Of course, it’s not just the Scottish Tories that are in a bit of a bother right now. Labour are having their own leadership trachles.
Not only is there the desperate search to find a leader for the party, as search that is proving to be as difficult as the search for the lost city of Atlantis, there is the most almighty hoos yer faither o’ ah cairry oane in Gleskae.
The Weegie councillors are scared stiff by what happened in their area in May with seat after seat tumbling to the SNP, and Labour in London has started to pay attention to what has been going on there. Taking seats for granted, some of the councillors in Glasgow have perhaps not been as diligent in their duties as they might have been had they thought that there was a chance that they would be booted out on their backsides at some stage in the future. Of course, that heretical thought never crossed their minds.
But now it has crossed Ed Miliband’s and what they would call a ‘root and branch’ clear out is going on apace.
Of course this is going down like a ton of bricks, no two tons of bricks, with the ‘joab fir life’ type, so much so that a bunch of de-selected Labour councillors is considering setting up a new party, with the carefully considered name ‘Glasgow Labour’, to compete against... erm ...Glasgow ‘Labour’, which they feel is being run with too much interference from London. (Well what did we tell you?).
Frank McAveety, who was leader of the council from 1997- 1999, after which he became an MSP, and thereafter a Minister in the Lab/Lib coalition, despite a reputation for making a bit of a mess of things*, seems to want to be leader again, having lost his seat in the May elections, being at a loose end, and having a dislike for the notion of the Jobcentre.
McAveety, however (and I’m grateful to an anonymous emailer for this information), is having a spot of difficulty with an ex-member of staff from his parliamentary days, a certain Mr Andy Muir, who has brought to the attention of the police, a number of ‘irregularities’ in the financial affairs of Mr McAveety’s constituency office.
Mr McAveety denies the allegations most strongly, of course.
Labour is trying to steer clear of this situation, but how long will it be before calls are being made for his dismissal as a candidate.
As Minister for Culture, he was late for an appearance in the Chamber, and gave the excuse of being held up at an Arts event. Rather nearer the truth was the story that he was eating pie and chips in the canteen. Don't you think he looks like Iain Gray?
tAs Convenor of the Public Petitions committee he was caught by the ever present microphone which he had forgotten to switch off (an amateurs mistake for sure) talking about a young lady in the room in an inappropriate way and comparing her with the kind of female used as a Gauguin model (see above).
tHaving had more than 50% of the vote in Shettleston in the 2007 election, he was beaten by John Mason (SNP) in 2011.
