Labour Has a Real Cheek! (20/01/18)
I didn't catch the Scottish Labour Party broadcast the other night in which Richard Leonard spoke about his enthusiastic support for equal pay.
But a reader drew the broadcast to my attention and we had the following email exchange.
Hi Mark
Have you seen Richard Leonard’s Labour Party Broadcast tonight - it’s as though Labour are claiming credit - they have always fought for Equal Pay - I’m gobsmacked!
L
Hi L
I'm afraid to say the Scottish Labour Party is totally without shame!
Mark
Absolutely!
L
My Brass neck of 2017 Award did of course go to the Scottish Labour Party for an unbelievably shameless speech by a Scottish delegate to the UK Labour conference in Brighton.
So it comes as no surprise that Richard Leonard is up to the same kind of tricks and readers will recall that Richard (a former GMB union official) failed to speak out when the chips were down in Glasgow City Council last week.
I have to admit that my 'Brass Neck of 2017' award was a very close run thing - with Frank McAveety, the GMB union, John Mason MSP and the Scottish Labour Party all in the running.
Until recently, John Mason was a strong favourite for his insulting and ridiculous comments about equal pay claimants in Glasgow 'paying' for their own employment rights to be upheld.
But the MSP for Shettleston has since been rebuked and taken to task by the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aitken, who has confirmed this is not the view of the SNP led administration.
So the award goes instead to the Scottish Labour Party and a delegate from Cunninghame North CLP, Joanna Baxter, for this completely shameless speech to Labour's annual conference 2017 in Brighton.
How's this for shameful and shameless behaviour from a Scottish delegate to the 2017 Labour Party conference in Brighton.
The truth is that the pay arrangements judged to be 'unfit for purpose' by Scotland's highest civl court, the Court of Session, were put in place by a Labour run council in 2007 with the support of the local Labour supporting unions: the GMB, Unison and Unite.
The new SNP led Glasgow City Council have some way to go in clearing up this mess and if you ask me, they should not have sought leave to appeal the unanimous Court of Session decision because the council's WPBR pay arrangements are indefensible.
But the old-fashioned Labour and trade union left has been 'part of the problem' over equal pay for years and it's the absolute height of hypocrisy for them to try and lay the blame in Glasgow at the door of the SNP.
All we heard then from the Scottish Labour leader in the run-up to Thursday's crunch meeting on the fight for equal pay in Glasgow was the sound of silence.
Brass Neck of 2017 (29/12/18)
I have to admit that my 'Brass Neck of 2017' award was a very close run thing - with Frank McAveety, the GMB union, John Mason MSP and the Scottish Labour Party all in the running.
Until recently, John Mason was a strong favourite for his insulting and ridiculous comments about equal pay claimants in Glasgow 'paying' for their own employment rights to be upheld.
But the MSP for Shettleston has since been rebuked and taken to task by the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Susan Aitken, who has confirmed this is not the view of the SNP led administration.
So the award goes instead to the Scottish Labour Party and a delegate from Cunninghame North CLP, Joanna Baxter, for this completely shameless speech to Labour's annual conference 2017 in Brighton.
Glasgow - Height of Hypocrisy (26/09/17)
How's this for shameful and shameless behaviour from a Scottish delegate to the 2017 Labour Party conference in Brighton.
The truth is that the pay arrangements judged to be 'unfit for purpose' by Scotland's highest civl court, the Court of Session, were put in place by a Labour run council in 2007 with the support of the local Labour supporting unions: the GMB, Unison and Unite.
The new SNP led Glasgow City Council have some way to go in clearing up this mess and if you ask me, they should not have sought leave to appeal the unanimous Court of Session decision because the council's WPBR pay arrangements are indefensible.
But the old-fashioned Labour and trade union left has been 'part of the problem' over equal pay for years and it's the absolute height of hypocrisy for them to try and lay the blame in Glasgow at the door of the SNP.
