate-hit-boiling-point-1.345751http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23675560.html
2 March 1998: SNP lead attack on ‘unjust’ Cosla inquiry
The controversy surrounding an inquiry into strife-ridden West Dunbartonshire Council deepened last night as the local SNP leader attacked the procedures as “flawed and contrary to the rules of natural justice”. The Cosla inquiry was called to investigate claims by the council chief executive, Mr Michael Watters, that two leading members of the ruling Labour Group, council leader Andrew White and group secretary James McCallum, connived to try to oust him and his deputy. It was revealed that Cosla representatives had met Mr Watters in advance of instituting the inquiry to advise him that his position was untenable and he should resign. This led to concerns being raised about the impartiality of the inquiry. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23684929.html
7 March 1998: Wattersgate inquiry ‘a breach of justice.’ Councillors warned they would have to foot bill for ‘backstabbers’ charter’
Labour councillors at war with their chief executive and his deputy were warned last night that if they proceeded with an inquiry they would be “breaching natural justice” and faced having to pay for it out of their own pockets. Councillors in strife-torn West Dunbartonshire Council were confronted with the shock news four days before they are due to begin an inquiry into allegations by chief executive Michael Watters that two leading members of the council’s Labour group were conniving to try to get rid of him and his deputy, Mr Ian Leitch.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23684395.html
7 March 1998: An investigation into a Scottish Council was scrapped yesterday.
A senior official at West Dunbartonshire Council blocked the investigation which was due to begin on Tuesday, saying it would be in breach of natural justice. In an astonishing report to councillors on the procedures to be adopted by the inquiry team, the legal manager, Stephen Brown, claimed the council would have to completely revise its inquiry guidelines. Problems have arisen out of one area of the inquiry, which was to focus on allegations from the chief executive, Michael Watters, that Andrew White, leader of the Labour-led council, and the group secretary, Jim McCallum, connived to get rid of him and his deputy, Ian Leitch.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18653243.html
11 March 1998: Labour’s ‘natural justice’ flawed Yet again
So flexible is New Labour’s concept of natural justice that it should be sponsored by one of our leading latex manufacturers. In the case of the so-called Wattersgate scandal in West Dunbartonshire Council, the elastic was stretched so tight that the hold on credibility could not be sustained. The grip has given and the smack on Labour councillors’ faces, and on Cosla ones, will be no less painful for being figurative. But it will be no surprise that the Labour Party has once again been caught on the rebound in its crusade to sort out local government. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23681222.html
11 March 1998: Panel ‘not appropriate’ – Council inquiry team quits
The Cosla investigation into the Wattersgate scandal gripping West Dunbartonshire Council was in tatters last night after the three- man inquiry team withdrew. The extraordinary turn of events followed a weekend council report that warned councillors they would be breaching natural justice if they went ahead with the flawed inquiry and could be surcharged for the £1100-a-day costs.
The man heading the inquiry, Professor John Fairley, initially expressed the hope it was “only a minor hiccup”. He said he had proposed “using tried and tested procedures” and hoped to get down to business soon. However, Professor Fairley, director of the Centre for Public Policy and Management at The Robert Gordon University, did a U-turn yesterday and told the council in a letter he was withdrawing from the inquiry, which was set up by Cosla to look at claims by chief executive Michael Watters that two leading Labour councillors, leader Andrew White and group secretary James McCallum, had connived to try to get rid of him and his deputy. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23681235.html
24 April 1998: Court ban threat over bias claim; Labour hits back in Wattersgaterow
The Chief Executive at the centre of the “Wattersgate” scandal is preparing to go to the Court of Session over alleged bias on the part of two members of a grievance committee set up to investigate his complaints against two senior Labour councillors. Labour-controlled West Dunbartonshire Council will be given an ultimatum by Mr Michael Watters either to change the make-up of the investigating committee or face a legal challenge.
Mr Watters is prepared to bring forward written evidence of bias on the part of two members of the three-man committee – councillors Jim Flynn and Duncan Mills. They are due to start the inquiry next Wednesday into Mr Watters’ complaints that the leader of the council, Andrew White, and Labour group secretary Jim McCallum connived to try to get rid of him and his deputy, Ian Leitch.
1 July 1998: A Labour provost has been criticised by appeal judges over his handling of a shopkeeper’s application for an off-sales licence.
George Cairney, the recently installed provost of West Dunbartonshire Council, played a key role in having the request rejected. As chairman of the board, Councillor Cairney visited the next door shop run by the objector and had a private conversation with the owner before giving him a friendly wave as he left.
The judges at the Court of Session said Mr Cairney’s actions, as chairman of the licensing board, left him open to suspicions of bias. They stressed that, although there was no suggestion that Mr Cairney had tried to influence fellow board members, justice had not been seen to be done. The shopkeeper, Zafar Mahmood, will now be granted the licence, which councillors have voted twice to refuse.
A Minister in the Scottish Executive has admitted publicly to being in favour of scrapping Trident, it was confirmed last night as the Opposition SNP moved to exploit Government concern at the controversial judgment of a Greenock sheriff who ruled that Trident was illegal. In the wake of Sheriff Gimblett’s ruling that the nuclear deterrent based on the Clyde contravened the law as viewed by the International Court, the Opposition SNP last night asked if ministerial collective responsibility in Scotland applied to reserved as well as devolved areas. Ms Jackie Baillie, Deputy Minister for Communities, replied to a CND questionnaire posted on the Internet before the Scottish Parliament elections saying she supported the scrapping of Trident. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23761938.html
15 May 2001: Erskine Bridge charges ‘Taking a Toll’ on the community
Scotland’s transport minister Sarah Boyack has been asked to remove toll charges on the Erskine Bridge because they are strangling the economy of a small local authority. People living in West Dunbartonshire are losing out on 500 new jobs, it is claimed, because firms are deterred from moving to the area by the high tolls on the bridge which crosses the Clyde. The council’s Labour leader, Andy White, wants the executive to scrap the 60p each-way toll to give the local economy, already damaged by the pull-out of Polaroid and closure of the J&B bottling plant, a chance to recover. Councillor White said yesterday that Ms Boyack has the opportunity to abolish charges when she reviews the operation of the bridge in July. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18792779.html
Comment: Tolls were eventually dropped on 1 April 2006 (5 year’s after the urgent request submitted by the Dumbartonshire Council leader) hardly inspiring work by Jackie Baillie. But note the reason the tolls were stopped: TOLLS on the Erskine Bridge will be scrapped from April 1 to relieve congestion on the Kingston Bridge and Clyde Tunnel. Ending the 60p each way charge for cars is expected to cost the Scottish Executive, the owner, around £4m a year. But the cost is dwarfed by the GBP20m lost to the economy each year because of workers and hauliers being stuck in jams in the tunnel and on the Kingston bridge.
24 January 2002: West Dunbartonshire is officially Scotland’s worst council
Scotland’s least efficient council – with the lowest council tax collection and highest absenteeism rates – will be confirmed today as West Dunbartonshire. The unenviable title comes with new figures from the Accounts Commission, the spending watchdog. The findings come a week after West Dunbartonshire was revealed to have the country’s worst rent arrears, failing to collect almost a quarter of the money owed by its tenants. The new figures show that the council – which covers Clydebank, Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and west Loch Lomond – last year had the country’s worst council tax collection rate and its highest staff sickness level.
12 October 2006: Council in crisis set to face public hearing. Damning report of bullying and poor morale prompts inquiry
Leaders of a crisis-hit local authority are to face unprecedented scrutiny after the official Scottish council watchdog yesterday announced it is to hold a public hearing into the running of its affairs. The hearing, announced by the Accounts Commission for Scotland, followed a damning Audit Scotland report published last week which delivered a devastating assessment of poor management and political leadership at West Dunbartonshire Council. The local authority’s councillors and officials were heavily criticised in the report, carried out earlier this year, which identified a culture of bullying and poor staff morale. It also attacked decisions made in secret, unstable management, and in- fighting between councillors and officials.
30 November 2006: Leading Labour politicians yesterday launched a public broadside on their own party’s leadership of a Scottish council, with the local MP calling for Holyrood ministers to send in a hit squad to force change. A series of astonishing accusations flowed at Clydebank Town Hall during an unprecedented public hearing held by the Accounts Commission, the local authority watchdog. Last month it was handed a highly critical report on West Dunbartonshire Council by Audit Scotland and opted to air the issues in public. The hearing continues today. Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for Dumbarton, alleged there had been repeated cases of bullying, while John McFall, MP for West Dunbartonshire and chairman of the Commons Finance Select Committee, claimed a cabal of councillors had allocated millions to favour their own wards. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23642046.html
Comment: Funny how Baillie and McFall said nothing until the audit report identified failings. Clearly a move to distance themselves from the chaos and misappropriation of finance ongoing within the constituency.
2 December 2006: The long history of efforts to curb Labour misbehaviour on West Dunbartonshire Council
The Scottish Executive has warned it is prepared to take action against a local authority which has come under heavy criticism from watchdogs. Decision-making and leadership at West Dunbartonshire Council were found wanting by the Accounts Commission. A public hearing into the running of the local authority also raised concerns about a “culture of bullying”. But the council criticised the watchdog for its “negative” focus and insisted it was performing well in many areas. The executive’s warning comes five days after council leader Andy White announced his resignation after nine years in the job.
Local Government Minister Tom McCabe voiced concerns about the findings, which he described as “not good enough”. Mr McCabe said he would consider what action could be taken. “I expect the council to accept these findings in full and put in place a recovery process without delay,” he said. “If they do not, I will have to consider what further action may be necessary.” A written warning could be issued and, if the situation did not improve, the council could be taken under ministerial control. The council would have more than three months to implement a “comprehensive improvement plan”, during which the executive said it would monitor the situation.
The hearing, which took place earlier this year, highlighted “significant deficiencies” in corporate decision-making at the council, which was not as “open and transparent” as it should have been. There was concern that individuals were afraid to give evidence in public for fear of reprisals.
The commission also heard allegations of bullying and harassment from councillors and trade union representatives. It stated: “We are concerned by the assertion that individuals were afraid to give evidence in public for fear of reprisals. “This issue of a culture of bullying and harassment, whether real or perceived, must be addressed immediately.”
The authority was not in a position to deliver best value for residents and must accept outside help to push through improvements, according to the commission. Alastair MacNish, chair of the commission in Scotland, said there were “serious problems” at the council. “People in West Dunbartonshire deserve better and need to know that these problems are being addressed,” he said.
However, a council spokesperson said: “We believe that we made a well-evidenced case to the Accounts Commission and are very disappointed that – while they recognise some of the council’s strengths – their findings focus more on the negative parts of the Audit Scotland report.” The council said education and social work were performing well, despite deprivation in the area, and claimed the commission had also accepted there was effective working with community partners. The spokesman added: “The findings have chosen to focus negatively on issues of decision-making, leadership, scrutiny, relationships and morale. “We have recognised that, like all councils, we are not perfect, but we are far from being the worst performing council in Scotland.” The unprecedented step of holding the hearing took place after a critical Audit Scotland report on behalf of the commission.
11 December 2006: Deputy leader of crisis-torn council will not stand again
The deputy leader of a crisistorn council is set to quit his post, having just secured an £80,000 contract from the council for his graffiti-cleaning business. Councillor Jim Flynn, number two at West Dunbartonshire Council, told party colleagues at the weekend that he will not stand again at the May election. His announcement comes days ahead of a report by the council watchdog, the Accounts Commission, which is expected to be highly critical of the local authority’s political leadership. Those at the party meeting were surprised to hear Mr Flynn explain that his decision to quit came after the passage last week of the Adoption Bill at Holyrood, which has raised controversy because it gives gay couples the right to adopt.
12 December 2006: The leader of West Dunbartonshire Council is to resign next week.
Councillor Andy White said he could no longer tolerate the behaviour of two of his fellow Labour councillors and some Dumbarton Labour Party members. Cllr White alleged he had been subject to vindictive and personal abuse by some politicians after investing resources in schools in Clydebank. He will formally step down at a meeting next week when the local authority said a new leader would be appointed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6173207.stm
16 December 2006: Council under fire after staff ‘too scared’ to give evIdence Minister threatens to take full control
The official council watchdog has raised fears about staff in a West of Scotland council being unwilling to raise their criticisms of the leadership for fear of reprisals. The Accounts Commission included concerns about the alleged culture of bullying and harassment at West Dunbartonshire Council among a series of damning findings into the local authority. The long-running battle between the Labour-run council and its watchdogs was stepped up yesterday, with the second devastating critique of poor leadership, inadequate scrutiny by councillors, poor morale, and lack of clarity behind the allocation of millions of pounds. The council responded it was “disappointed” that the Accounts Commission had been so negative in its findings. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23642733.html
21 December 2006: Council chief suspended in Labour clampdown West Dunbartonshire faces tough action
Labour has suspended one of its most senior representatives in Scotland, blocking him from standing for the party at next year’s elections. Andy White, leader of West Dunbartonshire Council until he was replaced yesterday, faces unprecedented action from party headquarters, after months of growing pressure through political channels and the official council watchdog. His suspension by the party’s Local Government Governance Panel, came on the day Communities Minister Malcolm Chisholm decided to send a hit-squad in to the council’s housing department, another unprecedented move. The minister has imposed an external team in response to concerns raised by the Scottish Executive’s housing regulator, Communities Scotland. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23646418.html
4 February 2007: Dunbartonshire council leader facing motion of no confidence
The leader of a Labour-run council faces dismissal by his colleagues next month, after an attempt at voting him out of office failed this week. Martin Rooney, who was voted leader of West Dunbartonshire Council less than two months ago following a party headquarters move against his predecessor, did not face a motion of no confidence on Monday night, but only because Labour rules ban decisions being revisited within three months. Jim Flynn, the group whip and housing convener who tabled the motion, was suspended by party headquarters only hours before the vote on Monday. That effectively blocks him from standing for Labour at the elections in May. He has faced criticism for the manner in which council contracts were placed with the graffiti-cleaning company he runs.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23652016.html
1 March 2007: Council members bid to oust Jackie Baillie MSP
Labour councillors turned on their local MSP yesterday, demanding her resignation over local hospital services. Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton Labour MSP and former communities minister, was attacked by four Labour members of West Dunbartonshire Council, including former leader Andy White. They sided with the Scottish National Party and independent councillors at a full council meeting which brought the ruling administration to the brink of collapse. Martin Rooney, who replaced Andy White after his forced resignation in December, could count on only six of the 16 people elected as Labour councillors in 2003. Several stayed away while four rebels voted against the Labour line and sought revenge on Ms Baillie for her public attacks on them. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23649148.html
The cdif outbreak occurred at the Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire
16 March 2007: Labour headquarters extends its purge of senior figures in West Dunbartonshire Council, while deciding to expel the former council leader and his deputy.
Andy White, who led the council until December, has been recommended for expulsion by the ruling National Executive Council (NEC) in London, and it is a formality for the disciplinary panel to oust him.The same is true for former deputy leader, Jim Flynn, the housing convener. Five other councillors who recently resigned can expect to have future membership applications blocked. That affects Denis Agnew, who was elected on Monday as the third leader of West Dunbartonshire Council in three months. His deputy, Jackie Maceira, resigned on Sunday, and is also not welcome to return. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23649889.html
18 May 2007: Can the SNP tame Wild West Dunbartonshire? Labour has paid the price of corrosive tribal wars within the council
It should have come as no surprise – indeed, it was an outcome thoroughly predictable – that the night of the election count in West Dunbartonshire should have ended with a brawl outside a pub. It involved members of the Labour Party, and the former deputy provost and her husband left with bruised heads, arms and feet in the fracas. Welcome to Wild West Dunbartonshire, one of a number of former Labour strongholds now under SNP control. It is at local level, rather than Holyrood, where Labour’s reversal of fortune has been most dramatic. But the toppling of Labour in West Dunbartonshire is a particularly awesome fall. How could the unthinkable have happened here? http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-13105211.html
21 December 2008: West Dunbartonshire Council in the news again – Labour Grandees, MP John McFall and MSP Jackie Baillie accused by Councillor and former colleague, (in a letter to the Labour Party General Secretary) of overseeing a “thuggish” clique within the Labour Party in Scotland. McFall is the chair of the powerful House of Commons Treasury select committee, while Baillie is a former minister and ex-chief of staff for Labour at Holyrood.
Marie McNair, who has served on West Dunbartonshire Council for five years, said the politicians, who ran her local party forced their will on party decisions quelling any opposition by intimidation. She also claimed to have suffered sexist abuse by a party member and that she was shouted down at meetings for challenging decisions. The allegations were contained in a letter of resignation sent by McNair to Colin Smith, the Scottish Labour general secretary, which said: “It fills me with despair that such thuggish and intimidatory behaviour has been tolerated and covered up by the Labour Party. The contents of McNair’s letter were read out in public at a meeting of the SNP-led council. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article139064.ece
Marie McNair
18 January 2009: Councils bid to work together crumbles . . . and taxpayers are left to pick up the bill
Calls to reform Scotland’s councils were stepped up last night after three authorities wasted time and money trying to collaborate on a cost-saving IT project only to end up falling out over it. Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire and Perth & Kinross started disagreeing within weeks of an initial deal to buy a new payroll and human resources system in 2007. Last month it emerged the trio had gone their separate ways, two after obtaining their own legal advice, and bought three systems instead of one at prices far higher than they expected. Critics of Scotland’s patchwork of 32 councils said the case illustrated the need for authorities to be made to co-operate. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-19766817.html
29 November 2012: Public meeting of the Clydebank Trades Union Council
The panel comprised Gil Paterson (SNP MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie), : Jackie Baillie (Labour MSP for Dumbarton), Chairman Tom Paterson (Secretary of Clydebank TUC), Stephen Boyd (Assistant Secretary of Scottish TUC) and Cathy Leach (Scottish Pensioners’ Forum). Baillie roasted by many of those present who outed her as a liar on many of the issues she sought to defend.
Former SNP leader Alex Salmond’s father Robert dies aged 95
The father-of-four passed away at the Erskine Home for ex-servicemen on Monday 5 June. His funeral is expected to be held in West Lothian next week.
Former first minister Mr Salmond said it was a “very sad week” for all the family.
Mr Salmond also paid tribute to staff at Erskine Hospital for their care in his father’s final years.
He said: “Dad passed away peacefully on Monday night at Erskine and now will be taken home to Linlithgow where he spent all of his days, apart from his wartime service in the Royal Navy.
Torpedoed in action
Robert Salmond was in the Royal Navy during the war.
As a petty officer he served on two aircraft carriers, and was responsible for repairing radios on the planes.
He was on the Fleet Carrier, HMS Indomitable, when she was torpedoed supporting the invasion of Sicily in 1943.
When the Indomitable sailed for Norfolk, Virginia, for repairs, Mr Salmond senior and his team were transferred to the newly commissioned escort carrier HMS Hunter and he saw further action in the Salerno landings, before being diagnosed with TB and confined to hospital for the remainder of the war.
Alex and his Dad
June 2017: Jackie Baille – Has No Shame – Her Hatred of Alex Salmond Knows No Bounds
Baillie’s original tweet came during the 6 June leaders’ debate on S.T.V. shortly after Nicola Sturgeon claimed Scottish Labour Kezia Dugdale had told her, following the Brexit vote that ”Labour should stop opposing a referendum” on Scottish independence.
Getting straight onto the attack mode Baillie fired off a tweet with both barrels stating: “Nicola Sturgeon told me once that she really liked Alex Salmond. Really! That was two days after he resigned.” #scotdebates.”
Her Tweet was delivered only a few hours after Alex Salmond had made public the death of his father Robert aged 95 who passed away at the Erskine Home for ex-servicemen on Monday.
Alex Salmond said: “Dad passed away peacefully on Monday night at Erskine and now will be taken home to Linlithgow where he spent all of his days, apart from his wartime service in the Royal Navy.
Baillie faced a barrage of criticism on Twitter:
Councillor Katy Loudon wrote: “That’s a really classy tweet given Alex’s circumstances today. Shameful.”
Isobel Huntly added: “What is it with Labour’s personal attacks. It’s shameful. You are bringing our politics into disrepute.”
Baillie responding to the furore caused by her conduct later apologised saying she was unaware of the news when she had posted on social media.
Labour web row: ‘I wish Salmond’s father would die’
ALEX SALMOND’S 90-year-old father was yesterday forced to issue a defiant message after a twisted Labour supporter said online that he wished he would
The First Minister described the taunt as “pathetic” and the SNP called for the offending website, which is only open to Labour Party supporters and used by the Holyrood leadership, to be shut down.
The sick jibe was made by “Daniel Kelly”, a member of the “Scottish Labour for Scotland” group on the social networking website, Facebook.
It came after Mr Salmond cancelled an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time on Thursday night because he had to attend a family funeral the following day.
In a comment taken to refer to the death of the First Minister’s elderly aunt, Kelly wrote: “Don’t you wish his dear old dad did the same.”
However Royal Navy veteran Robert Salmond, who was on board HMS Indomitable when she was torpedoed during the Second World War, said: “This person is in for a disappointment – there’s no way I’m pegging out before the Cup Final.”I’ve been waiting all my life for a Hearts/Hibs final, and I’m going to be there in three weeks’ time.
“In any case, I survived the war so I can survive the comments of some nyaff on the Internet.
“I’m not into computers, so this stuff doesn’t bother me – it just sounds like someone has a lot of growing up to do.”
Ironically, the nonagenarian, who still lives in the family home in Linlithgow, West Lothian, was a Labour voter until he was put off for life by a rude canvasser.His son, who spent yesterday campaigning in Fife and Glasgow ahead of Thursday’s council elections, added: “This is the lowest of the low, just pathetic.”
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, her deputy Anas Sarwar, shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran and Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell are all members of the Facebook group.
Labour officials insisted they had no knowledge of Kelly and did not believe he is a member of the party.
However, he identifies himself as a staunch supporter and is Facebook friends with Ms Lamont, Mr Sarwar and Mrs Curran, as well as dozens of high-ranking Labour politicians including former First Minister Jack McConnell, MPs Cathy Jamieson, Ian Davidson, Tom Harris and Tom Watson, and MSPs Jackie Baillie, James Kelly, John Park and Lewis Macdonald.A spokesman for the SNP said: “Johann Lamont and Anas Sarwar should immediately resign from this website, which should also be shut down.”
Incredibly, Labour attempted to distance themselves from the uproar and described it as a “desperate smear” by the Nationalists.
A spokesman said: “This desperate smear campaign falls at the first hurdle because this Facebook page is not owned, managed, or operated by Scottish Labour, and it will not detract from the rantings and ravings of SNP candidates – sacked or otherwise – online.
“Political parties are responsible for their candidates and officials, but members of the public must be responsible for their own behaviour.”Privately, officials said they found the comment “absolutely reprehensible” and urged the moderator of the Facebook page to have Kelly banned. (The Express 29 April 2012)
Jacqueline Marie Baillie
Was born in the far east, 15 January 1964, to a Portuguese father and Scottish mother. She was schooled at the exclusive private St Anne’s School, Windermere in the English Lake District (annual boarding fees were £21,000 a year) and later studied at Cumbernauld College, Strathclyde University and the University of Glasgow. She lives in Dumbarton with her daughter. Appointed, Chair of the Scottish Labour Party in 1997, she was first elected to Holyrood as MSP for the Dumbarton constituency at the inaugural election for the Scottish Parliament in May 1999. She was re-elected in 2003, 2007 and 2011.
26 October 1999: Minister Jackie Baillie backs scrapping Trident
A Minister in the Scottish Executive has admitted publicly to being in favour of scrapping Trident, it was confirmed last night as the Opposition SNP moved to exploit Government concern at the controversial judgment of a Greenock sheriff who ruled that Trident was illegal. In the wake of Sheriff Gimblett’s ruling that the nuclear deterrent based on the Clyde contravened the law as viewed by the International Court, the Opposition SNP last night asked if ministerial collective responsibility in Scotland applied to reserved as well as devolved areas. Ms Jackie Baillie, Deputy Minister for Communities, replied to a CND questionnaire posted on the Internet before the Scottish Parliament elections saying she supported the scrapping of Trident.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23761938.html
Henry McLeish
13 November 2001: Baillie rules herself out of leadership race
Jackie Baillie, the social justice minister, yesterday ruled herself out of the race to become the next First Minister. She said she had no intention of standing for the top job in Scottish politics, because it would deny her time with her daughter. Ms Baillie, popular among MSPs, party members and the unions is seen as “a safe pair of hands”. Her reputation in the executive is as a solid, capable operator with a good line in putting down the opposition parties in the parliament chamber.
She had been tipped, along with Angus MacKay, the finance minister, as a potential “stop Jack” candidate, because she is seen as being close the wing of Labour loyal to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, whose allies had initially made it plain they were determined to prevent Jack McConnell, the education minister, succeeding Henry McLeish as First Minister. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18815617.html
Jack McConnell (now Lord)
28 November 2001: Mcconnell exact’s his revenge
Jack McConnell cast half the Scottish Cabinet into the political wilderness yesterday in a devastating display of ruthlessness. The new First Minister wreaked a deadly revenge on colleagues who opposed his leadership bid. In a dramatic reshuffle, four of the most senior figures in Scottish politics were summarily sacked, while another was humiliated into resignation. Tom McCabe, Jackie Baillie, Angus MacKay, Sarah Boyack and Susan Deacon were all relegated to the backbenches where they are free to nurse their grievances.
Mr McConnell had lulled the casualties into a false sense of security by insisting there would be no ‘night of the long knives’. They thought their jobs were safe when he repeatedly stressed that Scotland needed a period of stability following the resignation of former First Minister Henry McLeish. But yesterday their careers were in tatters following a merciless purge. He replaced them with a string of his leftwing loyalists, most of whom have no ministerial experience.
The new Finance Minister is backbench MSP Andy Kerr, who masterminded Mr McConnell’s public confession about his adulterous affair. He is joined at the Cabinet table by Mr McConnell’s acolyte Patricia Ferguson, who becomes Parliament Minister, and fellow close colleague Lord Watson (the fireraiser).
30 November 2006:Labour politicians(McFall & Baillie) launch a public broadside on their own party’s leadership of a Scottish council
Constituency MP called for Holyrood ministers to send in a hit squad to force change. A series of astonishing accusations flowed at Clydebank Town Hall during an unprecedented public hearing held by the Accounts Commission, the local authority watchdog. Last month it was handed a highly critical report on West Dunbartonshire Council by Audit Scotland and opted to air the issues in public.
Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for Dumbarton, alleged there had been repeated cases of bullying, while John McFall, MP for West Dunbartonshire and chairman of the Commons Finance Select Committee, claimed a cabal of councillors had allocated millions to favour their own wards. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23642046.html
Comment: Funny how Baillie and McFall said nothing until the audit report identified failings. Clearly a move to distance themselves from the chaos and misappropriation of finance on going within the constituency.
John McFall MP ( Baron McFall of Alcluith)
27 February 2007: The pork-barrel component of Trident
I suspect there is only one job Jackie Baillie is anxious to protect at the moment. Mrs Baillie has put on a bravura performance pretending to be concerned with employment while actually defending Scotland’s place as a humble cog in the US military industrial machine and her own interest in the pork-barrel arrangements which flow therefrom. Trident is about the British taxpayer subsidising the US defence industry and providing, gratis, an ICBM submarine squadron to the US Navy. The pork-barrel part is that impoverished / Labour – dominated (same thing, really) areas like Mrs Baillie’s constituency (20% of households living in poverty) get very few relatively well- paid, ferociously subsidised defence jobs. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23649065.html
1 March 2007: Council members bid to oust Jackie Baillie MSP
Labour councillors turned on their local MSP yesterday, demanding her resignation over local hospital services. Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton Labour MSP and former communities minister, was attacked by four Labour members of West Dunbartonshire Council, including former leader Andy White. They sided with the Scottish National Party and independent councillors at a full council meeting which brought the ruling administration to the brink of collapse.
Martin Rooney, who replaced Andy White after his forced resignation in December, could count on only six of the 16 people elected as Labour councillors in 2003. Several stayed away while four rebels voted against the Labour line and sought revenge on Ms Baillie for her public attacks on them. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23649148.html
Andy WhiteMartin Rooney
19 October 2007: Reasons to be cynical
Jackie Baillie has tabled a question at Holyrood about the cost of the summit “Scotland Without Nuclear Weapons” convened by the Scottish Government. Her concerns, (related to the cost of the hire of a hall and some sandwiches) is in stark contrast to her support of political policies forcing the Scottish taxpayer to fork out billions of pounds being the nations share of the Trident renewal programme. This new charge being, added to the billions already paid for Trident system.
Ms Baillie has become Scotland’s most vociferous supporter of nuclear weapons, no doubt in the hope of continuing to save her political skin as MSP for Faslane. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23671352.html Comment: But she said she was anti-Trident ?
21 December 2008: West Dunbartonshire Council in the news again
Labour Grandees, MP John McFall and MSP Jackie Baillie stand accused by a Councillor and former colleague, (in a letter to the Labour Party General Secretary) of overseeing a “thuggish” clique within the Labour Party in Scotland. McFall is the chair of the powerful House of Commons Treasury select committee, while Baillie is a former minister and ex-chief of staff for Labour at Holyrood.
Marie McNair, who has served on West Dunbartonshire Council for five years, said the politicians, who ran her local party forced their will on party decisions quelling any opposition by intimidation. She also claimed to have suffered sexist abuse by a party member and that she was shouted down at meetings for challenging decisions.
The allegations were contained in a letter of resignation sent by McNair to Colin Smith, the Scottish Labour general secretary, which said: “It fills me with despair that such thuggish and intimidatory behaviour has been tolerated and covered up by the Labour Party. The contents of McNair’s letter were read out in public at a meeting of the SNP-led council. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article139064.ece
Marie McNair
2 January 2012: Baillie criticised over ‘out-of-date’ superbug figures
Labour was yesterday accused of scoring an own goal after it used statistics from its time in office to describe Scotland as the “superbug capital of Europe”.
Shadow Health Secretary Jackie Baillie produced figures showing Scotland joint top with Sweden on 9.5% of admissions resulting in an infection. The UK was fourth worst on 9%, just after Greece, with Germany, Lithuania and Latvia under 4%, according to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. The European average was 7.1%.
Ms Baillie said: “Being the superbug capital of Europe is an accolade no country wants. These figures show that, despite recent progress, the SNP government still has a long way to go in the battle against healthcare associated infections (HAIs).
5 January 2012: Baillie’s false statements another injustice to Scottish healthcare workers – Labour owe health workers another apology
The SNP has called on Labour to apologise to health workers after Jackie Baillie admitted her claims that NHS patients had to share blankets in a Paisley hospital were wrong – weeks after the health board provided proof there was no truth in her accusations.
SNP MSP George Adam has written to Johann Lamont asking her to investigate Ms Baillie’s remarks and apologise to the staff of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for her health spokespersons false statements.
Ms Baillie made the allegations, despite NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde saying, when the matter “was raised a few weeks ago”, that they provided “proof that there was no truth in this claim”. She later admitted in a newspaper that they were wrong
Mr Adam, SNP MSP for Paisley and a Member of the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee, said:
“To knowingly make incorrect claims in her conference speech beggars belief. She should be ashamed of herself for talking Scotland’s health service down yet again.
Ms Baillie knew her allegations were wrong as NHS GGC had addressed them weeks before. I have written to Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, asking her to investigate these remarks and apologise to the staff of the Royal Alexandra for her health spokespersons false statements.
Ms Baillie is a repeat offender in smearing Scotland’s NHS. It was only in December she tried to pass off “new figures” for infection rates as ones gathered under the SNP, when in fact they were collected in 2005/06, when Labour were last in power.
And this follows her infamous “Winter Watch” campaign last year, which had nothing to do with improving the NHS, and everything to do with her finding new ways to talk down the NHS and its hard-working staff.
She must explain why she made an assertion in her conference speech which had already been comprehensively rebutted by the Health Board several weeks before.
This is not only disrespectful to our health professionals – it has caused alarm among patients and their families. Labour’s health spokesperson should instead be acknowledging the hard work and dedication of our NHS workforce.”
Notes:
1) In her speech to Labour conference at the weekend, Jackie Baillie stated that “In one hospital in Greater Glasgow and Clyde patients are even having to share blankets because of the cuts.”
2) However, responding to the blanket claims, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “This matter was raised with us a few weeks ago, and we were able to provide proof that there was no truth in this claim. Extra blankets are available in all our hospital as and when patients need them.”
5) Details of Jackie Baillie’s “Winter Watch” campaign – asking for patients and staff to report “any strains in the NHS” and then suggesting the information will be used by the Labour Party – can be found at http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/winterwatch
29 November 2012: A video recording of a public meeting of the Clydebank Trades Union Council
The panel comprised Gil Paterson (SNP MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie), : Jackie Baillie (Labour MSP for Dumbarton), Chairman Tom Paterson (Secretary of Clydebank TUC), Stephen Boyd (Assistant Secretary of Scottish TUC) and Cathy Leach (Scottish Pensioners’ Forum).
Baillie roasted by many of those present who outed her as a liar on many of the issues she sought to defend.
28 October 2012: Jackie Baillie Trident job loss claims challenged by official MoD figures
Claims by Labour MSP Jackie Baillie that the Trident nuclear weapons system sustains 11,000 Scottish jobs have been called into question following a Freedom of Information request by Scottish CND. Figures obtained from the Ministry of Defence by the nuclear disarmament group show that the total number of jobs directly linked to Trident is a mere 520. According to official figures, of the 520, 159 are employed by the Ministry of Defence and 361 are employed by contractors.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie has been a regular critic of the SNP’s policy over the siting of nuclear weapons on the Clyde. Ms Baillie has repeatedly claimed that having Trident creates 11,000 jobs, with thousands more set to be generated through plans to expand the naval base. Speaking on her official Labour party website, Ms Bailie said: “There are over 11,000 jobs dependent on the base.
The SNP would remove Trident, devastating our local economy and turning Helensburgh into a ghost town.” Ms Baillie also claimed that the renewal of the nuclear weapons system and the expansion of the base would create thousands more jobs and added: “The SNP also fail to acknowledge that almost 3,000 new jobs will be created with the impending expansion of the base. These too would be jeopardised by the SNP plans to scrap Trident.”
Dismissing his Labour opponent’s claim as nonsense, SNP MSP, Bill Kidd, said: “Trident is, in reality, a jobs-destroyer, and attempts to justify the presence of weapons of mass destruction on the Clyde in terms of jobs is the worst kind of nonsense, as Jackie Baillie knows only too well.” http://newsnet.scot/2012/10/baillie-trident-jobs-claim-challenged-by-official-mod-figures/
14 September 2013: Scottish Labour wall of silence as Baillie Bedroom Tax claim denied by London chiefs
A wall of silence from Scottish Labour has emerged following MSP Jackie Baillie’s claim that Labour are set confirm they will axe the Bedroom Tax if they win the next UK general election.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Baillie was asked if a new Labour government would abolish the Bedroom Tax.
Responding, she said: “We are very clear. Labour rejected this approach when it was put to them in government, for social landlords. We have campaigned for its abolition. “Yes we will abolish it. My understanding is that you can expect an announcement relatively soon.”
However, following Ms Baillie’s comments London Labour distanced itself from the Scottish Labour MSP stating, “It goes against what we are saying – we haven’t made that pledge to date,” their spokesperson added “Ms Baillie has gone a bit too far with this one”.
Labour MP and Shadow Cabinet member Helen Goodman says Labour would keep the bedroom tax for people who refused to move if offered smaller accommodation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO-91baVvHI
2 July 2014: It’s High Time Labour Put the People First
A Million people in Scotland now live in poverty, according to the latest official figures – a big rise. Things will get worse – another 70 per cent of the UK Government’s welfare cuts have still to come. Shamefully, yesterday’s figures revealed six out of 10 children living in poverty had a parent in work. Yesterday, I heard Jackie Baillie, Labour’s welfare spokeswoman at Holyrood, argue that Scotland benefited from the “strength and security” of the UK. That simply makes no sense. Where’s the “security” in a million people in poverty?
24 September 2014: Dumbarton & Vale MSP Jackie Baillie calls for unity after Referendum – West Dunbartonshire votes Yes in Independence Referendum despite Westminsters promise of new powers
Joyce White, chief executive of West Dunbartonshire Council, announced at Clydebank’s Playdrome leisure centre that 62,496 votes had been cast in the area — a huge 87.9 per cent of those registered with a majority in favour of independence.
“Unionist” and “Better Together” campaigner MSP for Dumbarton and the Vale, Jackie Baillie said whilst she was delighted with the overall outcome of the referendum, she was disappointed that the people of Dumbartonshire had not supported her and her fellow Unionist camaigners.
But she added: “Our own ballot box sampling (of the postal ballots) suggested a majority of people in the Dumbarton and Lomond wards voted No to independence. I do however understand that there will be some people who are disappointed with the result. “In the debates and doorsteps discussions I found there was more that united us than divided us about our vision for Scotland. It’s vital we now come together as one team to address that shared vision and make devolution work for Scotland.”
An SNP representative said he would want to see more powers for job creation, defence, welfare and energy efforts to be given to Scotland “as soon as possible”. He also said he wanted further discussion on matters involving external affairs to also be considered. He continued “any offering from the Westminster establishment must be open, honest and transparent to be trusted by the people of Dumbarton and the Vale.
This is what the people of Dunbartonshire thought of Jackie Baillie:
Laura Finlay: Personally I can’t stand this woman so am fairly biased, but this sounds like a threat. We have to be unified or we will not get extra powers, really?! I believe we should be unified in getting rid of labour, forging forward to an independent Scotland.
Bobby Campbell: Jackie Baillie and her failed Labour party are liars, but don’t take my word for it, let’s do a last week/this week comparison: Last week: Only a no vote will save the NHS. Only a no vote will secure your pension. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it, vote no, The oil is running out.
This week: Only a vote for labour will save the NHS, it’s nearly destroyed. You can have your pension when your 70 now, winter fuel payment you say? It will take labour ten years to fix broken Britain. The oil has another 20 years above the 50 it already has.
Elaine Lainey McMonagle: Why would she need to “make sure” we get the powers when she promised we would most definitely get what we were promised! I don’t think back tracking will work now.
Colin Robertson: Jackie you refused to talk to anyone who wasn’t undecided while door chapping in dumbarton, you could not answer any questions we put to you, and the overall way you conducted yourself throughout the referendum was appalling, the way I heard you try to scare our elderly, the most vulnerable of our society with lies about losing their pension was unbelievable, this area does not agree with u on matters. You do not speak for me or anyone else in the area.
Janine Croft: Open honest and transparent? That’s an absolute cheek! Scaring the older people, lying to the community to suit yourselves, only speaking to those who suit you. Open, honest and transparent is exactly what you guys have not been. To expect any trust back from “your” community is a complete disregard of events over the last few months and weeks, and quite frankly, an insult!
Mark McGill: Here’s yer P45
Laura Finlay: Bye bye baillie, baillie goodbye !!!!
Stevie Mahoney: Get tae Jackie, and take yer pal Gemma wae ye. Yer done here. Maybe Asda are looking for folk.
Dougie McCann: The vow was on day after the 19th a motion would be tabled. It wasn’t and it’s still not on list of parliament future business.
Shaun Mills: have a look through the comments Jackie, the only unity you see here is unilateral dislike for you... the manner in which you and the rest of the better together campaign carried yourselves in this referendum was dishonourable and has contributed to.
Peter Devers: Up eh road butterbean.
Caroline McAllister: She lost the last drop of credibility she had when she dropped off the No Thanks posters at the Orange Lodge. She legitimised their harassment of the public who challenged them for removing YES posters while they put up BT posters. She is a snake in the grass.
Heather Fluffmum: Aire Well, you know where she can stick it…
Sharon McLeish: A Letter asking the true number of people who would have been put out of work by the scrapping of Trident under the freedom of information act was confirmed as 250!! I believe the number quoted by Jackie Baillie was 11,000. Plus those jobs would probably have been transferred to other new positions that would have needed to be created in organising the new independent Scotland’s Defence plans.
Carol Adair: The only thing this woman is not united with is reality! Wake up and smell the YES vote Ms Baillie – Dumbarton has rejected your party’s no campaign – go peddle your ‘Better together’ nonsense somewhere else!
James Slaven: Total idiot ! Down with the red Tory goons !
Paul Mclaughlin: Ironic coming from the woman who was fueling flames about yes campaigns vandals on polling day – a disgrace. Trying to claw back respect – guaranteed to be an act of self interest.
Mark McGill: No more labour!!!
John Cameron: Every word she’s uttered in the past two years has been lies in order to make sure her nose stays in the trough alongside the rest of the piggies. Who’d be daft enough to believe her cr@p now? Hope she has an up to date CV because it’s looking like she’ll need one the next time West Dumbartonshire takes to the polls.
Jean Moore: Why on earth would anyone listen to this blatent liar. Her days are numbered, cherio Jackie.
Nicola Stevenson: Love the unite in hatred for this poor excuse of a human being!!
Martin Kerr: We will unite to rid ourselves of Jackie and Gemma Doyle
Chris Mahoney: Jackie Baillie’s time is out. Labour are a are a spent force in West Dunbartonshire.
John McIllaney: Get rid of her..my home town voted yes, why keep her in comfort when she didn’t represent you..get rid of baillie!
Shona Logan: BSc Hons Hope she enjoys her farewell party. She’ll need to take doggy bags home after it to feed herself when she gets booted out of a job.
Kevin Woolfries: Hahaha Labour are finished in Scotland and anyone who’s for them are delusional Scum bye bye.
Jaine Hepburn: She is a horrible woman just like the rest of the red tories, they lied and used scaremongering all through a campaign where they should have been honest, truly think they are over in Scotland.
Dave Ó Conghalaigh: Throughout this whole campaign, she only cared about herself and getting on TV. She has spent the last few years attacking the SNP, while not just ignoring the people she’s supposed to represent, but frightening the most vulnerable members of our society with downright lies! I’m very happy that it’s looking likely we’ll finally see the last of her after the next election.
Scott McErlean: She’s a smug arrogant disgrace IMO and the MP Doyle is hopeless, I wouldn’t have left her in charge of the St Pats tuck shop.
Craig Denver: For to long they have taken Dumbarton voters for granted. Job centre for u hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Joanne Flynn: Jackie you are a disgrace to the Scots. Hang your head in shame.
David Ross: She let us all down and she knows it. And now she is shackled to her new Tory friends policies.
Claire Ritchie: The labour party is dead in this area after everything that’s gone on in the last few weeks – an extremely thin line separates them from the tories! Since the referendum results I’ve been so fed up and disappointed.
Lynne Kennedy: Who ate all the pies ? Jackie Baillie .. who told all the lies ? Jackie Baillie ….
Mark McGill: Kilmalid are always hiring temps at this time of year lol.
Donald Farquhar: So is she suggesting that the promises of her party are not enough, that the voting public must also hold the parties accountable?? Sounds like she is endorsing people power at the ballot box if the promises made by her party are not kept. Good to know she is holding herself accountable to Labour promises.
31 October 2014: It was a funny old FMQs yesterday, with half the contributors deputising for someone else.
LibDem Alison McInnes stood in for Willie Rennie, who is recovering from spinal surgery. Apparently, and in a first for his party, he now has one.
Meanwhile Jackie Baillie took the place of Johann Lamont, who suffers from another common back problem at Holyrood, multiple stab wounds.
As is traditional with Labour slayings, Ms Baillie began with breathtakingly fake praise for the ex-leader she reportedly knifed. Ms Lamont (good riddance) had been a passionate and committed public servant, she sniffed, dabbing away tears with a bloodied stiletto. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-37339346.html
Jackie Ballie Consummate Liar Exposed
Labour’s demand for more public cash to operate as an opposition party at Holyrood was attacked as “rank hypocrisy”. A wise old Scotsman once said, “Labour are like the pigeons in George Square…When they’re down they’ll eat out of your hand..but when they’re up they’ll shit on your head!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKdxprjVsnk
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie ploughs on with her condemnation of a proposed SNP cut to Corporation Tax, even as Andrew Kerr twice attempts to point out that Labour cut it the last time they were in power. (Kerr says by 2p, but Gordon Brown in fact cut it twice by a total of 5p and promised additional cuts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRe5WaZWID4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
19 November 2015: First Minister holds shameful Jackie Baillie to account
You need to look no further than Labour’s Jackie Baillie to see why the people of Scotland have rejected this unionist party in their droves. Baillie shamelessly prodded Nicola Sturgeon by saying “She hopes the FM will eventually agree with Labour in restoring the cuts to tax credits”. When asked in a recent interview how Labour would pay for restoring the cuts, her answer was ridiculous gibberish that insulted the intelligence of every Scot.
The hypocrisy of Baillie is breathtaking…as the First Minister pointed out, Labour voted with the Tories against devolving tax credits and voted for spending £167 Billion on “independent” Trident nuclear missiles, that we can’t use without America’s permission, while children go hungry and homeless. Needless to say, the First Minister held her to account in no uncertain terms and exposes her shameful hypocrisy. Video and report here: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkX9TXYDIUhttp://atrueindependentscotland.com/first-minister-holds-shameful-jackie-baillie-to-account/
28 January 2016: The Daily mail and Jackie Baillie sink to unplumbed depths
Today she took part in a Daily Mail Tory hate fest against Dr Philippa Whitford MP, whom the Mail accuses of being on the make because, over Christmas she did a few days work at her local hospital while fellow surgeons were unable to work, because of ill-heath, I believe. (Staff illness is something that would be avoidable even if Ms Baillie were cabinet secretary for health. No one wants a sick surgeon wielding a knife over them and regulations on this are pretty strict.)
Prior to being an MSP, Ms Baillie was employed in administration work with East Dunbartonshire Council and Strathkelvin District Council. She may therefore be unaware that medical doctors and surgeons are require to keep their skills honed in order that they may be able to continue to work in their speciality. Two stories here:
21 March 2016: Watch: Jackie Baillie’s disastrous interview. To call it car crash would show a lack of respect for automotive accidents
With the Scottish Parliament elections set to take place in May, the SNP are expected to once again top the polls. As for the other parties, Kezia Dugdale’s beleaguered Scottish Labour will be attempting to fight off Ruth Davidson’s conservatives for second place.
So, with Dugdale desperately needing to win back disillusioned voters, she may live to regret sending Jackie Baillie, the Scottish MSP, onto yesterday’s Sunday Politics. In an interview with Gordon Brewer, Baillie attempted to put forward her party’s new economic policy which claims to offer a way to end austerity which is not ‘prescriptive’. Alas Brewer was unconvinced, suggesting that the policy amounted to promising to put people’s taxes out without knowing what the money will be spent on: Full story here:
22 April 2016: Jackie Baillie Goes Rogue on Labour with support for Trident Nuclear Weapons Upgrade
Jackie Baillie has gone rogue over Trident after refusing to back her party’s manifesto commitment to opposing the renewal of the nuclear weapons system.
The Labour politician currently MSP for the Dumbarton constituency is standing for re-election. She is also at the top of the party’s West of Scotland regional list. But questions are being raised about her suitability as a Party (list) candidate after she publicly vowed to defy the Party’s official policy on Trident.
A report published last year by union umbrella group the STUC and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament stated just 520 civilian jobs at HMNB Clyde are “directly reliant on Trident”, 132 of which are held by workers from Argyll and Bute and 178 by staff from West Dunbartonshire. The STUC, which calls for the establishment of a Defence Diversification Agency, says alternative roles can be found or created. At the STUC congress in Dundee this week, Jane Carolan of Unison said her union has a “proud record of defending quality employment”, but argued replacing Trident would be “catastrophic”.
She said Government figures show no jobs would be lost for 15 years, adding: “For the cost of Trident we could have 100,000 more firefighters, 120,000 nurses, 120,000 teachers. It is a gross misallocation of taxpayers money, our money, where there are so many more vital and constructive ways in which it could be spent.”
Yesterday Craig Edwards of Clydebank, who questioned Baillie on Trident at the hustings, said he knows no-one employed on the system but many opposed to it.
He said: “Night and day, the Ministry of Defence is transporting nuclear material through our streets. Jackie Baillie’s view has nothing to do with local jobs, it is to do with her protecting her own job. Her argument has always been the local economy is so reliant on it, but the Helensburgh economy has almost collapsed. It has empty shops. It is a fallacy.”
SNP Dumbarton candidate Gail Robertson, who is also standing on the regional list, said: “I don’t think Jackie Baillie can justify being a list candidate for Labour given what we are hearing about their manifesto. They are campaigning in opposite directions.”
26 October 1999: Minister Jackie Baillie backs scrapping Trident
A Minister in the Scottish Executive has admitted publicly to being in favour of scrapping Trident, it was confirmed last night as the Opposition SNP moved to exploit Government concern at the controversial judgement of a Greenock sheriff who ruled that Trident was illegal. In the wake of Sheriff Gimblett’s ruling that the nuclear deterrent based on the Clyde contravened the law as viewed by the International Court, the Opposition SNP last night asked if ministerial collective responsibility in Scotland applied to reserved as well as devolved areas. Ms Jackie Baillie, Deputy Minister for Communities, replied to a CND questionnaire posted on the Internet before the Scottish Parliament elections saying she supported the scrapping of Trident.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-23761938.html
Cowal Conservative Lunch Club – Lunch – Jackie Baillie and lunch with those of a similar political outlook
Date: Friday, 7th February 2014: Time: 1215 hrs for 1230 hrs: Venue: Argyll Hotel, Argyll St., Dunoon PA23 7NE: Speaker: Jackie Baillie MSP: Lunch with tea or coffee: £10
14 March 2013: Scots charitable donations exceed £100 more per year than wealthy Londoners
It is a cruel stereotype: that Scotsmen have a tendency towards thrift that sometimes borders on the downright tight-fisted.
According to a survey released today, it is entirely unfair. Quite the reverse, in fact – it shows that Scots are in fact the most charitable people in the UK.
More than 42 per cent of those in Scotland give money after watching a TV charity appeal – well above the national average of 25 per cent.
Scots are more likely to donate to sponsorship requests from friends and family, with 65 per cent giving compared to the national average of 54 per cent.
Scots are also more responsive to charity emails – with 18 per cent saying they prompt a donation, versus a national average of just 12 per cent.
The results were found by online charity donation service Give as you Live in a survey of 2,000 people.
The poll also showed that Londoners donated almost £100 less – £268 – despite earning 35 per cent more than the Scots.
Overall Scotland was the most generous nation in the UK £356 on average, followed by Wales on £328 and England on £285. (The Mail)
17 June 2015: There is no end to it – English control over Scottish charities continues to expand – Big money is at stake and they are determined to seize control of it
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is planning to transfer staff and services from Scotland to, “Action for Blind People” (ABP), which currently runs all the charity’s services in England.
Staff in Scotland say there has been no explanation of how the strategy will work or evidence provided that it will benefit the 180,000 Scots with vision problems who currently receive help.
Unison’s voluntary sector organiser for Scotland said: “There is a complete lack of transparency about the business rationale for this move, what it will mean for the general public or how it will be of any benefit to service users. People are utterly baffled about what is going on.”
There are also questions over whether the Scottish Government, or the public, will be happy providing government funding to an English-based charity. (The Herald)
12 October 2015: The head of a leading Scottish charity has resigned in the wake of a furious internal row over the transfer of staff to a London-based partner organisation.
John Legg, the RNIB’s director in Scotland, had led it for more than 10 years.
He was known to have opposed RNIB UK’s move to run its Scottish operation from London under the auspices of “Action for Blind People”, a decision which was viewed by many staff north of the border as an English ‘takeover’.
RNIB UK insists that Mr Legg left by choice but speculation is rife as to how and why his departure has come about.
An employee (representing more than 200 RNIB Scotland workers) said: “Staff are shocked and dismayed. No reason was given, but it is obvious that he was pushed for not toeing the party line of centralisation on London (The Herald)
23 July 2015: Asthma charity to quit Scotland in London Switch
Asthma UK is currently consulting on proposals to concentrate staff in London.
But it has been urged to think again by campaigners who fear its work will be undermined in Scotland. (The Herald)
15 August 2015: Experts have voiced fears that more health charities will shut their Scottish offices in the wake of a number of high – profile cases.
It is understood that around half a dozen organisations are thought to be looking at the possibility of moving staff to England. (The Herald)
2015: Scottish animal charity donations are misdirected to England
Thousands of Scot’s routinely donate to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) believing the money will assist the efforts of the society in Scotland.
But, in Scotland, it is the charity, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) that responds to calls about cruelty to animals. Charitable donations in Scotland should be made to the SSPCA, not the RSPCA whose responsibilities are with England.
Scottish Charities in Name Only – Power Rests with England
2017: There are calls for the creation, registration and management off Scottish Charitable Societies and similar organisations who would be enabled to lobby appropriate Scottish Government Ministers, tailoring their activities to Scotland, in recognition of our different laws and social services.
In the last 10 years many “so called” UK charities, operating in Scotland have closed their doors in Scotland and transferred their headquarters (HQ) and operational control to England, some retaining a Scottish branch under the control of England
At present, qualifying charities in Scotland (regardless of the location of their HQ) are allocated approximately £500m annually by the Scottish government.
But control of and distribution and use of the Scottish government supplied finance and other charitable donations collected in Scotland is vested with their English based HQ’s.
One in Five of Britain’s 1500+ charities spends less than 50% of total income on good causes.
Gina Miller, founder of the “True and Fair Foundation” said: “It is an utter disgrace that so much of the money people generously give is going to feed large charity machines, which are often characterised by obscene overheads and salaries, aggressive fundraising, and bloated marketing and publicity departments; resulting in questionable levels of charitable spending.”
The report is a mind blowing expose’ of the charity sector:
There is a call for the establishment of a “Scottish Society for the Blind” (SSB) which can concentrate on lobbying the appropriate Scottish Government Ministers, tailoring its activities to Scotland, and our different laws and social services.
Bluntly, if these charities based in England close their doors in Scotland, then new doors should be opened and the door closed to the so-called “National” (as in UK) ones.
The “Third Sector” in Scotland is allocated many £ millions annually by the Scottish government, much of it arising from the Big Lottery Fund. It is a nonsense to give financial support to charitable organisations that are based in England.
The Scottish government should introduce legislation requiring charities benefit-ting from government support, to be registered and managed in Scotland.
5 October 2015 ; How do SNP vet their candidates?’: Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson demands explanation over suspended MP Michelle Thomson
Tory leader in Scotland Ruth Davidson last night called for an explanation over the SNP’s candidate selection and vetting procedures in light of the Michelle Thomson property scandal. Davidson said there was a question over the integrity of the SNP’s MP candidate selection, while Scottish Labour said “real questions” had to be asked about the selection of the Edinburgh West MP. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/how-snp-vet-candidates-scots-6576022
Advice for Davidson
But Ruth Davidson should look to the poor behaviour within her own party. Tory in Scotland association members vetting procedures excluded Ruth (who had only been around for 6 months at a higher level working for Annabel) from running for the leadership following on from the Tory Central Office’s forced retiral of Annabelle Goldie. David Cameron, Mundell and the party in Westminster overruled the Scots and ordered that Davidson would be included on the ballot for the Tory party in Scotland leadership effectively screwing poor Murdo Fraser whose ambitions were strangled at birth. The story and subsequent calamitous outcome follows:
2011: Ruth Davidson – Takes charge and makes it clear to the Conservative Party in Scotland she wears the trousers
Ruth Davidson 35y, graduated from Edinburgh University and worked as a BBC journalist until 2009 at which time she left employment to attend Glasgow University to study International Development. She joined the Conservative Party, and was a candidate in the Glasgow North East constituency at a 2009 by-election and at the 2010 general election, finishing in respectively 3rd and 4th place, with approximately 5% of the vote. From early 2010 to March 2011 she worked as the head of the private office of the then Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, she stood for election in the Glasgow Kelvin constituency and on the Glasgow Regional list. She finished in 4th place in the former, but was successful in the latter, and following party leader Annabel Goldie’s resignation in May 2011, she stood in the subsequent leadership election which she won and was declared party leader on 4 November 2011.
9 September 2011: Ruth Davidson draws a “line in the sand” on the constitution by promising “NO MORE DEVOLUTION” no more powers for Holyrood if she wins Scottish Tory leadership.
At the official launch of her campaign she said “The time for arguing about the powers the people want is over. It’s time now to use the powers that we have. “the range of powers included in the Coalition Government’s Scotland Bill is the final word on devolution. When the referendum is done and Scotland and the Union has won the day, that will be an end to it.” She added: “Under my leadership, there will be no existential crisis, no wringing of hands. Instead I want people to call themselves Scottish, Conservative and Unionist.”
9 October 2011: Leadership race for the Scottish Tories mired in claims of bias in favour of Central Office candidate Ruth Davidson
Ruth Davidson suffered a blow to her credibility when it emerged she faced hostility from party activists in what should have been safe home turf in Glasgow. All five party chairmen in Glasgow pledged their support to other candidates.
The least experienced of the four candidates for the leadership, the 32-year-old was promoted as the favourite of the Tory establishment, with backing from Thatcher-era grandees Lord Forsyth, Lord Sanderson, and the sole Scots Tory MP, David Mundell.
Her campaign was plagued by gaffes and rumours that she received unofficial help from the Conservative Party hierarchy. She was also ordered to sack her parliamentary assistant Ross McFarlane after he was caught on camera drunkenly burning a European Union flag in a Glasgow Street as a companion made sectarian remarks.
In a further unwanted development the Director of media, Ramsay Jones, was suspended from his duties when it was revealed that he attended a meeting of campaign strategists at Davidson’s home, despite being ordered by the party chairman not to take sides and remain impartial. Her camp insisted there was nothing untoward about the visit which required Jones to make a 150-mile round trip from his home in Dunbar, East Lothian, on a Sunday during the campaign.
Malcolm Macaskill, a former Holyrood candidate, claimed Jones had previously boasted he was a “big fan” of Davidson and had recruited her to the party about three years before. He said “I was disappointed to hear he may have been supporting Ruth Davidson’s campaign for leader. That would be wholly unprofessional. But it is no surprise, as Ramsay stated to me he was a big fan of Ruth and he had been responsible for bringing her into the party.”
Macaskill, a member of the Scottish Tories for 35 years had been the Tories’ No 1 candidate on the Glasgow list for Holyrood. but in a surprise move was deselected by the party hierarchy shortly before the election. His removal meant Davidson, who was running Goldie’s Holyrood office, moved to the top of the list. Without the switch, Davidson would not have been elected as a list MSP for Glasgow.
30 October 2011: TORY LEADERSHIP CANDIDATE RUTH DAVIDSON, under pressure after claiming on television to be committed to Scotland while failing to mention she was shortlisted to become an MP in England.
(talk about careerist Polititian, this seat, that seat, ANY seat’ll do). In a hustings broadcast by Newsnight Scotland last week, Davidson claimed never to have wanted to work outside her native land. She said: “I have lived and worked my entire life in Scotland. Never been anywhere else, never wished to be. I’m Scottish to my bones.”
However, only last year, Davidson was one of six figures shortlisted to be a Tory candidate for Bromsgrove, south of Birmingham. The English seat had been left vacant by the exit of sitting MP Julie Kirkbride, who chose not to stand again after a row over her expenses. After local members in Bromsgrove chose Sajid Javid, Davidson stood for the Tories in Glasgow North East instead, a seat she had contested the previous year in a Westminster by-election. She went on to slip from third place to fourth in Glasgow North East at the general election. Davidson’s spokesman said she had been put on the shortlist by Conservative Central Office in London.
Asked if she attended any selection meetings in Bromsgrove, her spokesman said Davidson “went down to see them” out of “courtesy”.
After the election, Davidson tried unsuccessfully to become the Tory candidate for the Holyrood seats of Edinburgh Central and North East Fife. She finally found a berth as candidate for Glasgow Kelvin, where she came fourth in May’s election after the Tory share of the vote fell. Davidson, a former BBC reporter who joined the party less than three years ago, was then elected as a Glasgow list MSP.
Her Bromsgrove link is understood to have irked many Tory activists in Glasgow and contributed to her lack of support in the city in the contest.The 32-year-old failed to win the backing of any of the five Conservative association chairmen/women in the city, or Glasgow’s only Tory councillor, David Meikle, or the former Glasgow MSP Bill Aitken. The Bromsgrove episode appears to have been airbrushed from Davidson’s website and CV.
4 November 2011: Ruth Davidson is the new Conservative Party in Scotland leader
Ruth Davidson has been voted leader of the Scottish Conservative Party. She won by 2983 votes over Murdo Fraser’s 2417. She said on being elected “A political party is not a leader. A political party is its membership and I want to bring our members at all levels much closer together to take our party forward in unity”.
First Minister Alex Salmond was among the first to congratulate her on becoming Leader. He said: “I wish her well. My own view is that Annabel Goldie was a highly successful leader for the Conservatives in Scotland, and maximised the Tory vote here. That merely underlines the scale of the task for Ruth Davidson in motivating her party – as does the number of Scottish Tory members who actually voted in this contest, (5,400) and the fact that her main opponent proposed winding up the party. Hopefully, under Ruth’s leadership, the Tories will change their attitude to Scotland and start to work in the country’s best interests.”
7 November 2011: Davidson Scottish Tory’s subservient to Westminster
In her first official act the new Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson confirmed that she did not urge David Cameron to alter the Scotland Bill in order to reflect Scottish public opinion. Her position, bowing to London on the constitution emerged after she met with her party boss in Downing Street. She went on to stress her pleasure in meeting the Prime Minister and signalled that she would not adopt any policy positions which he might disapprove of.
She further stated that she had a mandate to speak for Scotland, claiming that the Coalition parties received more votes in Scotland at the UK general election than the SNP did in their historic victory in May.
The SNP immediately leapt on her claim, and issued a statement pointing out that the SNP received 902,915 votes in May 2011, 45.4% of the popular vote, whereas in May 2010 the Conservatives and Lib Dems together received a total of 878,326 votes, or 35.6%.
She then implied that she supported moves for Westminster to seize control of the timing and question of a referendum on Scotland’s place within the UK, a position taken by Michael Forsyth, a prominent supporter of Ms Davidson’s leadership bid. She claimed that the democratically elected majority Scottish government may “rig” the vote and that this would not be tolerated. She dismissed support for greater Scottish autonomy as “nationalist shennanigans”.
Commenting on the statement, SNP MSP Derek MacKay said:
“This is a real blunder by Ruth Davidson, continuing her bad start as the new Tory leader in Scotland.
“After talking big about David Cameron coming to Scotland and not being her leader, Ruth Davidson’s first act is a day trip to London where David Cameron is her boss, thus revealing the truth about Ruth’s leadership – the Tories remain the same London-led party, and they will continue to be rejected by the people of Scotland.
“She has also been caught out in a clear statistical fiddle. Far more people voted for the SNP this year than voted for the coalition parties at the UK General Election last year, and we also got a much higher share of the vote than these two parties combined – which came third and fourth in Scotland last year, behind the SNP. If Ruth cannot tell the truth about the dismal electoral state of the Tories in Scotland, and their Lib Dem hangers on, then she clearly doesn’t appreciate the scale of the challenge facing her – which at least Murdo Fraser showed an appreciation of.
“The inconvenient truth for the Tories is that the referendum, which will be held in the second half of this parliament, is a matter for Holyrood to scrutinise and deliver – not Westminster; it is part of the resounding Scottish democratic mandate achieved by the SNP in May. If the Tories and other Westminster parties have difficulty grasping that very basic concept, it is a good illustration of why they are so badly out of touch with the aspirations of the people of Scotland.
“The SNP Government have always made it clear that we are entirely willing to include a ‘devo-max’ option in the referendum. And a majority for independence on a straight Yes or No question will deliver independence – according to the democratic wishes of the people – and we are confident of success in securing a Yes vote.
“We know from the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey that a strong majority, 74 per cent, of people believe that the Scottish Government should have the most influence over how Scotland is run, compared with just 16 per cent who think it ought to be the UK Government.
“Just days into Ruth Davidson’s new leadership, the Tories continue to be on the wrong side of the argument in Scotland.”
David Cameron’s Statement:
“I am proud that it is the UK Government which is enacting a new Scotland Bill which will transfer significant extra powers to Holyrood and place the responsibility for raising billions of pounds of public spending in the hands of the Scottish Parliament. This will meet the demands of the Scottish people for more say over how Scotland is run and clear the way for a straightforward and clear-cut referendum on ‘yes or no’ to Scotland in Britain. I pledge myself to campaign to keep our United Kingdom and challenge Alex Salmond to set the date and to agree the question now.”
8 November 2011: Scottish Conservative businessman and financial donor John McGlynn attacks the election of new Tory leader Ruth Davidson
“Ruth has to prove she is capable of coming up with ideas and policies that will resonate with the people of Scotland in the way that Murdo Fraser did and she has to prove that the Tory Party has learned the lessons of electoral defeat.”
Mr McGlynn went on to express his anger at the way in which Mr Macaskill had been removed from the Glasgow Regional list and the interference in the leadership election process by Tory Head Office and said he and other financial donors had made no decision on future donations, but he added that he “wanted to support” the party.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15635686
John McGlyn
25 March 2011: The Scottish Tory party was plunged into pre–election turmoil last night when key donors were reported to have withdrawn their support from the party after the unwarranted sacking of Malcolm Macaskill
Senior party sources claimed last night that wealthy donors – believed to include Tom Coakley, a former footballer turned millionaire property developer and John McGlynn, an airport car park magnate – had told officials they would no longer contribute to party funds after Malcolm Macaskill, a Glasgow businessman and justice of the peace, was removed from the top slot on the Tories’ Glasgow list by Andrew Fulton, the party chairman.
Mr Macaskill, who was virtually guaranteed a seat in the Holyrood elections on May 5, was kicked out by Mr Fulton, a former MI5 official. Mr Fulton made no mention of the reason for the dismissal, merely saying Mr Macaskill had been dropped “following discussions between the candidate and the party’s candidates’ board”.
The chairman thanked Mr Macaskill for his service and announced that Ruth Davidson, a close aide of Annabel Goldie and a former BBC producer, would be placed at number one on the list.
There was undisguised anger from Mr Macaskill’s supporters at his treatment last night. One senior party figure said: “This is outrageous. Malcolm has served the Conservatives loyally for over 30 years and is treated like this.”
Mr Macaskill was responsible for recruiting several wealthy donors, including Mr Coakley, a former professional footballer with Dundee FC who subsequently made his fortune buying and selling property in London’s Mayfair.
Estimated to be worth £70million, Mr Coakley announced two months ago that he would donate £100,000 per year for the next 10 years to Scottish Tory coffers. However, a senior Tory with close links to the situation said last night: “Mr Coakley is furious and he has told the Tories that he will no longer be making any donations.”
The same source said Mr McGlynn, whose companies own airport car parks all over Europe, and who also donates funds to the party, may also withhold future donations. Last night, Mr McGlynn said “This is outrageous. to penalise someone in this way is completely wrong.
An SNP spokesman said it was the “worst possible” start to the Tory campaign, adding: “The first day and they have lost one of their top candidates, amid party infighting and internal allegations of malpractice. The Tories are not fit for purpose, fit for Glasgow, or fit for Scotland.”
29 March 2011: Tory Party’s Holyrood election campaign in disarray after a third candidate steps down, this time as a regional list hopeful.
David Meikle withdrew in Glasgow because he felt that his allegations of vote rigging on the list for the city had not been sufficiently investigated. His complaints centre on the Conservative Rutherglen’s Association, whose membership shot up by about 150 members from a starting point of 17 in the months before the selections for Conservative lists
Mr MacAskill’s, who has been removed from the top of the Glasgow list will be replaced by Ruth Davidson, a former BBC journalist, this means she is likely to become an MSP.
Miss Goldie admitted that she did not have any say in the departure of Mr MacAskill. The Tory hierarchy in London, who are directing the campaign are said to be delighted with the way it is being run north of the Border.
The Tories also insist their budget for the 5 May election is in place despite reports that wealthy donors, including former Dundee FC footballer and property magnate Tom Coakley and airport car park magnate John McGlynn, had withdrawn their funding.
Tory leader Ruth Davidson cast herself as the face of “generational change” during the party’s recent leadership race. But what kind of generation is currently coming through the Scots Tories? Judging by some of the senior members of the Glasgow University Conservative Association (Hon Pres: R Davidson), it could be rather interesting. This fascinating photo shows Ruth with a number of Glasgow University Conservative Association (GUCA) celebrating her election as a Glasgow list MSP in May.
The blonde chap kneeling in front with arms aloft is Ross McFarlane, her election agent and GUCA president. She later sacked him as her Holyrood assistant when mobile phone after footage emerged of him drunkenly burning an EU flag in a street while a companion made sectarian remarks about referee Hugh Dallas and the Pope. The incident took place after a St Andrew’s Day dinner (30 November 2010) last year. Ms Davidson had attended the dinner together with guest speaker, UKIP MEP Roger Helmer.
Meanwhile, the poker-faced chap on the right of the photo with the square lapel badge is Stewart Green, the GUCA webmaster. He apologised after posting a number of dodgy Tweets about race, including one comparing an Asian festival to cats being strangled.
David Cameron & Ross Macfarlane 10 March 2014: Green’s racist views exposed yet again three year’s later
Stewart Green, a parliamentary assistant to David Burrowes MP, was forced to stand down after after calling feminists “whingeing imbeciles” who “need a good slap round the face”. making a series of sexist and bigoted remarks on Facebook. Green told his Facebook friends he was “sick to the back teeth” of “wretched women MPs who seem to be constantly going on about there not being enough women in frontline politics”. He added: “This country has been a gradual decline southwards towards the dogs ever since we started cow-towing to the cretinous pseudo-equality demand of these whinging [sic] imbeciles.”
In another post last year, Green described an incident in which he offered a seat to a woman on a bus but was refused. Referring to the woman as a “fat ginger b****,” he added: “I am absolutely sick and tired of this feminism nonsense. It really has gone too far. “Quite a few of these women need a good slap round the face.” In another recent post on the social networking site, Green applauded proposals to close BBC3, saying that “all it seems to do is prop up the common scum lifestyle”.
And finally, the dark-haired guy with the blue shirt and blue tie immediately above McFarlane is Colin James Taylor, a former GUCA president, who works for the Tory Press and Research Unit at Holyrood. He posted song lyrics on Twitter glorifying Northern Irish terrorist group, the Ulster Volunteer Force. He also referred to Celtic Football Club as “tims” on the popular blogging website. Rangers fan Taylor, from Belfast, used the Twitter name “Ulsterexile” to post offensive remarks while studying at Glasgow University, where he was president of the student Conservative Association (GUCA) from 2009 to 2010.
On Saturday, February 19, this year he posted lines from a notorious song, Here Lies a Soldier, about a UVF member awaiting execution. “Don’t bury me, in Erin’s Fenian vallies [sic]. Oh take me home, to Ulster let me rest …” he wrote. Although he did not tweet the rest of the verse, it runs: “And on my gravestone carve a simple message, Here lies a soldier of the UVF.”
On that weekend, the UVF was much in the news as Northern Ireland awaited publication of a police ombudsman report into one of the terrorist group’s worst atrocities, the bombing of McGurk’s Bar in Belfast in 1971, which killed 15 people and injured 16. The report, published 48 hours after Taylor’s tweet, revealed that the Royal Ulster Constabulary wrongly blamed the IRA for the attack. The bombing was the worst during theTroubles until the Omagh bomb killed 29 people in 1998.
Taylor’s tweet also fell on the eve of the anniversary of the 1979 conviction of the notorious Shankhill Butchers, the ultra-Loyalist gang, many in the UVF, who tortured Catholic civilians and murdered at least 30 people.
On April 17, the day that Aberdeen and Celtic met in the Scottish Cup semi-final, Taylor posted on Twitter: “Hope the sheep absolutely hump the tims today.” Tim is a term of anti-Catholic abuse. The anti-sectarian group Nil By Mouth said: “People have to realise that online bigotry is unacceptable.”
Taylor’s case has highlighted Davidson’s ties to Glasgow University Conservative Association. According to GUCA’s website, she is the body’s honorary president. She attended its annual dinner on Friday. After the Sunday Herald alerted the Tories about the matter, Taylor’s Twitter and Facebook accounts disappeared.
Last week, leading QC Paul McBride quit the Tories over the party’s hostility to an SNP bill aimed at tackling sectarianism in football.
28 November 2011: Roger Helmer (UKIP) MEP Reports all is well with the Conservative Party in Scotland under Ruth Davidson’s management
I was invited to speak at the Glasgow University Conservative Association St. Andrews dinner, in the Bridie Library in the Students’ Union.
Arriving in Glasgow around lunch-time, I was able to visit the Glasgow School of Art (Charles Rennie Mackintosh), and see their current “Glasgow Girls” exhibition. Excellent – worth a visit. On then to the Willows tea-rooms in Sauciehall Street, again with a strong Mackintosh theme, where I was shown around by Rachel, a well-informed waitress at the Willows. Shortly after seven, a taxi delivered me to the Union, all done up in black tie (OK, well burgundy velvet in this case), Crombie coat and trilby hat, every lefty’s stereotype caricature of a Tory politician – and straight into a couple of dozen vociferous student protesters, chanting slogans about education cuts and “Tory Scum”.
I anticipated problems, but I had reckoned without two of Glasgow’s finest, in hi-viz tabards, who elbowed me through the riot and into the building. I understand that a much larger force arrived soon afterwards and removed the unwashed proletariat. The fracas on the pavement failed to deter sixty or so diners, who tucked into traditional Saint Andrews fare, Scotch broth, haggis with neeps & tatties, cranachan and port. The group included a couple of MSPs and a host of candidates for public office. Then it was time for me to sing for my supper, or at least propose the toast to Saint Andrew.
I have rarely met a more enthusiastic audience. I mentioned Dan Hannan, and they burst into spontaneous applause. I commended the Daily Express “Get Britain Out of the EU” campaign, and they cheered to the echo. I spoke dismissively about climate hysteria, and they roared approval.
It’s worth mentioning that the Glasgow University Conservative Association, under the leadership of its President Ross MacFarlane, is no mere debating or social club. These are serious campaigners who have been pounding the streets of Scotland on the Party’s behalf. These are the future of the Conservative Party. And like so many Conservatives they’ve had enough of the EU, and they want out. They’ve also lost patience with the global warming lobby. They don’t believe it, and they won’t pay for it.
My fear is that the Party’s high command has simply failed to notice the way the wind is blowing. I wonder just how long David Cameron can lead us deeper into the EU, and into the battle for “climate mitigation”, before he notices that the troops aren’t following behind. He risks becoming dangerously exposed.
12 December 2011: The true racist face of the Scottish Consrvative & Unionist Party
The new leader of Scotland’s Tories, Ruth Davidson, has faced a tricky first month since taking the reins on 4th November. During her electoral campaign, she had to sack her parliamentary assistant Ross McFarlane, after video footage sufaced of him setting fire to a flag of the European Union, whilst dressed in a University of Glasgow gown. The incident took place after a dinner organised by the Glasgow University Conservative Association (GUCA). As MacFarlane, accompanied by two others, lit the flag, sectarian abuse could clearly be heard, including the derogatory term “tarrier” and claims that the pope was a paedophile. Unfortunately for Davidson, this was not the only time her allies have taken part in sectarian behaviour.
In the honorary president of GUCA’s first week as national leader of the party, it emerged that Colin Taylor, of the Tory press and research unit, tweeted lyrics from the song “Here Lies a Soldier”, which sings the praises of the Ulster Volunteer Force, an anti-Catholic Northern Irish terrorist group. In his tweets, under the name @Ulsterexile, Taylor also casually refers to “tims” another offensive name for Catholics. The account has since disappeared. As embarrassing as such behaviour may have been for Davidson, it was her response to Taylor’s tweets that has earned her the most criticism. Taylor was allowed to keep his position, his punishment for his behaviour being no more than a “formal warning.” Labour MSPs have called this “insufficient” and demanded more “disciplinary proceedings.”
Peter Kearney, of the Catholic Media Office, said: “The Catholic Church in Scotland condemns in the strongest possible terms any sectarian behaviour or criminality, from any quarter whatsoever, as having no place in a civilised society.”These sectarian incidents come at a time when the ruling SNP tries to pass its anti-sectarianism bill, which would see much tougher punishments dealt to those who make sectarian comments at football grounds and, like Mr Taylor, through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Scottish Tory objection to the bill led to the prominent criminal QC Paul McBride quitting the party, just one week before Taylor’s tweets became public knowledge.
And when it’s not sectarianism damaging the Scottish Conservatives’ reputation, it’s been racism, particularly that of Stewart Green, site designer of the current GUCA website and editor of the “Tory Hoose” blog. Green was one third of the drunken trio involved in the burning of the EU flag and in September it emerged that he had made several racist remarks online, including one tweet which read: “An Asian festival is taking place a few doors up, either that or several cats are being strangled. Can’t quite decide which.”
Other subjects of his racist abuse include Jewish, Pakistani and black students. This collection of sectarian and racist comments from her peers seems to go against what Davidson said to the Glasgow Guardian in November, when she told the paper: “I have said Conservatives never get enough credit for how progressive they can be.”
Those who stand against the Tories in Holyrood, however, argue that the behaviour of Davidson’s colleagues shows her party to be rooted in its old, “Bullingdon Club” ways. The SNP referred to the exclusive Oxford University club, of which prime minister, and supporter of Davidson during her campaign, David Cameron was a member. An SNP spokesman described the behaviour of Davidson’s party members as: “Bullingdon Club behaviour which has no place in Scottish politics.”
And things don’t seem to be getting any better for the 33-year-old leader. It emerged last week that members of the St Andrews University Conservative Association burned an effigy of US president Barak Obama on a St Andrew’s beach. As a result, the president of that association, Mathew Marshall, will apologise personally to Mr Obama by sending a letter to the White House. Marshall admits that the burning was “undoubtedly stupid.” He went on to say: “I apologise further for any damage this has done to the reputation of the University of St Andrews, or the Scottish Conservative Party.” Ruth Davidson, at least, will hope that that damage and the incidents before it have not left too big a stain on the party she is now responsible for cleaning up.
25 March 2012: Tories have heads in the sand – no place for an independent mind in the Scottish Tories?
There’s yet more trouble for Ruth Davidson, as veteran Tory financier and fundraiser since the mid-1970s, Peter de Vink denounced the party as “complete plonkers” for being hostile to independence and silencing debate on the issue. The Tory stalwart of the Scottish Conservatives, he had been selected to stand in Midlothian, but was “dismissed” for supporting an independent Scotland.
He said “Draconian measures” were taken to silence him and “stamp out internal debate”. Referring to leader Ruth Davidson, who said the current Scotland Bill should be a “line in the sand” for devolution, he said “the Tories are repeating the errors of the 1980s and 1990s, when they opposed a Scottish Parliament. I fear we are once again harking back to the old days where we draw a line in the sand on Scotland’s constitutional journey. The negative arguments of the current leadership will cause more Scots to support independence rather than vote against it, while leaving the party condemned to the pages of history. Here’s the party that stands for independence of views, freedom of speech, freedom of action, and yet we are so intolerant when it comes to this. They look complete plonkers. They look so inept. Ruth Davidson, she is so out of her depth it’s just a laugh.”
Mr de Vink, 71, had tried to make his points in a debate on the Union at the Tory conference, but was not called to speak. He said it was “ludicrous” the debate only heard from speakers in favour of the Union. After being blocked as a Tory candidate earlier this month, he is now standing as an Independent in the Midlothian East Ward in May instead.
Managing director of Edinburgh Financial & General Holdings, Mr de Vink said he had raised “huge sums” for the Tories down the years, but now “hated to think” how much. In 1988, he was a founder member of the Tory party’s Scottish Business Group alongside former coal board chairman Sir Alan MacGregor and the merchant banker Sir Angus Grossart.
Earlier this month he hosted a lunch for Alex Salmond at Edinburgh’s New Club, partly to confront the First Minister with his critics. Not long after “very senior” Tories made it plain he could no longer be a conservative candidate.
Explaining events he said “In the invitation to the lunch I said I had come to the conclusion that independence was actually a very attractive option for Scotland. Some people sent that to their friends in the higher ranks of the Tory party and they accused me of running with the hare and chasing with the hounds. I said, Bollocks, this is a local election, nothing to do with independence, but they said No.
So I became a victim of the cabal. They said I have to be a unionist to be a Conservative, which I think is barking mad. The Tory party is painting itself in again by absolutely dismissing independence just as they dismissed devolution. Look at what a pathetic party it has become, with one member of parliament at Westminster. I call that pathetic… always hankering back to the past.
Why not look to the future?” He said the main attraction of independence was financial. “Scotland can stand on its own feet and can earn what it spends and spend what it earns and it stops being a subsidy junky thanks to [the] Barnett [formula].
I think if we became independent we could start thinking out of the box. He said a flat tax (one tax rate regardless of income) could be introduced by a right-of-centre party. What I’m tryin to say its that it’s better to prepare for reality.I am almost convinced beyond reasonable doubt that we will have independence and when it comes then we are going to have missed the boat. That’s my message.”
In May 2012 he was elected an Independent Councillor in the former People’s Republic of Midlothian where by joining the SNP/Independent Coalition he was instrumental in ending a 84 year long Old Labour regime. He is now working in undoing some of the worst decisions the previous administration made especially the disastrous PPP Contracts and making sure that these calamities will not recur.
12 July 2012: Scots Tories ‘rotten to the core’, says ousted Holyrood candidate
Malcolm Macaskill, whose forced removal from the Glasgow list paved the way for new party leader Ruth Davidson to get to Holyrood, got the five-figure pay-out after threatening to sue over the Tories’ handling of his sacking. In an interview Macaskill blasted the Tory machine as “rotten to the core” and said the Scottish party was an “inept and morally corrupt” organisation.
Macaskill, a member of the Scottish Tories for 35 years, had been top of the party’s Glasgow list for the 2011 Holyrood poll – almost guaranteeing him a seat in Parliament. However, days before the start of the campaign, party bosses removed him from the list amid allegations of historical financial problems. Davidson took his place on the list and was subsequently elected to Holyrood and then as party leader.
Following the election, Macaskill served notice on Davidson that he intended seeking a judicial review of his dismissal. He further insisted party rules did not contain a provision to remove a list candidate and the party had acted unconstitutionally. Discussions between lawyers resulted in an out-of-court agreement (payment of a five figure sum to Macaskill).
Macaskill, (confirming he had quit the party) said: “All I ever wanted from the party was an apology. An admission that they were wrong in removing me from the list and that they had failed to follow their own procedures but this was never forthcoming. I have now decided that I’ve had enough of the Tory Party. Over the past year, the treatment that I have been subjected to, along with the evidence that I have gathered, has convinced me that the party machine in and around Edinburgh central office is rotten to the core.
Some have suggested that there was perhaps always a greater plan. In dismissing me, the next in line on the regional list was Ruth Davidson, who had earlier failed to be selected as a constituency candidate in other parts of Scotland. History shows that not only was Ruth elected in my stead, but she also went on to become the party leader in Scotland. I know of hundreds of people who will never vote Tory again and I no longer wish to remain a member of such an inept and morally corrupt organisation.”
8 October 2012: Tory conference: Scottish leader Ruth Davidson in pro-UK rallying call
Addressing the conference she said:
* “It is staggering that public sector expenditure takes up 50% of Scotland’s GDP”.
* “only 12% of households contribute to Scotland’s wealth. I wonder how many of them work on public sector contracts. It’s not just staggering, it’s frightening”.
* “I believe Scotland should expand its private sector building prosperity and increasing opportunity”.
* “The restraints of government diktat should be removed so that people would be enabled to lift themselves out of dependency”.
* “So little moves in Scotland without government approval and anyone who dares challenge the status quo is deemed an enemy of the state. This must change”.
* “Scottish political commentators are indecently keen to write the Conservative Party off in Scotland. Perhaps because they are comfortable with the status quo”.
* “But the system of patronage is rotten since it has created a corrosive sense of entitlement which suits its political gang-masters denying many real choices in their lives”.
8 October 2012: Scotland’s Tory leader has got her sums hopelessly wrong on the economy
It is not uncommon to find statistics of dubious quality presented to party political conferences. However, even by the less than rigorous standards that seem to apply at these events, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson’s claim that only 12% of Scottish households “make a net contribution to the economy” is quite remarkable. By way of supporting analysis, all Tory HQ have seen fit to publish is one brief Excel spreadsheet which desperately needs some narrative explanation. It is not an impressive document.
Let’s start with the basics: all the information sources cited are out of date. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures from the Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income publication are drawn from the 2009/10 release; strange because the 2010/11 data have been available since June this year.
Similarly, data from the joint Scottish government/ONS publication, Public Sector Employment in Scotland is taken from the Q1 2012 publication and not the Q2 data published a month ago. This explains why the figures for public sector employment used in the calculation are wrong; currently 22.2% (23.5% if RBS and HBOS workers are included) of all Scottish workers are employed in the public sector, not 23.8%.
Davidson’s calculation also references the ONS data on income for all households. In doing so, she commits the Romney-esque error of failing to account for retired people. This is either lazy or deliberately misleading because the ONS provides such a breakdown in the very document she cites. The income of non-retired households is significantly higher than that for all households and would lead to very different findings.
Hilariously, at a time when Davidson’s party is campaigning hard for an end to Scotland’s universal benefits such as free bus travel for OAPs, free prescriptions and free personal care, the calculation assumes that the distribution in Scotland of “household income, benefits and taxes is the same as that of UK households”. It isn’t. In Scotland, those in the upper income brackets are recipients of additional spend that is lost in her analysis.
Also, the process by which Davidson’s colleagues have tortured the Government expenditure and revenue in Scotland (Gers) data to settle on average benefits and public spend per household figures is, to put it kindly, somewhat vague.
Of course all this is a helpful distraction from the economic and social devastation her Westminster colleagues are visiting on the Scottish and UK economies. It also reflects an embarrassingly naive view about the nature of economic development in any advanced nation where public and private sectors must interact to generate sustainable growth.
The facts of the matter are that Scotland’s public spending to GDP ratio is only slightly better or worse than that of the UK as a whole depending on whether or not a geographical share of oil revenues is included in the calculation. Many of the most enduringly successful economies in the world manage to sustain public spending and public sector employment ratios at similar or higher levels.
9 October 2012: Former Tory minister Lord Forsyth has criticised his party’s Scottish leader over her claims only 12% of households contribute to Scotland’s wealth.
Lord Forsyth said “I think perhaps Ruth Davidson ought to have been more careful with her comments. She’s new and a little inexperienced and one of the things one learns over the years is it’s always unwise to comment on something if you haven’t heard it and if you haven’t heard it in context.” her suggestion that those on the public sector payroll were dependent on the state could have been phrased a bit better. We are talking here about doctors and nurses and so on, they spend their money, they pay VAT. So, I think it is an unfortunate way of presenting it.”
10 October 2012: Ruth Davidson must apologise for pensioner insult
Ruth Davidson has been challenged to outline how much more money she thinks should be taken from pensioners, whom she this week falsely claimed were not ‘net contributors’ to Scotland, in light of the fact that Tory policies are already taking hundreds of pounds from the pockets of pensioners. With independent research published earlier this year showing that Tory policies announced in the Budget will leave pensioners £900 worse off by the end of 2014, Ms Davidson’s ill-judged comments have raised the prospect of tougher financial hardship being inflicted on Scotland’s older people if she had her way. Glasgow SNP MSP Bob Doris has now written to Ruth Davidson to remind her of the money that her party is already taking from Scotland’s pensioners, and demanding that she apologise for insulting them by saying they do not ‘contribute’ to society. http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2012/oct/ruth-davidson-must-apologise-pensioner-insult
9 October 2012: Ruth Davidson’s stoking up a political disaster
Ruth Davidson’s suggestion, made during an appearance at a fringe event in Birmingham this week, that, in effect, most Scots spend their lives suckling on the government teat is not, I’m afraid, a helpful one. According to the Tory leader: “It is staggering that public-sector expenditure makes up a full 50 per cent of Scotland’s GDP and only 12 per cent of people are net contributors, where the taxes they pay outweigh the benefits they receive through public spending.” It is staggering and perhaps also frightening if the Tory leader really believes the public can so easily be divided into the Bad (88%) and the Good (12%) in this fashion.
If nothing else Davidson -should remember that her own career has hardly been a model of private-sector entrepreneurial vigour. The Tory leader has drawn pay checks from the Territorial Army, the BBC, the Conservative Party and, now, of course, the public purse as an MSP. None of these – not even Holyrood – are wholly disreputable places in which to work but, by her stated standard, none are “responsible for generating Scotland’s wealth”. That’s not good politics; it’s a disaster.
5 November 2012: More and more blunders from Ruth Davidson
Ruth Davidson has marked the one year anniversary of her error-strewn time in office with a spectacularly misjudged call to cut over £1 billion from Scotland’s budget. She previously stated that the Barnett Formula will be “reviewed” if there is a No vote in 2014, revealing the Tories’ willingness to bring in even more savage cuts to Scotland’s budget. http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2012/nov/davidson-gaffe-reveals-plan-%C2%A31bn-budget-cut
17 February 2013: Scottish Conservatives accused of “hypocritical posturing” for opposing wind farms when three of their MSPs stand to profit from them
It has been revealed, in the latest register of MSPs’ interests, that Jamie McGrigor, the party’s’ environment spokesman, Alex Fergusson, the Scottish Parliament’s former presiding officer, and John Scott, the current deputy presiding officer, are to receive a substantial annual income from wind turbines on or near their land.
But a report launched by the party leader, Ruth Davidson MSP, demanded a big cut in the number of wind farms planned on land, and for wind subsidies to be slashed by 50 per cent. It also called for councils to be given the power to impose a one-year moratorium on any new wind turbines. Political opponents and environmental groups say that the 3 amigo’s provision of land for wind farms conflicts with the new anti-wind farm policy adopted by the Scottish Conservatives.
Pointing out that renewable energy offered Scotland massive investment and thousands of jobs Chic Brodie, a member of the parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee said:
“This hypocrisy from the Tories is a classic case of do as I say, not as I do. They might be vocal opponents of Scotland’s renewable energy potential in public these days, but they remain perfectly content to personally profit from wind turbines.” * McGrigor, the Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, received an initial fee of £5,000 and is now expecting to be paid between £5,000 and £6,000 a year for 20 wind turbines planned by the German power company, RWE, on his Ardchonnel sheep farm, near Dalmally in Argyll.
* Fergusson, the Conservative MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, gets between £40,000 and £45,000 a year from 52 wind turbines run by Scottish and Southern Energy on his land at Hadyard Hill in South Ayrshire.
* Scott, the Conservative MSP for Ayr, has a deal which enables Spanish-owned Scottish Power to use his farm near Girvan to access its 60-turbine Arecleoch wind farm in South Ayrshire. The deal is understood to be worth more than £5,000 a year. Dr Richard Dixon, the director of Friends of the Earth Scotland said:
“The Tories are clearly divided over wind farms. They should give up the narrow anti-wind agenda being promoted by a few prominent party members. There is little to be gained by drawing up policy statements in secret and to the exclusion of key stakeholders. Most people in Scotland think wind farms are a good thing. Anyone who believes that anti-wind policies will significantly boost the Tories’ electoral fortunes is making a big mistake.”
Niall Stuart, the chief executive of the industry body, Scottish Renewables, said:
“I hope those conservative MSPs who have first-hand knowledge of the sector can perhaps explain to their colleagues that onshore wind is the cheapest and one of the most effective sources of renewable electricity we have.”
Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP and Chairman of the the parliament’s energy committee said:
“the committee will be debating the Scottish government’s targets to boost renewable energy but it is my conclusion the targets are “achievable”.
A party spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives insisted that there was “no problem” with wind farms as long as they were appropriately sited with the agreement of local communities.
1 March 2013: Scotland’s gay Tory leader Ruth Davidson splits from her partner
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has split up with her partner of five years Saskia Halcrow. Like many couples with hectic working lives, they simply grew apart. Ruth is very sad about the split but it is a mutual thing and both want to remain good friends. Although the majority of Scottish MPs support marriage equality, the Scottish Conservative Party remains largely opposed, with only Ms Davidson and her Deputy Jackson Carlaw registering their support in a June 2012 survey.
8 April 2013: Thatcher’s death, Ruth Davidson pays tribute to ‘a true revolutionary’
She said: “Baroness Thatcher was a true Conservative revolutionary, challenging out-dated institutions, confronting vested interests and transforming Britain into a property-owning democracy. She empowered millions of people in a way that was previously unimaginable and the positive impact of her legacy with be felt by thousands of families for decades to come. She proved to women everywhere there was nothing they couldn’t accomplish. She will go down in history as one of the truly great Prime Ministers.” But she didn’t live through the brutality of the Thatcher years.
2 June 2013: Ruth Davidson Causes Furore within the Tory party with her new policies of More devolved Powers For Scotland
Davidson’s remarks come after a stormy two weeks within the Scottish Conservatives. Senior party figures criticised her leadership following her decision to support a policy of handing more powers to the Scottish Parliament, and raised questions over her parliamentary style. Lord Forsyth, the former Scottish Secretary, described the u-turn on more powers as a “suicide mission”. However, Davidson says today that Prime Minister David Cameron, is “on board” with her plans to embed greater devolution in the party’s next election manifesto – assuming voters do not back independence first.
5 June 2013: It all started with a “line in the sand”. Amazing what an election loss brings with it.
Ruth Davidson’s “Line in the Sand” statement that got her the post Of leader gets washed away in favour of the losing candidate’s previously rejected proposals for change. “How’s that for stealing.f a rivals thunder?” She had chosen the term to define her position on the constitution, vowing that the Scottish Conservatives under her premiership would take devolution no further than the tranche of powers set to be handed to Holyrood under the Scotland Act 2012.
To the Tory grandees’ ear, it meant more than a simple cliché: it suggested stability against the stormy root-and-branch reconstruction that her principal challenger for the party leadership, Murdo Fraser, advocated. If only it had all been so simple, or at least the former BBC journalist had opted for less unequivocal language.
Eighteen months after her election, Davidson found herself in an awkward position, cast by then supporters, such as Lord Forsyth, as guilty of an “ while those who once opposed her bid line up, in public at least, to commend a courageous change of tack. In private, behind the veil of anonymity that daily newspapers have provided in the last few weeks, their words would appear to be less praiseworthy.
Eighteen months after her election, Davidson found herself in an awkward position. Discussion of the detail that enhanced devolution would entail was largely crowded out by discussion of whether enhanced devolution should happen at all. Lord Forsyth, whose views on greater devolution are hardly secret, warned the proposals represented an “incomprehensible volte face” and that the party was on a “bit of a suicide mission” tinkering with the settlement as it stood.
Murdo Fraser broke his silence: “Certainly the mood music thus far from Ruth, in terms of the two speeches she has made on the issue, have both been extremely positive and I think I tweeted at the time I could have written one of the speeches.
She had made very clear she wants to see a more accountable Scottish Parliament raising the bulk of the money it spends, so I think the direction of travel is encouraging. We’ll need to wait and see what the new proposals are but having set the hare running, we need to make sure that we’re not all disappointed when it comes to rest – that there is something substantial and credible and comprehensive there.
I have high ambitions for it and I think many people in the party who share my outlook also have. Our problem as a party is we’ve always been the back markers when it comes to constitutional debate. We’ve always been the ones who have been the most slow to move and then only move very reluctantly.
This is an opportunity for us for once not to be the back marker and to be seen to be taking a leading line. And we should be because it should be entirely in tune with basic Conservative principles that we support greater financial accountability and a more responsible environment for politicians to operate in.”
7 June 2013: Cameron launches defence of Scottish Conservative leader
Davidson has faced one of the most challenging periods of her leadership heading into conference with some of her own MSPs and party grandees who originally backed her leadership bid questioning why she has abandoned her previous opposition to more powers.
At the Scottish Conservative party conference in Stirling, in her defence, David Cameron told delegates that she was the “ideal leader” to modernise the party and expand its appeal and he backed her u-turn on further devolution for Scotland. He said: “We will only succeed if we are in touch and in tune with modern Scotland. And in Ruth you’ve got the ideal leader.
Ruth wasn’t born into the Conservative Party – she chose it. And she understands that to win we’ve got to be a party for all of Scotland. A party focused on securing Scotland’s place within a strong UK but not afraid to look at how devolution can be improved.”
1 June 2014: Ruth Davidson today announced a historic shift in Scottish Conservatives’ attitude towards devolution by signalling that her party will re-draw the “line in thesand” and embrace a stronger Holyrood with radical new tax-raising powers.
The Scottish Tory leader says the Conservatives will advocate a “new system” that will bring real accountability to Scotland’s politics, paving the way for the transfer of all income tax raising powers to the Scottish Parliament. Tomorrow the Strathclyde commission is expected to produce a report recommending that Holyrood is given power over all income tax – a measure that would make the Scottish Parliament responsible for raising 40 per cent of the revenue it spends.
That would enable MSPs to set higher or lower rates than the rest of the UK and offers the possibility of the Scottish Tories campaigning on a tax-cutting agenda in the 2016 Scottish elections. The new powers would be offset by a cut in the block grant which Holyrood receives from the Treasury.
The move will be in line with Davidson’s growing belief that Holyrood must become more accountable for the cash that MSPs spend. “Every year, billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is allocated by MSPs to spend in Scotland, Yet MSPs are responsible for raising only a fraction of that money. Holyrood is, in effect, a giant spending machine, ministers and MSPs the signatories of a vast cheque book.”
The new approach contrasts radically with past Tory policy. In 1997 the Conservatives opposed devolution and the formation of a Scottish Parliament. It also marks a departure for Davidson herself, who campaigned for the Scottish Conservative leadership on the basis that a constitutional “line in the sand” should be drawn.
It is understood that Lord Strathclyde will also look at devolution of some welfare payments. Holyrood being given greater over housing benefit is one example, which would allow a Scottish Parliament to abolish the bedroom tax – the UK Government – imposed cut in the spare room subsidy which has been opposed by the SNP.
The document will also recommend that important aspects of the UK’s uniform tax system – such as VAT and Corporation Tax – will remain under the control of Westminster. Although Strathclyde has been chairing the commission, Davidson has taken a great personal interest in the work and has played the leading role in selling its recommendations to Downing Street.
In recent weeks she has met David Cameron and George Osborne to discuss the findings, which are likely to be included in the Tories’ 2015 General Election manifesto.
Last night Derek MacKay, the SNP’s Business Convener, responded saying that only a Yes vote would deliver the powers Scotland requires. “The only way to get the powers Scotland needs to build a fairer society and stronger economy is to vote Yes in September,” MacKay said. “The Tories are more interested in outdoing Labour than in delivering jobs or opportunities for Scotland.”
He added: “Whenever the Tories have been in a position to prove their commitment to more powers they have been found wanting. People in Scotland won’t be fooled by the Tories’empty promises.” But 55% of those who voted in the referendum believed Davidson, Cameron and other parties signed to the Better Together campaign.
10 October 2014: Davidson interviewed by police over vote claims
Ruth Davidson has been interviewed by police in her Parliament offices in connection with allegations pro-Union campaigners illegally counted postal votes in the weeks before independence referendum ballots closed.
She was spoken to yesterday, six days after Police Scotland was instructed to carry out an investigation into alleged electoral secrecy law breaches. Party sources say the interview was conducted on the basis of her being a witness and that Ms Davidson is not the subject of the investigation.
The formal police probe was sparked after the Scottish Tory leader said on a televised discussion that postal vote “tallies” were being taken in the weeks before the referendum ballot closed at 10pm on September 18.
Police made initial telephone contact with Ms Davidson last Friday and party sources said at the time, and continue to say, that there is “no suggestion she was accused of doing anything wrong”.
Central to the probe is televised coverage of the referendum results, 45 minutes after the polls closed, in which Ms Davidson said that the No camp had been incredibly encouraged by the results of a “sample opening” of the postal ballot that she said had taken place around the country during the few weeks prior to the poll.
Complaints over her account of the postal vote “tallies” raised concerns the information may have helped inform the No campaign’s decision to issue the vow of more powers for Scotland from the three main party leaders.
A Scottish Conservative Party spokesman said yesterday: “Ruth had arranged to speak to police today in her office to help them with complaints they had received.”
In the footage forwarded to police, Ms Davidson said: “Postal votes are going to be enormously important in this campaign; about 18 per cent of the vote is going to come out of postal ballots and we have had people at every sample opening, around the country, over the last few weeks, while that’s been coming in.
And we’ve been incredibly encouraged by the results.” Later, referring to postal ballots, she said: “Different local authorities have had openings around the country”, before adding: “There’s people in the room that have been sampling those ballot boxes that have been opened and have been taking tallies and the reports have been very positive for us.”
Political agents and campaigners are allowed to oversee the postal vote opening sessions, where checks are made to verify the signatures and dates of birth on postal voting statements against computerised records, but it is illegal to attempt to ascertain how a vote has been cast. A Police Scotland spokeswoman said of the latest development: “We never comment on anyone who is spoken to as part of any ongoing investigation.”
This ridiculous statement from Ruth Davidson does a disservice to the seriousness of the issues, and is simply insulting to the members of the McCluskey Panel – including the member nominated by Ms Davidson – as well as to others involved in this process.
If this is the Tory attitude to achieving consensus, it’s very clear why the equivalent process at Westminster is in such a mess.”
1 May 2015: General Election administrators warned to prevent illegal postal vote tallies by political agents after Scottish Referendum row
Electoral administrators and returning officers for the General Election have been reminded that the postal ballot is secret and voting tallies by political agents is illegal.
The guidance has come as a result of the experience during the Scottish Referendum when it was alleged pro-union campaigners breached electoral law by examining postal ballot papers to gauge how well the Better Together campaign was doing before the polls had closed on September 18.
At the end of September 2014 the Crown Office instructed Police Scotland to launch a formal investigation into the electoral fraud allegationso. Police say they are continuing to investigate but will not comment on what progress they have made during that time. Some complainers have raised further concern that no police action was taken in advance of the General Election.
It was revealed that police twice spoke to Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson as a potential witness over comments she made that postal vote “tallies” were being taken in the weeks before the referendum ballot closed at 10pm on September 18 last year.
On televised coverage of the referendum results, 45 minutes after the polls closed, Ms Davidson said that the No camp had been “incredibly encouraged” by the results of a “sample opening” of the postal ballot that she said had taken place around the country over the few weeks prior to the poll.
Complaints over her account of the postal vote “tallies” raised concerns the information may have helped inform the No campaign’s decision to issue the “vow” of more powers for Scotland from the three main party leaders.
It has emerged that Mary Pitcaithly, covener of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland has recommended to returning officers in Scotland that they take particular care in making sure the law is complied with and that the secrecy requirement is explained to all those attending postal vote openings.
The moves which the EMB said “draw on lessons learned from the Scottish independence referendum” include asking that ballot papers are handled face down so that no mark on the front of the paper is able to be seen by observers. And EMB spokeswoman said the recommendations have been “well received”.
The postal vote, makes up between 20% and 50% of the counted votes. Around 800,000 people, or 19% of participants, voted by post in the referendum. Openings to validate signatures and dates of birth were done before the official count and in Edinburgh the process was conducted at the EICC on Thursday. Those administering the process were told that while it was open to polling observers for “monitoring” purposes it was not for sampling.
A briefing for the 2015 General Election, to prospective candidates and their agents in Edinburgh constituencies stated “Must be seen to be fair, no question of interference.”
It added: “Confidence in the system depends on integrity of campaigners: Code of Conduct! Experience of 2014!” The Electoral Commission has also advised all electoral administrators that the law prohibits tallying at postal vote opening sessions.
The advice states that under the Section 66(4)(d) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 it is “not permissible to attempt to ascertain the candidate for whom any vote is given in any particular ballot paper or communicate that information. “This provision therefore prevents those present at the postal vote opening from attempting to ascertain the way individual ballot papers are marked,”
The advice says. “Anyone attending a postal vote opening must not attempt to look at identifying marks or numbers on ballot papers, disclose how any particular ballot paper has been marked or pass on any such information gained from the session,”
The Electoral Commission advice says. “Anyone found guilty of breaching these requirements can face a fine of up to £5,000, or may be imprisoned for up to six months in England and Wales, or up to a year in Scotland. “Our guidance to both candidates and electoral administrators clearly states the law and that the tallying of postal votes is prohibited.
Should anyone attempt to tally postal votes at the General Election, it would be for the relevant police force to investigate.”
7 May 2015: Ruth Davidson Cries wolf reporting (at 0512 hours!!!) that “Burly blokes’ were turning rival voters away from Annan polling station
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson took to Twitter to make the claims of ‘disturbing reports’. Police are investigating claims. ‘burly blokes’ have been turning rival voters away from a polling station, if they say they don’t support a certain party. The incident is said to have happened in the Scottish town of Annan, where by chance the only Tory MP David Mundell is hoping for a return to Westminster
It is believed a call was placed to Ruth Davidson’s office and they immediately (without gathering the facts of the situation) telephoned the electoral registration officer at the local Council and the Police.
Ms Davidson’s claims were later slapped down by Dumfries and Galloway Council, which is running the count. The council tweeted to her: “No burly blokes outside Annan. Officers and police visiting frequently. No complaints re canvassers.” end of.
Newington Sports and Leisure Polling Station in Annan
17 June 2012: Ruth Davidson fined by Electorial Commission for failing to Declare Donations Timeously
The commission last week issued a report stating that Davidson twice broke electoral law by missing the 30-day deadline for registering two donations totalling £14,500 in October. The Glasgow list MSP was fined £400, with each offence punished by a fixed penalty of £200. Davidson paid the fine on May 11.
The fine is embarrassing for Davidson, as it raises questions about her experience and competence. A senior Tory source said: “This is just not what the party needs. It’s the latest in a long set of embarrassing moments for Ruth.”
Davidson, 33, a former BBC broadcaster, became Tory leader in November following a bitter and divisive contest triggered by the resignation of Annabel Goldie in May 2011. She was made leader just six months after becoming an MSP for the first time. Despite being the favourite of the Tory hierarchy, she failed to secure the support of association chairs in her Glasgow seat, and her campaign was dogged by a series of self-inflicted errors. In the closing days of the campaign, the three other Tory MSPs vying for the job accused her of receiving an unfair advantage through covert backing from Conservative HQ.
After a fleeting honeymoon period, Davidson has been the subject of mounting criticism from the Scottish Tories, with a surge in complaints after the party lost 20% of its vote and its councillors in May’s local elections. Last week, Alex Salmond taunted her at First Minister’s Questions by reading out critical comments from Toryhoose – a Scottish Conservatives website – which had previously acted as Davidson’s cheerleader, about the party’s poor showing in the election. The latest setback concerns money given to Davidson’s leadership campaign last autumn.
Electoral Commission records show Davidson accepted £29,500 in four lots in her capacity as a “regulated donee”, the term used when an individual MP or MSP accepts a donation. Two donations were accepted on September 19 – a sum of £2000 from James Stewart, director of a private equity company who has also in the past given money to Scottish Tory MP David Mundell; and £12,500 from Glasgow-based property company Alchemist Estates Limited, owned by Conservative donor Brian Gillies. By law, these should have been declared to the Commission by October 18, but Davidson failed to register them until November 21, when she also declared a further £10,000 from Stewart and £5000 from London-based donor Carolyn Ward.
In its enforcement report, the Commission said it had fined Davidson for “failure to deliver two donation reports within 30 days of acceptance of donations”. Davidson’s main rival for the Tory leadership, Murdo Fraser, reported all of his donations on time. SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon: “This is a humiliation for Ruth Davidson and another blow for her flagging leadership.” A Labour spokesman said: “These rules are in place for good reason to ensure fairness and transparency in elections and it is appropriate this action is taken against Ruth Davidson.
Federalism or Independence – Andy Maciver is a former Scottish Conservative Head of Communications.
The 2015 General Election campaign propelled David Cameron back into Downing Street pulling England towards the Tories and pushing even more of Scotland into the welcoming arms of the SNP, both at the expense of Labour.
However, it was poisonous for the Union, and poisonous for the Scottish Conservative Party.
And the exasperating irony is that the Prime Minister and advisors hold the antidote in the palm of their hands. Federalism.
Federalism is the recovery formula for both country and party. It can equalise and heal the British state, which remains one of the developed world’s most centralised.
And it can free the Conservative movements in the north of England and Scotland to make the case for workers’ conservatism without the intoxicating influence of London.
There is no shame in this. There is no shame in letting go. Decentralisation leads to cohesion.
British devolution is a recipe for conflict and chaos. It is not working; it is never going to work.
There is increasing realisation that the only two outcomes are independence (for Scotland, at least) or federalism.
The time has now come for Conservatives to do the right thing. Stand up. Face up. Speak up and Act in support of Federalism: (conservativehome)
Conservatives For Independence – Comments Submitted By Tory Party Supporters
By any definition, Scotland has already left the Union. Its politics and its national sense of identity make it at best a semi-detached reluctant appendage and at worst a major problem for the English.
The UK must federalise or England must accept the inevitable and make the positive decision to end the Union for itself.
The map is clear for conservatives. Scotland is ‘yellow’ and England is overwhelmingly ‘blue’ and there is no electoral advantage whatsoever in pretending otherwise.
Nor is there any moral purpose in deploying all the arguments used by the old empire loyalists in the early 20th Century who genuinely believed that we would be ‘better together’ under some form of Imperial Parliament. They were wrong then and ‘Unionists’ are wrong today.
There is therefore only one option. Independence for both Scotland and England.
We would have to come to terms with the loss of ‘our’ highlands, golden eagles, loch Ness monsters and golf courses and they would have to come to terms with becoming a bit like Norway or Denmark.
Both ultimately would benefit. Nobody, after all, would seriously suggest that we should seek a political union with other parts of what were once ‘Britain’ such as Canada, Australia or Ireland.
So we’re a family if England love bombs Scotland to stay but we’re not a family if a British party endeavours to run a British election campaign!
If the latter constitutes good cause for the Scottish Conservatives to distance themselves from the English ones because the “British” brand is tarnished, then it is even more reason for a full and proper separation of Scotland and England.
The Union is not sacrosanct. It can survive only by the genuine willingness of all participants to make it work. That willingness is singularly absent north of the border.
It’s often forgotten that until relatively recently the Scots were seen, and saw themselves, as being more ‘conservative’ than the English.
It’s also often forgotten that there are many Scot Nats who are in reality Tartan Tories who, like their left wing brethren, have felt utterly alienated from the Westminster Politicos – from all parties – who have treated the Scots with disdain.
The SNP vote is a political revolution against the SPAD-u-likes in London. The Scot Nats have grown up and matured into a seriously heavyweight political force.
I don’t think the ship of Great Britain has sailed but I do think that radical federalist change is needed to energise politics in England and Wales outside London.
It was on this basis that I supported devolution to Scotland and Wales, expecting comparable assemblies to follow in England, but the north-east referendum was ill-defined in its offer, had not looked at the detail of boundaries and loyalties, and seemed transparently a management exercise.
I am not impressed by Davidson she has drawn more lines in the sand than a toddler on the beach with a stick.
The other problem is that every time things might change up pops Lord Forsyth and a couple of other unelected pals and show why they lost in 1997.
The problem with federalism has always been, and remains, a question of how you provide balance between the component parts of the federation.
There would be too many tensions, Trident & the EU would continue to be points of political conflict. I doubt it is possible, or would work for long.
A confederation, on the other hand, has a better chance of working, because it immediately opens up the possibility of working together as sovereign, independent states.
But giving up sovereignty in the interests of a long-term solution to the problems of the union is likely to be a step too far for Westminster.
It is worth remembering that Scotland and England existed as sovereign nations for a much greater period of time than they have been in a Union.
Sure, the relationship was far from easy – but that was then, and our 300 years of learning how to work together will serve us well.
Smoke and Mirrors – Westminster Draws a Constitutional Line in the Sand – Retribution Visited Upon Scotland For Having the Nerve to Try to Break Up What Is Laughably Called the Most Successful Union of Nations in History.
Westminster Unionist partys’ offer of devolution of limited fiscal powers to Scotland is driven by the dogma of doing just the minimum to keep Scotland in the UK, whilst reserving power to Westminster.
Preservation of the Ruth Davidson named “pocket money parliament” will be assured if Scots politicians allow themselves to be conned into accepting the proposals presently on offer. What we have is the illusion of a transfer of power with, pinned to it, a not so subtle £6billion reduction in the “Barnett Formula” financial allocation.
This will require the Scottish Government to find new sources of finance, (without borrowing money from the markets) so that existing benefits can be retained and new measures introduced providing assistance to those in need, (eg. removal of the bedroom tax). Income Tax rises would be a consequence, even for the Standard Rate taxpayer since Higher Rate taxpayers in Scotland are insufficient in number to bear the cost of any new financial requirements.
Scotland’s government will only be totally responsible when they have access and authority over all of Scotland’s resources and financial income, but Westminster will never willingly allow that since with absolute power retained by Westminster, solving problems in the Scottish economy through increased income tax and other personal taxes will only serve to make the Holyrood parliament very unpopular. This proven tactic of delegating responsibility without authority suits the Westminster agenda.
The “Unionist” partys’ are determined to impose their will, (no matter how long it takes) and Scotland will be asset stripped by stealth so that it becomes ever poorer and increasingly dependent on Westminster’s whims reducing the confidence of Scot’s in their ability to build, without Westminster’s benign governance, a better future for Scot’s as an equal partner within the United Kingdom.
Witnessed by their actions, in the months following the referendum it is clear Westminster remains to be in the business of building failure into any devolved powers instead of doing the right thing, identifying what has the best chance of succeeding and transferring relevant powers and authority to Scotland.
If Westminster is serious about creating a federal state then the truly radical approach would require a team of independent advisors to go away, investigate the construction and governance of successful multi-state countries eg Germany, then report back.
Unresolved Aspects:
* The Barnett Formula. Should be retained until reductions are agreed between Westminster and devolved governments.
* Vat collection. Without the ability to vary rates needs to be addressed.
* The Scottish government should be able to raise and lower income tax.
* Multinationals operating out of Scotland, (Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, RBS, BOS, etc) should be liable for tax collection on their sales.
* Authority should be devolved allowing Scotland to gather taxes from Capital trusts etc. who may be practicing tax avoidance by registering in the Bahamas, Channel Isles etc.
* Corporation Tax and Air Passenger Duty, including variance authority should be devolved
* Oil, fuel taxation, excise duty (whisky) should be devolved.
Full Fiscal Autonomy
Scottish fiscal autonomy, stopping short of full political independence, forming part of a federal or confederal constitution for the United Kingdom is the way forward. The Scottish Government would be responsible for all financial matters in Scotland, making payments to the UK government covering Scotland’s share of the cost of providing agreed specified UK-wide services, such as, defence and the conduct of foreign relations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_fiscal_autonomy_for_Scotland
1972. The discovery of oil in the North Sea revealed Prime Minister, Edward Heath concerns about Nationalist opinion and the poor state of the Scottish economy. Alert to opportunities for change he initiated a policy review.
The Senior, Downing Street civil servant, Robert Armstrong wrote to members of the Cabinet;
“As you know, the point has recently been put to the Prime Minister that the benefits of oil production brought ashore in Scotland should accrue, and be seen to accrue, to the Scottish economy. The Prime Minister sees considerable force in the arguments believing it would be difficult to stress too highly the psychological gains which would come from the revival of the Scottish economy being seen to be something from which Scotland was achieving from its own resources, not just by the grace and favour of the Government at Westminster or of English industry.” He added: “The Prime Minister understands that novel arrangements may be required to achieve this result.”
Heath’s stance created alarm at Westminster and led to many “on and off the record” meetings between various factions within and outwith government and the civil service resulting in an outpouring of confidential minutes and memos. Primary contributors being: the Scottish Office, the Exchequer, and the then Department of Trade and Industry led by the Scottish Secretary of State, Gordon Campbell, (later Baron Campbell of Croy) and the, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Barber.
Baron Campbell of Croy
In stating their opposition to Heath’s proposals the Westminster establishment voiced concerns about taking oil revenues away from the Treasury. A senior official at the Scottish Office, in London said in a memo to Downing Street on 25 January:
“The oil discoveries have raised speculation in Scotland on the financial aspects and will continue to do so. But, the official added: “the Secretary of State for Scotland, Mr Campbell would not wish to see direct payments from the oil revenues, as these would be too late to be really useful and would raise a new principal causing difficulties if applied in other contexts. On the general question of the financial relationship of central Government with Scotland, the present has been evolved over many years and the types and amounts of grants, for example to local authorities for housing and education…follow formulae which recognise special circumstances and needs where they exist. “Mr Campbell considers that to dismantle this system, besides being a Herculean task, would resurrect innumerable issues now mercifully dormant.” (Independence)
Baron Anthony Barber
In a memo on 7 February, 1972, Treasury officials said they too were looking at “aspects” of the Prime Minister’s request. The Treasury argued more strongly and said “…Scotland takes a markedly bigger share of public spending than she contributes to public revenue. We are looking at the latest expenditure figures to confirm that they will tell the same story.”
Those in opposition to Heath’s proposals presented a uniform front and unanimously suggested that aims could be better met by investment in infrastructure and the fostering of fabrication yards and supply companies. Treasury officials later said there was “no question of hypothecation” of oil revenue to finance Scottish expenditure.
Their strident opposition to the suggestion gathered support, and submission of an alternative proposal, transferring all revenue gathered from the oil bonanza to the treasury in Westminster. The consensus was that, “any change in the financial relationship between Westminster and Scotland would resurrect innumerable issues, (A veiled reference to Scottish Independence) now mercifully dormant”. Edward Heath, blindsided, and out-voted in cabinet accepted their proposal. Scotland was then systematically ripped off for the next 43 year’s.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) argues, (correctly) that Scotland has been and continues to be cheated out of its oil revenue by Westminster.
17 April 2002: Oil firms attack ‘give and take’ budget
The North Sea Oil tax structure deters development.
The North Sea oil industry has reacted with alarm to Chancellor Gordon Brown’s decision to slap a 10% surcharge on profits.
This supplement, which will take some £500m out of the North Sea industry in a full year, will be a serious threat to jobs
Alex Salmond, SNP
In his budget speech earlier on Wednesday, Mr Brown said he would abolish the “royalty” payment on North Sea Oil.He also announced plans to improve capital allowances for oil companies.
But he spoiled the party for oil producers by slapping an extra 10% tax on UK oil production, taking it to 40% to “raise revenue”.
The net result of these changes to the complex North Sea tax regime is likely be a greater share of oil income going to the government.
‘Investor confidence’
The UK Offshore Operators Association, which represents more than 30 offshore organisations and companies, said the Budget was one of “give and take”. A spokeswoman said: “While the UK offshore industry welcomes the chancellor’s provision to increase capital allowances in first-year investment in the North Sea, it is disappointed at the decision to introduce a 10% supplementary charge on profits. “We believe this could undermine investor confidence in the long-term viability of the UK Continental Shelf.”
Labyrinthine
The industry has a labyrinthine tax structure, with different developments supplying varying levels of revenue to the chancellor depending on their age. Some fields going back 20 years or more can pay as much as 70% in various levies, while modern developments are taxed at a lower rate. UKOOA said it was too early to ascertain the impact of proposals to possibly scrap royalties on North Sea oil which are levied on older fields. The spokesman said: “His proposal to consult the industry on the abolition of royalties applies to mature fields developed before the end of March 1982. “It will take some time to analyse the impact of the full tax package on the industry.”
Urgent consultation
Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party at Westminster, said the tax supplement on profits was a threat to offshore jobs in Scotland, which was at the centre of the UK’s industry. “This supplement, which will take some £500m out of the North Sea industry in a full year, will be a serious threat to jobs. “Because Scotland is deprived of the North Sea tax, Gordon Brown will get the revenue while Scotland will lose the jobs.” Mr Salmond said he would be consulting urgently with the industry to assess the impact of the new tax.
27 September 2002: SNP Argue for full independence
Andrew Wilson told the party’s conference in Inverness that Labour had mismanaged the economy and the time has come for the Nationalists to assume responsibility. Mr Wilson said: “There is an economic imperative for independence like never before.” Accusing Labour of a lack of ambition, he said: “Labour have had their chance, now it’s Scotland’s turn. Let’s show some ambition for our country.” He also said that “Scotland would not need to rely on oil revenues to ensure economic success after independence.”
Andrew Wilson
Alex Neil
Those comments came after fellow MSP Alex Neil received a warm reception when asserting that it was time Scotland received all the cash raised from North Sea oil. Mr Neil said there was enough oil under the North Sea to last for 30 years and raise £150bn.
He told activists that when oil was first discovered he had argued for all revenues raised to be evenly split between Scotland and the rest of the UK. Amid loud applause, he said: “Thirty years later I’m still arguing for an oil sharing policy, but it’s an oil sharing policy with a difference. “They’ve had their share, now it’s time that we got our share.”
‘No pot of gold’
However, Mr Wilson said Scotland could prosper without relying on oil revenues. He said: “The reality is that we can do it without natural resources. We’re not going to win independence by promising it’s a free lunch. “There is no pot of gold – black or otherwise – at the foot of the independence rainbow.” Mr Wilson told the conference that Scotland needed the powers of an independent nation to realise its potential.
Party treasurer Jim Mather said: “We are stuck with perennially low growth that in turn creates a wealth gap and a health gap with the rest of the UK. “The solution is clear, we must tackle Scotland’s core problem, Scotland’s lack of full financial Independence.”
The Scottish National Party has evolved from a party of protest to one capable of taking power, John Swinney has told activists.The party leader spoke of the prospects of a Nationalist-led government in a keynote address to the SNP conference in Inverness.
Mr Swinney said he accepts that the SNP has attracted protest votes in the past, but he told delegates that his party was now ready to govern.
Our new approach will be to present independence, not as a land of milk and honey but as a land of opportunity
John Swinney, SNP leader
The SNP leader promised a reformed Scotland and issued warnings about life under Labour.He said that the SNP would ensure shorter hospital waits, safer streets and better schools if the party gains power at May’s Scottish parliamentary elections.
Boosting business was another key theme.
Mr Swinney promised to end the use of private cash in the public sector but warned that there was no “pot of gold” with which to ensure a smooth transition to independence.
The SNP leader said that Scotland needs the powers of independence to make a radical difference and “release its potential” – the party’s new slogan.
He directed his fire at the Scottish Parliament, telling delegates that criticism over his move for a debate on Iraq showed the limitations of the legislature.
John Swinney: “Release our potential”
He said: “They try to shout me down when I stray from the devolved agenda.”Well I have a message for the unionists. Scotland is not a devolved administration, Scotland is a nation and a nation’s voice must be heard.”
At the centre of Mr Swinney’s 40-minute speech was a promise that independence would create a passport out of poverty for many Scots.
Mr Swinney warned that the SNP would not use Holyrood’s tax-varying powers to raise revenue if it won power but added that it would use a Labour “slush fund” of £370m held in reserve by his opponents.
Scotland’s Future
Mr Swinney said: “Our new approach will be to present independence, not as a land of milk and honey but as a land of opportunity. An opportunity to compete. An opportunity to put our people back in control. An opportunity to release our potential, our potential as a talented and innovative people. An opportunity to wave goodbye forever to those who stamp down on Scotland’s ambitions. That’s the opportunity of independence”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2284141.stm
Brian Devlin
Frank McAveeety
Alex and his Dad
Susan Deacon
The North Sea Oil tax structure deters development.
This supplement, which will take some £500m out of the North Sea industry in a full year, will be a serious threat to jobs
Alex Neil
caltonjock 