Saturday, August 7, 2010

Labour Councillor of shame Irfan Rabbani using Council phone to run a £900 bill making personal calls to female community activist, exposed now













Dear All

Another Labour Councillor of shame in Glasgow hits the headlines again.

The list so far;

Labour Councillor of shame Bob Winter using civic cars as personal taxis so he can go on holiday.

Labour Councillor of shame Alistair Watson outed during SPT Scandal.

Labour Councillor of shame Ruth Black outed for alleged financial irregularities.

Labour Councillor of shame Gilbert Davidson outed for allegedly being a sex pest.
And of course who could forget the 'Prince of Powder', Steven 'bin laden Purcell, ex-councillor of shame and ex leader of Glasgow City Council.

Now, we have another to swell the ranks, Labour Councillor of shame Irfan Rabbani who represents Pollokshields on Glasgow City Council.

He charged the public more than £900 for a mobile phone bill, this included calls to a female community activist; those calls were of a “personal” nature.

Councillors get a Blackberry phone to carry out their duties, but they sign a waiver to use it for council business only.

A large number of the calls were made in the evening so Irfan Rabbani has a lot of explaining to do; he is only a back bencher which makes the situation even worse.

£900 is not a small amount, when you consider the average of 78 of 79 Councillors is £86.64.

The average in that year was £424; does he work twice as hard as any other Councillor?

Elected in 2007 and already his political career stinks of sleaze while in public office. He is also said to be a beneficiary of the political machine of former Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar who has cornered a power base in the Asian community in Glasgow.

Rabbani sits on a number of boards such as the Strathclyde Police Authority and Glasgow Clyde Regeneration Ltd. He has also managed to become chair of City Property (Glasgow) LLP, an arm’s-length company set up by disgraced former leader Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell.

At present Rabbani is taking the usual Glasgow Labour Party route of declining to answer questions, instead he put out a statement saying:

“I was aware that I was making personal calls on my council phone. It was always my intention to pay back the part of the phone bill that related to these personal calls. I will be sitting down with council officials next week to work out how much I owe.”

So, with Labour Councillors of shame dropping like flies, will Gordon ‘free dinners’ Matheson step up to the plate?

There needs to be a clear out at the Labour Council of shame, Glaswegians have to want better and see through the fact that the Glasgow Labour Party runs Glasgow not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of themselves.

They are like hyenas, tearing the city apart, jobs, contracts and money; all have a habit of ending up in the hands of Labour Party members, relatives, associates and Labour donors.

It stinks!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

3 comments:

  1. Dear Anon

    Thank you for your feedback, as to the 'very few', its 8 to 10 thousand a month, I don't advertise.

    Yours sincerely

    George Laird
    The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

    ReplyDelete
  2. i don't see how you can slate Councillor Rabbani and not mention the positives he has done for the community, he has personally done so much for myself which has led a positive career, and the amount of voluntary work he done before he became Councillor. please don't try and ruin the career of a man the local community has such a respect for

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Anon

    Perhaps you should re-read the article.

    I am happy that you got help, but that doesn't change the facts I blogged on.

    And given he got himself into this mess by his own actions and not by accident, I think my article is fair comment.

    Misuse of a phone for calls of a 'personal nature' are an abuse of public office and trust.

    There is no way around that.

    Yours sincerely

    George Laird
    The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

    ReplyDelete