Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Politically dead man walking Mike Russell in transport ‘row’; Scots don’t believe Mike Russell stands up for them, his track record is pathetic and he should resign















Dear All

SNP Minister Mike Russell is a politically dead man walking, he hasn’t the good grace to lie down, die and put us out of his misery.

He is in effect a zombie held up by Alex Salmond after taking too many hits, some of which are self inflicted.

When this deadbeat got control of education, he never stood up for his brief and more importantly stood up Scots.

80,000 Scots have lost out on college places due to him being inept and incompetent.

The regionalisation of colleges is stupid, ill-judged, ill-timed and frankly worthy of the deepest contempt.

College jobs are being lost, he didn’t save them.

Where was he when he should have been fighting for these people?

AWOL, desertion of his post because he is a few pages short of a jotter?

In order to try and save his miserable pathetic career, Russell is today at the centre of a new row, this time involving an agency overseen by fellow SNP ministers.

To try and take the heat off him, he is focussing on alleged “maladministration and negligence” within the Scottish Government. This relates to a ferry service operating in the Firth of Clyde.

Mr Russell, an Argyll and Bute MSP, has backed calls for an investigation.

One can only wonder if this is an artificial row created to show him standing up for Scots, Russell is English.

The false flag operation is nothing new in politics, and given the state of Russell’s career which has sunk, he is desperate now.

Russell has written to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, which investigates complaints against public bodies. The upshot of this is him saying he “fully supports” a demand that it should look into Transport Scotland’s role in overseeing a publicly-funded ferry service between Gourock and Dunoon.

Funnily enough, this government agency reports to Deputy First Minister and Infrastructure Secretary Nicola Sturgeon and Transport Secretary Keith Brown.

That is why I can’t take his complaint seriously at all.

Russell says he is acting on request of a member of the Dunoon Gourock Ferry Action Group.

The Dunoon Gourock Ferry Action Group has asked the Ombudsman to examine alleged “negligence, maladministration and system failure” at Transport Scotland, accusing it of delivering a service that was not fit for purpose.


The strategy to win independence is to try and buy it.

Gordon Blair, an SNP councillor for Cowal and secretary of the action group, said:

“It’s not only the current SNP administration, there’s been misinformation through several administrations in the way it’s all been done. When you look at the vessels they have operating on these routes, you have to ask how on earth they were deemed appropriate for the weather we have got.”

Blair also gives credence that this ‘infighting’ is phoney by claiming there was a rift between government ministers and Transport Scotland staff, adding:

“Civil servants need to be working with the elected representatives and have their fingers more tightly on the pulse.”

In other words this looks a fake row manufactured so that Russell, Sturgeon and Brown can after the hot air and fake outrage is done, come together under the banner of standing up for Scots.

If they were standing up for Scots, why are they stripping budgets to fund capital projects?

Labour MSP Duncan McNeil said:

“This is more evidence of drift at the heart of the Scottish Government”.

McNeil added:

 “If the SNP was more focussed on the day job, rather than obsessed with the referendum, then perhaps this bizarre situation could have been avoided. It is perverse that the Ombudsman is being used to settle scores between ministers.”

This isn’t a row, it is a stage show, let them play out their little piece of theatre; no one is coming to see that ‘performance’.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Tavish Scott added:

“The Scottish Government's omnishambles continues. On one hand, Mr Russell is happy to back an inquiry into his own government over mismanagement of the Dunoon-Gourock ferry line but, on the other, he has blocked an inquiry into his own mismanagement of Scotland’s colleges”.

This latest episode of Mike Russell, English fighter for Scots is pathetic!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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