GLASGOW'S GOVERNANCE

I have delibrately waited to blog for a while, whilst the allegations and revealations concerning my employer settled down.  It could be that there is more to come.  But I feel now is the moment to comment, and after much reflection.

I will not comment on the private lives of any politician, and therefore will keep my observations in respect to Steven Purcell to the political.

In truth at this moment in time there is no silver bullet that can suggest there is corruption in the City Chambers.  However, corruption or no, there is poor governance.

Officials are given too much devolved powers over staffing structures, contracts awarded are not being reported to Committees, and the ALEO's do not need to enter into service agreements or purchase services from the Council, yet Councill Departments are compelled to do the reverse.  Why was the controversial contract awarded  for transport provision for City Building ever tendered for at all, when the Council has a transport section who could have provided this service?

Culture Sport Glasgow has failed, no private investment of note as been attracted, yet business leaders were invited onto the board.  

Interestingly only late last year did the Council admit that one of the reasons for setting up such bodies was to mitigate against equal pay claims.  An insult to employees.

At the May Day Rally two years ago the Trade Unions warned that the creation of such companies was the slippery slope to undemocratic, and unaccountable service provision.

The irony that Nicholas Ridley's dream of an enabling local authority was tested by New Labour in Glasgow is not lost on yours truly nor I suspect the voters.

If the death knell of the enabling authority is what comes out of this sorry affair, then the citizens of Glasgow will benefit.

LOSING THE PLOT

A perhaps predictable headline for this post, but I have been thinking over the last week or so that the recent developments at Westminster are part of a wider malaise within New Labour as they appear to stumble towards the Election.

Whilst acknowledging that some of the publicity that Brown receives from the English establishment is out of order, what was the rebellion actually about?  From what I can observe there is no political difference between the so-called Blairites, and Brownites.  Their biggest problem is they have no political narrative, and most importantly no real difference with the Tories.

Given Brown's admission to Darling to accept that big cuts are needed on public spending, surely we will hear no more nonsense of rip-offs campaigns?  Perhaps not.  Last weeks dreadful performance by the Holyrood New Labour Group, where they blame the recent cold weather on the SNP demonstrates that they have lost the plot too, if they ever had one!  As Michael Russell said to me only the other day, if the SNP had invented the light bulb, New Labour would attack this as an anti-candle device!

The statement that voting New Labour will lock out the Tories only has reasonance if there are actually big differences between the two.

The SNP now has a wonderful opportunity to show clearly to the voters that the SNP can make a big difference at a Westminster election.  The fight for our rightful share of public money, a vision that the unregulated market is not the only way to run an economy, that people can be put before profit, that a non nuclear Scotland can succeed and take its place in the world..

Thats what I will be doing in the next few months.

Meanwhile, the rest will be losing the plot.

PREDICTIONS 2010

As is customary, and I have been reminded about the success of my blog post making predictions, I thought i would come up with another effort.  Here goes;

(1) The New Labour Government will be ousted by a Westminster regime even more right wing than they are by a majority of over 70 - the good lady and I have a bet on this with a bottle of champers being the prize.  This will be as a result of fresh sleaze and economic mistakes.
(2) Gordon Brown and Iain Gray will no longer be the leaders of the British Labour Party or BLP (Scotland Region) by this time next year.
(3) The Tories will have less than 3 Scottish MP's in the General Election,  creating anther Doomsday scenario, which will usher in huge support for Independence.
(4) The Tories will end the year behind in most polls at a UK level.
(5) The Lib Dems will lose half their Westminster seats. They will come under huge pressure to support Independence after secret plans by New Labour and the Tories to oust the Scottish Government, and form a coalition are revealed.  The Lib Dems back a referendum for 2011 after initially voting it down.
(6) Glasgow's No.1 football team will go on a glorious run , and emerge victorious and win the First Division with a couple of points to spare. The Mighty Jags take points off the Old Firm in the first half of the SPL  season.
(7) The Evening Times sensationally back the SNP for the general election, after Glasgow is awarded Metropolitan Status by the SNP Government.  The Evening Times will run this as part of its Labour let Glasgow Down/ Rip off Scotland campaign.
(8) The SNP will win most votes in Scotland at the General Election, and polls comfirm throughout the year that the next Holyrood Elections could result in a landslide.
(9)  Holyrood the Musical will go into production, whilst a petition is launched to bring back Glen Michaels Cartoon Cavalcade.
(10) The SNP make the 20 seat target, and in Glasgow East, John Mason proves that lightning strikes twice when just like his Council seat ten years before he beats his by-election opponent twice, after a recount.  The SNP gains another two seats in Glasgow, before the real drama starts.  The tension mounts as Glasgow South West heads into its fourth recount.  After a tie is declared the result goes to a toss of the coin.  And the winner is ....................................

JIM'LL JINX IT!

After celebrating a year in office, lets have a look at Jim Murphy's record as Secretary of State for Scotland; 

On 8th July he met Diageo bosses and announced after the meeting that they were considering alternatives to job losses; two days later Diageo emphatically said they weren't.
 

In May he encouraged Scottish bids for the Future Jobs Fund saying “we simply cannot abandon a generation of young people to the scrapheap of unemployment”, and when they were eventually announced the Scotland Office claimed a majority are successful; in fact a majority were rejected and Scotland received less than its pro-rata share. 

There is excitement in the Highland & Islands after Jim Murphy implies that a cut-price petrol scheme may be on the way for the islands; nearly two weeks after Jim Murphy is denying any such scheme was the cards
 

Throughout 2009 a number of children are detained at the Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre despite Jim Murphy announcing in October 2008 a pilot scheme to ensure children were not held at Dungavel   

In May 2009 it is revealed that despite Jim Murphy being allowed to announce that the Labour government were to reverse their increase on whisky duty that he had failed to even lobby for the industry before Alistair Darling imposed the increase.
  

In August Jim Murphy says that he will sort out visas for Lahore Pipe Band refused entry into the UK for the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow; next day it is reported that he has failed to secure visas for Pakistanis

 May 2009 and Jim Murphy leads Scottish Labour leaders at the launch of party's Euro-campaign; the party goes down to what can be described as its worst result in a national election campaign since World War One.
 

June 2009 - Jim Murphy welcomes the Calman Commission's final report and praises its participants; ten days later a Labour party debate in the Scottish Parliament sees the Calman parties fall apart with Tavish Scott declaring he is not a unionist and that the report must not be kicked into the long grass, and Annabel Goldie saying the Tories will wait and see.
 

Jim  Murphy is clearly a Jinx, or his claims and comments are suspect. A bad spinner or a political jonah?

One last thing.  Jim Murphy has been telling everyone who is prepared to listen that the Westminster Election is a two horse race between New Labour and the Tories.....

The SNP currently lead in opinion polls in Scotland for both the Westminster and Holyrood Elections....

LESSONS OF THE BALLOT BOX

The most illuminating aspect of the avalanche of comments and opinions aired in the aftermath of the result of the Glasgow North East by-election, is how much people reveal about themselves and their political world view in their response to the events of last Thursday. Apart from the man of the hour himself (and congratulations are due to the newly elected MP, Willie Bain, although sadly, working people may learn that he is no friend of ours, as per my last post), there has been a singularly ungracious, immodest and gloating tone from many New Labourites that doesn’t sit well with the reality of having to throw everything bar the kitchen sink at this campaign, and then some.

Yes, New Labour can still win in its heartlands and turn out the core vote, but only after a massive effort, not just in terms of activist resource ( with a high dependence on paid party workers) but also dependent on large amounts of cold, hard cash. Why was the calling of the by-election delayed for months ?  So trade union donated funds could be spent before the election expenses clock started ticking.  Funding a political party that shafts them still defies logic but whether this can be replicated across Scotland, never mind the UK is open to question, given the state of the party’s finances.

Yes, the percentage share of the vote is comparatively high as it traditionally has been in this area, but it’s hardly a ringing positive endorsement when two thirds of the voters don’t show up.  Of course there’s the issue of the scale of negativity required to scare the voters into staying with New Labour – the politics of fear and tribalism, and a ludicrous campaign stating that our city is being ripped off. Both here and in Glenrothes, the successful Labour campaigns were built on finding somebody to blame – to distract the voters from Labour’s dismal record and the hapless performance of the man who has held the purse strings since New Labour came to power.  The man who has managed the incredible feat of widening the gap between the richest and poorest in our society and squandering the best chance a Labour government will ever have to deliver social justice. In other words, they resorted to a Campaign that would not look out of place with the US Republican Party.

Our task ? Persuading people that change is possible, it doesn’t have to be this way, a better Scotland is our vision, proudly articulated from the very start of any campaign and quickly but calmly rebutting the fears and smears , exposing them for the lies they are – you have to ask, what is it about our opponents that makes them fear the Scottish people so much that they have to resort to these tactics because they believe we are not to be trusted to govern ourselves ?

It wasn’t just a re-branding exercise but a fundamental shift away from a belief in redistribution of wealth to a wholesale embrace of market forces when the Labour party became New Labour, and some people, particularly the older generation, are voting for a memory of a party that no longer exists and our challenge is to spread our message of hope, of ambition, of our vision for a modern Scotland that reflects our proud history and is positive

and relevant – not fearful and mean.  We are the true inheritors of the values that created and informed the labour and trade union movement – unlike some, we really do believe it’s possible to  "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.".

THE REAL CHOICE FOR WORKERS IN GLASGOW NORTH EAST

As well as campaigning in the South West of the City, I have been out in Glasgow North East, and it is simply breathtaking, the anger that voters have for New Labour because the media would have you believe differently.

What is more astonishing is the level of negative campaigning adopted by the New Labour during the by election.

This election like so many recently is a straight choice on many issues.  Amazingly, the by-election has been about devolved issues, and not Westminster ones.  Little wonder. Not one word about foreign policy or the economy from a candidate whose pitch would be more appropriate for that of a local council candidate.

During the SNP conference I spoke on the recovery from recession debate, and the fact that both the Tories and New Labour were complicit in their neglect on workers rights, which has led to workplaces closing all over Scotland, because it is easier to make someone redundant here than it is elsewhere.

It transpires that the New Labour Candidate, Willie Bain was BOOED AND JEERED at the Labour Conference four years ago, because he was against Secondary Action, in debate, moved by Unite, AMICUS and the GMB, over the disgraceful way that workers in Gate Gourmet were treated by British Airways.

Here’s what he said

William Bain, from Glasgow NE, was jeered when he claimed the call amounted to a "return to the employment practices of the 1970s or '80s".
Urging delegates to be realistic, Mr Bain said: "We don't want to see the party bounced back into a shift to secondary action. It wouldn't do anything to solve this dispute. Let's learn the lessons and go forward as a movement, not back."

Members of these Three Unions, and Trade Unionists in general should reject this candidate on this alone. The CWU and postal workers would also do well to regard his mouthing of support for them with a degree of scepticism – it’s the Say Anything campaign. From pretending that he would challenge unpopular Labour policies and decisions nationally to dissociating himself from unpopular local decisions on school closures (alongside his “nothing to do with me guv” councillor colleagues), it’s the ultimate face both ways New Labour smoke and mirrors act.

So workers in Glasgow North East have a real choice, a political party who agree that Employment Rights should be strengthened and that Industrial Relations should be dealt with in a respectful manner, or New Labour who from day one have shown whose side they are really on.

The Voters of Glasgow North East must vote for a Candidate that backs working people and their hard fought struggles for dignity and rights at work (which the Labour party used to stand for), and not the Candidate who opposes the rights workers have in other countries, and who opposes ILO Conventions.

 

That’s just one of the many reasons why David Kerr deserves to win.

OUR PLACE IN EUROPE

Like Freddy Kruger, the European issue just won’t stay dead for the Tories. However, they must be calculating that there’s enough of a time lag between their climbdown on a referendum and the inevitable Spring 2009 General Election date .Tory strategists must’ve crunched the numbers and worked out that such is the state of Gordon Brown’s Weak New Labour government, that they can safely afford a leakage of rabid anti-European voters to UKIP. A calculated risk ?

Bearing in mind the fact that their blue rinse core vote of Daily Telegraph readership would be more comfortable with leaving the EEC (as they still think of it), Central office must be really sure of their ground to try to finesse this , with a message of “oh well, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, the decision to ratify the Lisbon treaty’s already been made, it would’ve been different if you’d voted for us in 2005 .. it’s beyond our control…”

The real reason the Tories can’t stomach the European parliament and legislation is not so much a Little Britain mentality (don’t forget it was Ted Heath who was the most enthusiastic proponent of joining the EEC, and whatever her public posturing might’ve been, Margaret Thatcher signed the Single European Act) , but is really a protest against any social democratic improvements in terms of legislation to protect workers rights and makes clear their opposition to important rulings on disability and health and safety legislation (aka measures to protect people from being killed at work or made to work for peanuts that are usually described as red tape).

When the EU operates as an agent of multi-national businesses then the corporate minded polticians are usually silent.  When Brown and Blair where going round Europe after 1997, seeking opt-outs from the European Social Chapter why didn’t  they call for a referendum then?

Strange though that when the Tories where in charge that the EU was looked upon to curb the worst excesses of Thatcherism, yet when New Labour where elected the EU went the other way.

Scotland’s Climate Change Bill is seen as an international standard maker, and the outrageous decision to deny Scotland a place at the Copenhagen Summit smacks of doing Scotland down. New Labour are terrified of Scotland appearing credible on a world stage.

The quicker Scotland is at the top table in Europe the better.