Anger as Glasgow Council award £50,000 ‘non-political’ role to ex-Labour MSP

Friday, 20 July 2012 23:14

30 Comments

By Bob Duncan
 
The SNP has condemned the appointment of former Labour minister Tom McCabe as a policy advisor to Land and Environmental Services in Glasgow City Council.
 
Just over a year after losing his seat and salary as an MSP, it has emerged that Mr McCabe has been recruited by the Labour-run local authority as a ‘policy manager’ on a salary of nearly £50,000 a year.

Though purported to be a non-political role working for the Council’s Land and Environmental Services, McCabe’s past history as a senior Labour party politician has led to accusations that it is his ties to the Labour party which secured him his employment.

It has also emerged that Mr McCabe was chosen for the role less than one day after being formally interviewed.  Despite asking where and when the role was advertised, and how many other applicants received interviews, Newsnet Scotland has received no response from the council.

The appointment of the former Labour minister, which has yet to be formally announced, has been met with outrage by Graeme Hendry, leader of the Glasgow Council SNP group, who dismissed the decision to appoint the Labour figure as indicative of the party's underhand, “jobs for the boys” tactics.

Mr Hendry said: “Glasgow Labour’s murky history is clearly not in the past after appointing a failed Labour politician to a post that is supposed to be politically neutral.  Not only is he a former Labour minister, he also ran the council campaign in Glasgow and has aligned himself to ensure he gets a top spot.
 
“Earning a reported salary of just under £50,000 a year is yet another slap in the face to the people of Glasgow.  The list of incompetence and jobs for the boys goes on.  I’ve raised my concerns with the chief solicitor at the council.
 
“Tom McCabe has mastered the art of golden handshakes and has been handsomely rewarded for his part in the council campaign.  This post is supposed to be non-political – what assurances can he make to the people of Glasgow that he will not be putting his allegiances to Labour first?”

Glasgow Council spokesman Colin McKenzie has claimed that Mr McCabe was interviewed by senior Council officials and not elected members.   However Mr McKenzie also confirmed that Mr McCabe’s interview for the post took place only yesterday.

Questions are certain to be raised over Mr McCabe’s qualifications and the haste with which the Labour run council appear to have rubber stamped the decision to award the job to the ex-Labour MSP.  Many will also question Mr McCabe’s suitability for a role that involves land and the environment given his apparent reluctance to support a local campaign in his former South Lanarkshire constituency.

McCabe, who had also been a local councillor in the area before becoming an MSP, refused to back a campaign against a waste incinerator after it had been voted through by Mr McCabe’s former council colleagues.

Mr McCabe’s electoral agent was Labour councillor Jackie Burns who voted in favour of the hazardous waste plant.  The firm proposing the incinerator, Scotgen, owned a plant at Dargavel which was one of Scotland’s top 20 polluters.

In 2007, Mr McCabe was the campaign manager in charge of former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander’s leadership campaign.  In November of that year he publicly admitted that donations made her campaign had been “clearly illegal”, Ms Alexander subsequently resigned as leader in disgrace.

The donations had been solicited by another former Labour MSP, Charlie Gordon, who was also a former Glasgow Council leader.

McCabe, who is a former partner of former Labour advisor and TV commentator Lorraine Davidson, was one of several Labour casualties following the elections on May 5, 2011, losing his seat to Christina McKelvie of the SNP in the newly formed Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse constituency.

Commenting on the appointment, James Dorman, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Cathcart said: "It certainly appears that once again Glasgow Labour is using council taxpayers' money for party political purposes.

"The people of Glasgow will be watching this appointment with interest given the recent spate of retirements and redundancies.  It certainly appears that once again Glasgow Labour is using council taxpayers' money for party political purposes."

Comments  

 

# call me dave 2012-07-21 00:09

We will need to remove all these troughs that the labour party have stashed in and around central Scotland.
How will they all manage trying a real job on a basic wage in about two years time.
My father started to vote SNP just before his death after spending a lifetime of blindly supporting labour.
Angry . .well it just doesn't describe it!

 

 

# jurist 2012-07-21 02:23

It's a pity Kenny MacAskill cant't bring charges of racketeering against all Labour councilours. MSPs amd MPs. Purcell can't be the only criminal among them.

 

 

# clootie 2012-07-21 07:26

......and still they will vote Labour?

 

 

# ituna semea 2012-07-21 07:44

This appointment really does beggar belief, local government in Scotland is rotten and if truth be told the Labour Party is responsible.

 

 

# The_Duke 2012-07-21 07:57

This is in the Herald and the Scotsman.... but no mention of this in BBC Scotland.

Instead we have a warning over the drop in oil production. Good old BBC.

 

 

# cokynutjoe 2012-07-21 08:20

There has been movement of staff lately, pulling in their horns into accommodation in George Street. Land Services, from the High Street for example. No doubt Bridget McConnell will be able to keep Tom right as to canteen/toilets/expenses etc'.
You know what it's like feeling a bit awkward in a new job folks.

 

 

# gus1940 2012-07-21 08:27

The thing about this that makes me really annoyed is the fact that I am not surprised in the slightest.

I suppose that it is a change from what has recently been the norm for failed Labour apparatchiks i.e. to be given a freelance job with JP to fill the pages of The Scotsman with Unionist propaganda.

 

 

# Macart 2012-07-21 08:36

Weellll, they got what they voted for.

 

 

# Jimbo 2012-07-21 09:34

Clearly the majority of voters in Glasgow are quite content with nepotism and cronyism.

It is, after all, what they voted for.

 

 

# alexb 2012-07-21 09:42

See the era of decisions taken in, now non-smoke-filled back rooms, is still flourishing.

 

 

# Independista 2012-07-21 09:43

Next stop the House of Lords, to join the rest of the fire raising, expense racketing, moat constructing bunch of ermine coated crooks! Democracy? Better Together?Dont make me laugh!

 

 

# Macart 2012-07-21 10:03

Now don't beat about the bush, tell us what you think. :D))

I couldn't believe they'd be so brazen as to pull this stroke so soon after the elections. Still it does display the arrogance and sheer lack of regard at the heart of their political machinery.

Jobs for the boys.

 

 

# Seagetagrip 2012-07-21 09:50

Completely O/T
Total disgust at decision of Scottish Whiskey Association to oppose Minimum Pricing. We have registered our disgust by
e mail to infoswa.org.uk. I hope others will do so.
Surprised by absence of comment on Newsnet sofar

 

 

# daveniz 2012-07-21 12:09

this must be what the unionists parties meant by better together "jobs for the boys" and the weaker apart bit must be when they can't give "jobs for the boys"!!!!

 

 

# rgweir 2012-07-21 13:23

I can't for the life of me understand why the good people of Glasgow keep voting labour.
Some of the loyal vote from older people must be dying off and being replaced by younger people who can see what Labour has become.
There must be something in the water in Glasgow,I have been involved in politics going on 40years and still can't work out why this happens.

 

 

# scottish_skier 2012-07-21 13:38

Aye, good old Labour; look after number one.

Anyhoo, lest we forget.

www.youtube.com/.../

 

 

# GrassyKnollington 2012-07-21 16:24

It's instructive to contrast the graciousness in victory of Christina Mckelvie compared to Labour MSP Pauline McNeil's triumphalist ranting at Glasgow Kelvin in 2007

doctorvee.co.uk/.../...

 

 

# peter,aberdeenshire 2012-07-21 16:55

Jeeezz oh!! :-0

 

 

# Dundonian West 2012-07-21 14:09

Thankyou for this link. Sally Magnusson sounds awfy sad and almost disorientated---no her Songs o Praise UK voice at all. Mind you, SOP is pre-recorded and edited.

 

 

# bagonails 2012-07-21 14:53

Nice to hear there will be a drop in oil production. More for us to use as an independent country.

 

 

# Sannymac 2012-07-21 16:18

When are my fellow Glaswegians going to learn that today's Labour party is not "the party of the working man"! It has been replaced by criminal gang whose primary function is to rip-off the tax/rate payers for there benefit.

Having been a Glaswegian for 79 years I find it incredible that the people of a once great city can be this stupid. At the next general or local election "just vote Tory" you wont notice a difference!!

We need to get rid of this non-Socialist Labour party and its gang of rip-off MP's and Councillors.

 

 

# Leswil 2012-07-21 16:34

Jobs for the boys, just what Glasgow council is famous for!

Just put him on the board of a few of their quango's, - another £50k for a day or so a month ( or every other month )- job done!

WAKE UP GLASGOW!

 

 

# Sannymac 2012-07-21 16:51

As a whisky drinker (decent malt)I totally agree with the price increase. A fair few years ago I was in a pub in San Fran with a group of friends. The bar man refused to serve us because he (rightly) thought one of the party was under the age of 21. In explanation he advised that if he served any group that included and under 21 then he - the barman - would go to jail for six months. this is the kind of law we could do with in Scotland. Drunken youths are a disgrace and unacceptable in any civilised society.

 

 

# Marga B 2012-07-21 17:34

"‘non-political’ role to ex-Labour MSP" - but is it really "jobs for the boys"?

When I read this it seemed to me that this person is seen as "right-thinking", "left-wing" "on the people's side", "entitled", or even "neutral" (in contrast to other politicians who are "sectarian") and it made me think of all the BBC Scotland appointees who share a similar background.

Jobs for the boys or a so far impenetrable confusion of Labour and alpha-citizens? Am I right in asking why isn't the SNP making inroads into this self-baptised elite community? Surely until they do they cannot claim to have made real progress.

 

 

# rhymer 2012-07-21 17:40

Is this something like an additional pension fund for
redundant labour MSPs ?

 

 

# Nautilus 2012-07-21 18:22

Glasgow people will want to see a job description - no hours per week work, duties, level of expertise required, academic qualifications necessary etc.

Isn't it a requirement of employment law to advertise the job? How many candidates applied for it, Glaswegians may enquire.

 

 

# Silverytay 2012-07-21 19:35

This is the type of story that helped me to make up my mind about leaving the labour party and trade union movement after being an activist and union shop steward for 10 years . Unfortunately the people of Glasgow voted for this shower of incompetents and will have to put up with them for another 5 years . I would call them something else rather than incompetent but the mod,s would take exception to it .

 

 

# border reiver 2012-07-21 22:19

have attached a link to glasgow councils policy page, seems like their is a particular brief on the WASTE SERVICES, so an ex Labour MSP is probably well suited to the job.
glasgow.gov.uk/.../...

 

 

# the wallace 2012-07-22 11:08

Good to see the glasgow labour party mafia back to their old tricks again,jobs for the boys, leapords and spots eh who'd of thaught it.

 

 

# GerrySNP 2012-07-25 02:55

This is merely the latest in a long, and disreputable, line of cases of 21st century corruption in local government - and National government. Some of your readers will remember the days when corrupt money bought pub licenses. That was replaced in the 70s by corrupt money buying planning permission and then contracts for profitble work. Today, and for the last 10 years the corrupt money is provided to those politicians who have lost their jobs, or sometimes retired from them, so that they are in a position to gain from public money. The most recent example to come to the fore, before McCabe, was the rogue John Reid who gets £50,000 as a "consultant" with G3S who then get a £284 million contract with the London Olympics, this from the £9 billion budget provided by the ax-payer. And then cant even do the job - finding it impossible to find staff in these days of high unemployment.

 

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