Winds of Change

Well the winds of change certainly blew through Glasgow on Thursday as voters went to the polls and swept Labour from power.

So congratulations to the SNP who emerged as the largest party with 39 seats and are now favourites to lead a new Glasgow City Council either as a minority administration or in some kind of coalition with the Greens who won 7 seats.

Labour lost its grip on Glasgow after winning only 31 seats in Scotland's largest city where the party had ruled for 40 years.

The Conservatives were perhaps the biggest surprise package going from just 1 to 8 seats and returning councillors in the Calton and Shettleston wards, as regular readers know the latter is Frank McAveety's 'backyard'.

I intend to let the political dust settle awhile before picking up the reins on equal pay again, but rest assured I intend to do so once the leadership of the new Glasgow City Council begins to take shape.  


  

Frank's Brass Neck (04/05/17)

Labour's Frank McAveety is the winner of my Glasgow 'equal pay' music competition despite the fact that the outgoing council leader didn't submit a nomination on his own behalf.

But Frank deserves to win in my opinion for having the brass neck to tell the Sunday Herald that "I don't do regrets, no I don't" and for claiming in the Evening Times that 'Labour puts Inequality top of Glasgow election agenda' even though Labour-run Glasgow City Council has been making a horse's ass of equal pay for many years.

Now Frank had an opportunity to put things right before today's local elections came along, but he chose not to, so he and his Labour colleagues deserve to be shown the door if you ask me.

Let's see what happens once the voters have had their say at the polls today.

Frank's prize by the way is a bottle of 'Brasso' which as older readers know is really good for polishing up brass necks. 


  

End of the Affair? (11/04/17)

The Labour leader of Glasgow City Council, Frank McAveety, gave an interview to the Sunday Herald at the weekend in which he looked forward to the local council elections on 4th May 2017.

In response to a question about his colourful career in the Scottish Parliament, Frank responded: “I don’t do regrets, no I don’t,” even though he was sacked twice as a government minister for behaving like a teenage schoolboy.

Frank doesn't have a single word to say about equal pay in his long interview which is something I think he will have cause to regret when the voters go to the polls next month.

Read the full piece in the link below to the Sunday Herald and make up your own mind, but before you do here's a famous number by Edith Piaf to get you in the mood.  



  

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15213115.The_last_days_of_power_for_Labour_in_Glasgow_____Frank_McAveety_doesn__39_t_think_so/

The last days of power for Labour in Glasgow ... Frank McAveety doesn't think so

KA. Photo by Kirsty Anderson

By Andrew Whitaker - The Sunday Herald

FRANK McAveety, for now at least, is the most powerful Labour politician in Scotland. But as leader of the nation’s biggest council, Glasgow, he also happens to be top of the SNP’s hit list in May’s local elections.

Nicola Sturgeon’s party is tipped to take one of Scottish Labour’s last bastions of power on May 4, seizing what would be a jewel in the crown for the SNP and representing what for many would be the final nail in the coffin of Scotland’s once-dominant political force.

If the opinion polls are anything like accurate, McAveety will be ousted as council leader in less than a month in what could also precipitate the end of a political career that stretches back to some of Labour’s glory days in Scotland. Sitting in the leaders’ office at Glasgow city chambers, however, McAveety is not giving off the vibes of a politician presiding over the last days or weeks of his party’s decades-long rule of Scotland’s biggest city.

Labour, Glasgow and Equal Pay (28/03/17)

A number of readers been in touch about Frank McAveety's curious failure to take up my invitation to write a piece for the blog site setting out the Glasgow Labour Party's position in relation to equal pay.

"Frank's running scared," said a regular reader from Govan. "And he's right to be ashamed of the Labour Party's track record in Glasgow because they've had 10 full years to sort this mess out."

Another observed scathingly:

"A senior official in Glasgow walks away with a leaving package worth over £450,000 yet the City Council's lowest paid workers are still fighting for their rights to equal pay - what kind of Labour message does that send?"

A third person sent me a headline from the Evening Times which includes the bold claim that 'Labour puts inequality at the top of Glasgow council election' - followed by their own pithy comment:

"You couldn't make this up - this is a Labour council having a laugh at our expense. What a shambles." 

Damned right - I couldn't put it better myself!

Labour puts inequality top of Glasgow council election agenda

Which is why if you ask me, that Frank and Glasgow's Labour Group deserve to be thrown out on their ear at the local council elections on 4th May 2017.