Strange Comments

A reader from South Lanarkshire sent me an article from a old edition of her local newspaper - the East Kilbride News.

Now the story must be a year or so old because it's about the aftermath of last year's Employment Tribunal case in Glasgow - where South Lanarkshire's 'in-house' Job  Evaluation Scheme was declared 'unfit for purpose' because it does not comply with Equal Pay legislation.

Anyway what caught my attention were the comments of the Council Leader, Eddie McAvoy, which are reproduced below:

"Council leader, Eddie McAvoy, said the decision on whether to appeal had been delegated to officers who would take the advice of counsel.

"Technically, councillors could go against legal advice but you could leave yourself open to libel for ignoring that advice," he said."

What is the man talking about, I ask myself - what has libel got do do with anything?

Because libel is concerned with people who make false and harmful statements - that they know to be untrue, yet continue spreading these untruths - which do harm to a person's reputation.

So, I can't understand what Eddie McAvoy is going on about - there's no threat of libel in relation to the Council's legal advice - and that's another good reason for being open and transparent - by making the Council's legal advice available to the public.

In relation to the UK Supreme Court case, for example, I think lots of people are interested in being able to read and assess the quality of advice that caused the Council to waste £200,000 of public money.