Glasgow's Double Bubble
The Herald reported the other day that 22 of Scotland's newly elected MSPs now have two jobs - because they were sitting local councillors when they were also elected as MSPs.
Most of them - to be fair - have quickly announced that they will not be drawing two salaries - and that they will forego the present salary they receive for acting as a local councillor.
Now as an initiative test this is good news - because they all seem to have spotted that holding on to their MSP's salary - as opposed to @ £16,000 a year as a councillor - was the correct choice to make.
So well done to the MSPs concerned because it's a further sign that it's not acceptable - in the Scottish parliament at least - for politicians to be paid a full-time salary for doing a part-time job.
Yet this is still the case for far too many MPs at Westminster.
But the problem of Glasgow's 'arms length companies' (ALEOs) remains - see post dated 26 April 2011: 'Glasgow in the Spotlight'.
John Swinney has announced that these top up payments will be axed by the incoming SNP government - but you would think that Labour-led Glasgow council - would grasp the nettle itself.
Because these payments are all about councillors being paid twice for the one job - and I hope Glasgow voters will remember that when the council elections take place in May 2012.
In the meantime, here's the previous post from the blog site - explaining the background.
Glasgow in the Spotlight (26 April 2011)
Glasgow City Council is in the headlines again - over controversial 'top up' salaries paid to some of its local councilllors - see post dated 2 April 2011: 'Glasgow City Council'.
Th Herald newspaper has another twist to the story today - as a new call is made to end these payments - which have been widely criticised.
Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson promised to crack down on the payments - which can earn councillors an extra £20,000 a year - on top of their existing salaries.
Glasgow has been told by an independent watchdog - the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) - to axe the system.
The Herald article says that Finance Secretary John Swinney has intimated that - if re-elected at Holyrood - the SNP will move quickly to abolish Glasgow’s controversial system.
Good for him.
Yesterday, the head of SLARC again called on the council to address the practice “before it gets any worse”.
Chairman Ian Livingstone said:
“These enhanced payments are untenable and put Glasgow out on a limb. We recommended to ministers they should be stopped and believe that should be as soon as possible, before the situation gets worse.”
Most of them - to be fair - have quickly announced that they will not be drawing two salaries - and that they will forego the present salary they receive for acting as a local councillor.
Now as an initiative test this is good news - because they all seem to have spotted that holding on to their MSP's salary - as opposed to @ £16,000 a year as a councillor - was the correct choice to make.
So well done to the MSPs concerned because it's a further sign that it's not acceptable - in the Scottish parliament at least - for politicians to be paid a full-time salary for doing a part-time job.
Yet this is still the case for far too many MPs at Westminster.
But the problem of Glasgow's 'arms length companies' (ALEOs) remains - see post dated 26 April 2011: 'Glasgow in the Spotlight'.
John Swinney has announced that these top up payments will be axed by the incoming SNP government - but you would think that Labour-led Glasgow council - would grasp the nettle itself.
Because these payments are all about councillors being paid twice for the one job - and I hope Glasgow voters will remember that when the council elections take place in May 2012.
In the meantime, here's the previous post from the blog site - explaining the background.
Glasgow in the Spotlight (26 April 2011)
Glasgow City Council is in the headlines again - over controversial 'top up' salaries paid to some of its local councilllors - see post dated 2 April 2011: 'Glasgow City Council'.
Th Herald newspaper has another twist to the story today - as a new call is made to end these payments - which have been widely criticised.
Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson promised to crack down on the payments - which can earn councillors an extra £20,000 a year - on top of their existing salaries.
Glasgow has been told by an independent watchdog - the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) - to axe the system.
The Herald article says that Finance Secretary John Swinney has intimated that - if re-elected at Holyrood - the SNP will move quickly to abolish Glasgow’s controversial system.
Good for him.
Yesterday, the head of SLARC again called on the council to address the practice “before it gets any worse”.
Chairman Ian Livingstone said:
“These enhanced payments are untenable and put Glasgow out on a limb. We recommended to ministers they should be stopped and believe that should be as soon as possible, before the situation gets worse.”
