Has Labour Failed Glasgow?, Labour: good or bad for Glasgow Options

[GG]

A wee glitch? Or a portent of things to come?

Labour loses majority on Glasgow City Council

Labour has officially lost its overall majority on Glasgow City Council after a councillor suspended from the Labour group resigned from the party.

Shaukat Butt was suspended last year after he was charged with assault. The case has still to come to court.

Mr Butt wants to stand for the council again in May as an independent but had to resign from Labour to do this.

But he insisted he would still vote with Labour and wanted to see the party remain in control of the city.

Labour now has 39 out of 79 councillors but can count on 40 votes once Mr Butt is included. ...

Full story here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17365363

GG.

[GG]

A couple of quotes not in the BBC story:

Councillor Stephen Dornan, a founding member of Glasgow First said:

"We are absolutely delighted. We know that Shaukat wanted to join us but he needed to do it in his own time.

We are now looking forward to racking up our numbers and putting forward a Glasgow First team for the elections in May."

James Dornan, SNP MSP, said:

"In the last few weeks of a dying regime, Labour continue to crumble in front of our eyes.

I am delighted that Councillor Butt finally took the decision to leave the Labour party.

If only he had done this before the budget then Glasgow would be in a better place than it is today."

GG.

[GG]

A ninth Labour councillor in Glasgow has left the party. Councillor Ellen Hurcombe, who represents Canal ward, joined rival party Glasgow First this evening. Labour now has just 38 councillors in Glasgow City Council against 41 representing opposition parties.

Councillor Tommy Morrison, leader of Glasgow First said:

"I am absolutely delighted that yet another councillor has decided to join Glasgow First, putting the citizens of Glasgow before party politics and fighting for Glaswegians."

A spokesman for Glasgow Labour responded:

"Being a Labour councillor is not a job for life, and Labour Party members in Glasgow made difficult decisions about who would and would not go forward for election. We wish Ellen all the best for the future."

GG.

[Heather]

I was reading in the Re-Gen today ( an Eastend Newspaper ) that due to public outcry and pressure from other political parties, it has made Labour back down and the CAB office's are to remain open.

The Newspaper is dated the 23 March and I wonder if the report is correct as I have not seen it reported in any other Newspaper.

[GG]

Heather, I believe that the Re-Gen article is correct: some (not sure if all) the CABs have been able to stay open after political pressure on Glasgow City Council forced a u-turn. the council came up with 'extre' money and at least five of the CAB offices (Easterhouse, Castlemilk, Pollok, Parkhead and Bridgeton) are to remian open for the next three years.

The council eventually blamed 'European rules' on the fiasco!

There a good article in the Rutherglen Informer on the subject:

Castlemilk Citizens Advice Bureau facing closure
http://www.rutherglenreformer.co.uk/ruther...63227-30525661/

GG.

[Heather]

Thank you GG.

It looks like Glasgow Council are blaming Europen rules for the fiasco. What a farce.

[john.mcn]

Not to say i support the Glasgow council but they could be correct in saying they are bound by European rules. Any public body contracts over a certain monetary value have to be put out to tender. A good thing and a bad thing, it's supposed to stop the back handers that was rife in the past. The bad is they try to lump smaller deals into big contracts that involve more middlemen and obviously cost more money..

[*Backcauseway*]

The Labour group have deselected some good old fashioned councillors who grew up in the "old" Labour party. Now they are putting forward some complete unknowns. Take a look at the back grounds of some of these "new" hopefuls. I dont mean the ex MSPs who do have a track record. Some seem rather "removed" from the old style Labour councillor. The sort of person who grew up in Partick or Castlemilk etc. Interesting times ahead especially if a Galloway Bradford moment happens in Glasgow. Labour were completely shell shocked. At 10pm last night they thought they had "squeaked" home yet Galloway was already giving victory speeches. As for Mr Mathesons "manifesto" what have Labour been doing for the last 30 odd years in Glasgow? New secondary schools-but have higher leaving passes increased?

[Alex Saville]

Good riddence to Ellen Hurcombe!
As one of constituents, I know from experience that she is invisible.
What has she done round here?
Nothing!
She has an appaling absence record of attendence.
She's no loss to the Canal Ward. That goes for Jim McKechnie too!

[GG]

According to a story in today's Sunday Herald, Labour's own chief election agent is none too complimentary of his party's recent performance:

"Labour has failed to use Holyrood to demonstrate its commitments to Scottish affairs; delivery of devolution was the zenith of the party's success in this area, and since then it has regressed to being seen as a party principally of English interests."

Agent's online criticism a 'body blow' to Labour
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/polit...labour.17242748

GG.

[GG]

Labour: Incompetent architects of their own downfall

An obvious lack of any aspiration leaves the Labour Party in Scotland on the threshold of another defeat

The indications are that Labour will take another hammering in the council elections and may lose control of Glasgow and even of North Lanarkshire. This would be remarkable if it was surprising, but it isn’t. Some Labour activists may explain it away as the consequence of Jack McConnell’s weak surrender to his Liberal Democrat coalition partners, who demanded that proportional representation replace the first-past-the-post system for local government elections. No doubt there is something in this. Others may regard it as just punishment for the party’s incompetence and corruption in local government and, again, this may well be the case.

Yet the causes of Labour’s decline and fall from its self-proclaimed status as “Scotland’s party” go deeper. They go back to its commitment to devolution, and what followed when the 1997 referendum ensured that there would be a Scottish Parliament. ...

Full story here:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/allan-massie-...nfall-1-2239241

GG.

[GG]

According to the Herald yesterday:

Nearly a tenth of Labour councillors elected in 2007 have either joined other parties or gone independent, an SNP survey has revealed.

The survey found that 32 of the 348 Labour councillors elected in 2007 have defected or now sit as independent councillors.

Most of them are also standing in the 2012 elections against their former party.

GG.

[Scotsman]

You wouldnt even know that there was an election on as I have seen hardly anything about it except getting the voting card through the door. There arent even the usual posters on lamposts and not heard any the speaker vans going about. Labour might just lose on apathy alone because they dont get people interested in it.

[A Mackinnon]

I like the system they have here in Canada, all counselors & Mayors run as independents with no "official" party affiliation.
Where I live we have no idea which party my elected officials on council support. In bigger cities like Toronto you have to see what way they vote on social issues to get an idea if they are "left or right wing" politicians.

[GG]

In the Sunday Herald yesterday:

Charity boss 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, the Sunday Herald can reveal. ...

Full story here:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/...b7cc06e002d25bb

GG.

The long-delayed investigation into this was published today:

Pay-off for charity boss branded 'misconduct'

The charities watchdog has ruled that an over-generous pension pay-off [by Labour councillors] to the boss of an urban regeneration firm amounted to "misconduct".

The probe examined the severance package for Ronnie Saez, former chief executive of the now-defunct Glasgow East Regeneration Agency (Gera).

It focused on a "discretionary" pension augmentation of £232,708 by trustees.

The Scottish Charity Regulator said this was inappropriate and amounted to "misconduct in the administration".

The watchdog said it investigated after a complaint was lodged following media reports that Mr Saez had been awarded a severance package worth £500,000. ...

Full story here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-21027441

GG.