Dear All
When the Labour Council of shame set up the Aleos of former council departments, it was used by Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell as a system of patronage.
Think of it as simply buying loyalty.
The payments to councillors at Glasgow City Council in some cases doubled their salary.
It is a corrupt system, councillors should serve on Aleos to ensure that they are familiar with how these quangos operate but they should never have been paid for it.
In a nutshell, it is part of their duty as councillors.
However, the pay of a councillor is far too low at £18k and should be reset to £30k and outside work between normal working hours banned.
After Labour Councillor of shame Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell fled the city because of a drugs scandal, the next up to sit in the hot seat was Gordon Matheson.
Or as I call him Gordon ‘free dinners’ Matheson.
He is on £60k a year but he like Purcell uses the Aleo system to secure his place in the Labour Group.
And there has been discontent brewing.
A Labour Councillor of shame can sit on an Aleo with little experience and earn up to nearly £20,000.
It is a good earner on top of a basic £18,000 a year salary.
Plus travel expenses or a city parking space.
And the Labour Councillors love the payments, they simply love it!
It costs the council more than £200,000 a year to have its councillors involved in bodies which carry out work the authority did itself before it was hived off.
Now, the Labour Council has also been told by the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) to axe the system.
No luck Matheson, his grip on power will weaken if he can’t buy off the angry mob, Labour Councillors will go mental.
In a mean spirited act by Gordon Matheson, SNP Councillors have been stripped of their Aleo positions as Labour reacted badly to them criticising the system. The Lib Dems just boogie right on in there.
But the Labour Council’s spiteful act might not last long, SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney has intimated that, if re-elected at Holyrood, the SNP will move quickly to abolish Glasgow’s controversial system.
The SNP spreading happiness again!
The head of SLARC has again called on the Labour Council of shame to address the practice “before it gets any worse”.
That will fall on deaf ears; the Labour Councillors will have to be pulled kicking and screaming from their trough.
Chairman Ian Livingstone said:
“These enhanced payments are untenable and put Glasgow out on a limb. We recommended to ministers they should be stopped and believe that should be as soon as possible, before the situation gets worse.”
When ‘Free dinners’ got elected as leader, he promised an end to “the culture of cronyism”.
And still the bandwagon keeps on rolling!
Unsurprisingly, the biggest Aleo earners are the Labour Councillors like Anne McTaggart, a pal of Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell.
She is currently parked on three bodies, collecting more than £19,000.
It was recently reported that comments were allegedly made by Labour Councillor Anne McTaggart at a union hustings that the elderly should be means tested.
At £37k a year, she doesn’t need to be means tested herself.
McTaggart stands on the Glasgow regional list.
So, with the money drying up, mutiny on the horizon and infighting between Councillors because of next years Council elections, Matheson is in for a rough ride.
I don’t see the Labour Councillors of shame falling for the old bag of sweets trick and soft words when some are losing nearly half their income.
There will be a lot of rage to come from an angry Labour mob directed to Gordon ‘free dinners’ Matheson.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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