Dear All
After a disastrous night on May 5th 2011 at the Holyrood election count at the SECC, in which Frank McAveety ended his political career by go on a rant.
Reality has set in, cold reality of unemployment which for him will be like a bucket of cold water in the kisser while lying in his scratcher.
What, what what! Unemployment, how did that happen!
After rage comes sorrow and reflection.
Frank McAveety said:
“Show me someone who doesn’t make mistakes and I’ll show you someone who is not telling the truth”.
The former MSP for Glasgow Shettleston was arguably the most high-profile casualty in Glasgow at Labour’s Holyrood bloodbath in the SECC.
McAveety has spent the weekend licking his wounds and pondering his future outside top-level politics.
And he had such a good run at it and no reason to suspect that his job for life would ever end.
It did.
I have met Frank McAveety, in that he said hello to me while he popped into a polling station once, out of the blue he said ‘hi’.
In reflective mood he also said:
“The golden rule in life is that you need to learn from those mistakes and try to make yourself stronger”.
He and the Labour team underestimated John Mason of the SNP.
A formidable campaigner not just for himself, the SNP but for the people of that area!
Frank McAveety had a decent career in politics starting out as a Labour Councillor in Glasgow before going to Holyrood.
A few bumps on the road but the road is never smooth.
The 48-year-old father of two was involved in the infamous “pie-gate” debacle of 2004.
In “piegate”, he told a porkie about his late arrival to parliamentary question time that saw him lose his ministerial post.
Someone spilled the beans, so as he saw munching away presumably on his pie, beans and chips, history was about to change.
It was a hefty price and the most expensive pie ever served in the Holyrood canteen.
Then “very dark, very dusky gate” which was broadcast on a microphone not switched off.
The allegedly off the cuff sexist remarks about a 15-year-old female schoolie onlooker at Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee who was sitting up the back.
That forced him to step down as convener which was a pity because he had a good reputation on the Committee for fairness.
As he leaves front line politics, this also affects his two full-time and two part-time staff, they are unemployed too.
Yet he now believes his personal experiences are a metaphor for the party as a whole.
The Scottish Labour Party’s problems can be summed up in a short sentence.
They don’t work for the people they are supposed to represent.
The death knell for Mr McAveety’s 12 years of representing Glasgow’s east end sounded at the SECC around 3.15am last Friday.
George Laird was sitting in the front row of the SECC munching away on a double decker and drinking irn bru.
Frank McAveety took his turn at the mic and delivered a mega rant about the Labour resurrection.
But let us remember John Mason, who got a 586-vote majority through sheer hard work.
And he isn’t a sit back and put your feet up MSP.
McAveety added:
“I think obviously there’s a period of time where you have to cushion yourself, but like a lot of others you’re basically going out and looking for a job.”
And unless he gets his contacts to help him, he will find it is a very cold winter out there.
And as a former teacher who had taught at St Gregory’s in Cranhill and Garthamlock Secondary in the east, and Holyrood Secondary in Glasgow’s south side, he will find a return to education difficult.
Glasgow Labour Council of shame closed 20 schools.
McAveety attributes Labour’s disastrous showing at the polls to an exodus of Labour supporters and failing to connect with the electorate.
He is right at all levels, getting a Labour representative to get off their arse is a ‘miracle’.
His history is as follows, Strathclyde University English and history graduate, teacher-training at St Andrew’s College, served on Glasgow District Council from 1988 until 1996.
He became city council leader in 1997 before he was off to Holyrood for an unbroken stint of 12 years.
Now that run has closed out.
And the window is also closed for 5 years till 2016.
To steal a line from a movie!
‘Shit happens’!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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