The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


Information request

Posted on January 17, 2013 by

Readers may well recall some very recent analysis we undertook on the Scottish Government’s investment in promoting Scotland abroad, and the huge returns it generated in jobs and tourism. They may also remember that the opposition parties in Holyrood, led by Labour, were incandescent with rage at the “waste” of around £500,000 of taxpayers’ money spent on sending government delegations numbering dozens of people to the USA to undertake the work.

Given the recent revelations that almost half as large a sum – £232,708 – was unnecessarily awarded by Glasgow Labour councillors to a Labour crony who formerly headed a charitable body (over and above a severance pay-off which was already mind-bogglingly generous at £240,000), we wonder if anyone could help us with some info on how many tens of millions of pounds and/or hundreds of jobs the Labour-run council’s expenditure has delivered to Scotland? We can’t seem to find anything.

15 to “Information request”

  1. More to the point, why isn’t this printed up and delivered through every letterbox in Glasgow for starters?  Oh I forgot – we’ve to be “positive”.  There are times when you’ve got to go for the jugular.

    Reply
  2. Rabb says:

    I would rather fight a positive campaign Dave then god willing after Indy conduct a wholesale exposure of any wrong doing perpetrated.

    If those involved have done no wrong then they have nothing to fear.

    Perhaps we could then place something in the written constitution to prevent it happening again going forward? 

    Reply
  3. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    A helpful reader suggested there might be something here:

    link to gamesmonitor2014.wordpress.com

    But sadly no luck. Man!

    Reply
  4. Iain says:

    Glasgow City Council is currently conducting another voluntary redundancy review (the last one cost around £30m), again it seems to be mainly stripping out middle management with larger slaries, and concomitantly generous severance packages. There certainly seem to have been tons of jobs ‘created’ during the New Labour boom years. One wonders if they now realise that they can manage with the frontline indians, how many of the chiefs were needed in the first place.

    Meanwhile, more ‘savings’:

    TEACHING unions have attacked proposals by Scotland’s largest local authority to slash £15 million from its education budget
    link to tinyurl.com
     
    I’m sure a GCC press release blaming it on the SNP is being thrown together as I speak.

     
     
     

    Reply
  5. Aye I know, Rabb.  Maybe I’m just too easily wound up by these appalling wastes of money that I know will never be mentioned in the MSM or the BBC and the injustice of that really gets to me.  However, I don’t see what’s wrong with things like this being casually referred to when an SG minister is receiving the usual “polite questioning” in an interview.

    Reply
  6. tartanfever says:

    ‘Telling it how it is’ is not necessarily a negative campaign. We hear AS in Holyrood most weeks having a go at other parties/politicians for their failings. 

    Keeping it positive with regard to a future independent Scotland is obviously a good move, after that I don’t see any harm in pointing out the negative issues, as long as they are factual.

    With such a long time to go to the actual referendum I’d be happy to see the independence movement stay as it is with it’s message, and see what happens to the No campaign during this year with it’s scare mongering. From what I can see, indications are that people are beginning to get fed up with it. Plenty of time to adjust tactics yet.

    Of course, there is nothing to stop a group of like minded Glasgow citizens taking it upon themselves to print out some cheap leaflets and deliver or hand them out to the public. It’s nothing to do with independence, it’s to do with the shocking corruption within local government. 

    Reply
  7. Aplinal says:

    I agree with tartanfever that there is nothing wrong in pointing out obvious exaggerations, misinformation, lies etc.  Doing nothing  is no longer an option.
     
    What should be done about the outrageous comments during the last two day’s “debate” in Westminster?  With only a handful of exceptions, the opportunity was taken to denigrate Scotland and the Scots.  Usually the most offensive coming from Scotland’s “own”.  A depressing thought that there remains many people in Scotland who support and vote for these people.

    Reply
  8. AnneDon says:

    This particular story does seem to be covered by the Daily Record, who, to be fair, quite often cover council misdemeanours!

    Reply
  9. mogabee says:

     
     Labour and their “friends” disgust me.  I lived in Dalmarnock for a time, and despite the horror stories told to me of the area, I found a great many ordinary people just trying to survive, with a fairly good community spirit in some parts.
     Glasgow council failed Dalmarnock, and so many other parts of the country. I’m glad that these crooks are being exposed, many more I hope!

    Reply
  10. Cuphook says:

    And it’s not as if they haven’t availed themselves of the opportunity of foreign travel.

    Reply
  11. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    Why are all old Herald stories about politics filed under Sport>SPL>Aberdeen?

    Reply
  12. Seasick Dave says:

    Why are all old Herald stories about politics filed under Sport>SPL>Aberdeen?

    Possibly because Pittodrie means ‘pile of dung’ in Gaelic.

    Reply
  13. MajorBloodnok says:

    There is quite a tangled web of patronage and nepotism in Glasgow that needs to be exposed. 

    For example I was reading, without surprise, in Private Eye the other day that Jack McConnell’s wife is on the well-salaried board of one of GCC’s arms length development companies, and of course Johann Lamont’s husband, whatever his name is, is on the Commonwealth Games company board (he is a Councillor).  I’m sure he’s highly qualified.

    As for the connections between Labour, the BBC, ‘invited experts’ and ‘think tanks’ that is another can o’ worms.

    Regarding foreign travel, a while ago I was part of team tendering for some mundane infrastructure work in Dalmarnock (drainage I think it was) and they had all treated themselves to a trip to Stockholm or somewhere to see how sustainable surface water management should be done.

    The sooner the stones are turned over to reveal that squirming mass of self-serving criminals, the better.

    Reply
  14. mogabee says:

    Talking of “scummy” Labour peeps, bet you wondered what T.Blair was up to?
    Seems that Mr Blair is opening up a trading desk at his Mayfair headquarters.
     How the other half live!!
    link to t.co

    Reply
  15. Betsy says:

    If anyone else else is as furious as I am regarding the pay out to Ronnie Saez I would urge them to read, sign and share this petition. 

    link to preview.tinyurl.com

    Please also consider contacting your regional and constituency MSPs as there is still more that can be done to hold the trustees responsible to account. At the very least they should be removed from the boards of the charitable trusts they currently sit on.   

     

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,778 Posts, 1,220,315 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Confused on Holiday Relief: “– just a thought : is “being English” considered a disability? (- an “antisocial personality disorder”? Or a “narcissistic psychosis”?)…Jun 20, 18:53
    • Confused on Holiday Relief: “The disabled will be “sorted” when assisted dying comes in. We are all equal in the grave. Equality at the…Jun 20, 18:37
    • Andy Ellis on Holiday Relief: “The most obvious reasons are known and accepted by all sane folk tho’ James. Primarily, not enough Scots (whether native…Jun 20, 18:27
    • Dan on Holiday Relief: “@ Aidan If the UK is so great then why does it have to import so much stuff and [eople…Jun 20, 18:16
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Why would any one argue that a law abiding mostly safe country should follow and back slide to other countries…Jun 20, 17:35
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: ““Although where there is a will, there is a way” Naw. That’s gullibility reinforced by the lucky accident of having…Jun 20, 17:11
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Breastplate, Aye At what point does a censorship country make a regime change to a dictatorship country. Although where there…Jun 20, 16:15
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Somebody had better check the small print. It could well be that at ScotGov, a “disabled” person is somebody trapped…Jun 20, 15:40
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Sure, Bip. If only we had more cheerleading for poot and more bigging up of the lassie torturing tunnel skulkers…Jun 20, 15:36
    • agent x on Holiday Relief: ““THE Scottish Government has launched a “milestone” report which aims to put disabled people’s experiences and concerns at the centre…Jun 20, 14:00
    • George Ferguson on Holiday Relief: “@Alf Baird 10:03am The purpose of being an Independent Candidate is surely that you don’t have a party or organisation…Jun 20, 13:40
    • James on Holiday Relief: “Alongside a toon cooncil franchise and 24/7 interference by a foreign media system….Jun 20, 13:38
    • Breastplate on Holiday Relief: “There’s a sign that hangs on the wall of the retirement home in The Simpsons. It says “Thank you for…Jun 20, 13:13
    • lothianlad on Holiday Relief: “The 2014 referendunm was rigged.Jun 20, 12:17
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “There were many reasons why the Scottish referendum did not work out for the scottish people in that year, some…Jun 20, 11:54
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “I hope you can fit the story line together, it had to be done this way, because it kept getting…Jun 20, 11:48
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Mr johnstone admmited that their friends had interfered in stuff they had no business being connected too back in 2014…Jun 20, 11:42
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “However the intelligence committee did a investigation around these new ruskelene friends and found they were not so friendly because…Jun 20, 11:38
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “Perhaps given the initial info some here may be encouraged to do some research on the group mentionedJun 20, 11:31
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “They were a contented and happily connected bunch of party goers at that table, many conversations and ideas were shared…Jun 20, 11:27
    • Aidan on Holiday Relief: “I’m not sure what kind of reset you have in mind, but in general jobs in the UK’s professional services…Jun 20, 11:23
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “There were many interesting people in the Westminter ruskelene forum such as mr rifkind, caroline nokes. Mr Straw, and other…Jun 20, 11:18
    • James Cheyne on Holiday Relief: “I am going to have to make this comments in separate posts, and you are going to have to glue…Jun 20, 11:01
    • Hatey McHateface on What We Don’t Know Now: “An excellent post. I would add that recent moves to make it easier to eliminate “unproductives” from society are, as…Jun 20, 10:46
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Lots of sound ideas in Dan’s latest post. We should be using our local resources to make our own steel…Jun 20, 10:35
    • robertkknight on Holiday Relief: “Another case of “I didn’t leave the SNP… the SNP left me!”Jun 20, 10:17
    • Jontoscot21 on What We Don’t Know Now: “David I am with you. Alba were my last hope but they have proven useless. I find with the exception…Jun 20, 10:07
    • Alf Baird on Holiday Relief: “Its taken him long enough (since 2015!) to figure out the SNP leadership has been co-opted by the colonial /…Jun 20, 10:03
    • Dan on Holiday Relief: “@ Aidan Hmm, so you’re unable or unwilling to even consider looking at things through anything other than the current…Jun 20, 09:34
    • Hatey McHateface on Holiday Relief: “Cleanup on aisle 1. Now please! His mammie’s hame at 10.Jun 20, 09:17
  • A tall tale



↑ Top