Glasgow Labour Councillor William O’Rourke sacked over rape remarks

I do wonder sometimes if elected politicians get up in the morning and say to themselves, time for a major blunder?

I write this post, not for political point scoring, I can do that anytime with real facts and figures against the SNP, Labour and the Conservatives, instead, I write this post in sheer amazement and disgust.

Only last month my good friend Caron blogged about Bill Aitken, the Conservative MSP who implied a rape victim was a prostitute just because the area she was attacked in was a known area for prostitution.  You can read HERE why Caron felt he should have resigned.

Well this time it is a Glasgow Labour Councillor who has made a stupid and completely unjustified comment and even worse it is about a nine year old alleged rape victim.

The only difference is that the Labour Councillor has been sacked for his comments by the new council leader, I applaud him for his swift action.

What is concerning though is that two other Labour Councillors were present at the meeting in January and it appears they failed to do anything about the comments made by Councillor O'Rourke, which is as bad in my opinion.  The complaint was in fact made by a police officer present at the hearing.

I'm pleased he has been sacked, losing around £37,000 worth of salary in the process, but he now needs as Carons suggested for Bill Aitken to visit Rape Crisis Scotland and meet them to understand more about what rape victims go through, believe me, it really is not pleasant.

Today's Herald carries the story;

A female police officer, who investigated the case, raised the matter after giving evidence at the personnel appeals committee. She referred her complaint to one of her senior officers, with Strathclyde Police then referring the matter to the Standards Commission.

Mr O’Rourke, who had been touted as a possible future chairman of the police authority, is reported to have asked if force was used during the alleged rape and when she told him it was not, he is alleged to have asked: “So she wanted it to happen?”

He is then alleged to have commented on the fact the child’s mother was a prostitute and made arguments about lowering the age of consent.

If the young girl's mother was a prostitute, what the hell has that got to do with the alleged attack on her daughter?  Nothing, absolutely bloody nothing and Councillor O'Rourke should never have said anything about it.  It doesn't add anything to the hearing and should have been ruled out immediately.
You can read the full story in today's Herald.

Labour's Harriet Harman and the Highland ginger rodent, Danny Alexander

Labour's Scottish conference in Oban seemed to be going so well until the new Labour new generation same old Party's Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman MP called Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent".

"Now, many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists - and we all love the red squirrel," Ms Harman said.

Danny Alexander is a Lib Dem MP in the north of Scotland "But there is one ginger rodent which we never want to see again - Danny Alexander."

Labour's former Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman went on to attack Mr Alexander's other party colleagues north of the border, telling delegates:

"There's something deeply unnatural that's happened in Scotland.

"Without asking anyone in Scotland, the government has been carrying out a programme of genetic modification - political genetic modification.

"This mutation has contaminated every Lib Dem councillor, it's affected every Lib Dem MP and Lib Dem MSP.

"They've all mutated into something alien to Scotland - Tories."

It is a little bit rich for Harriet to name call and get involved in this childish kind of playground politics, however, she is the Deputy Leader of a Party that has saddled us with a daily payment of £120million just in interest on the amount they borrowed!
Danny Alexander is an excellent MP and is proud of his roots - both hair and where he represents - and had the last laugh just moments before Harriet Harman was forced to apologise after a public backlash.

Danny Alexander tweeted;

I am proud to be ginger and rodents do valuable work cleaning up mess others leave behind. Red squirrel deserves to survive, unlike Labour

Anyway, although the BBC are now saying Harriet Harman has apologised, it is only via a spokeswoman it appears, so hardly sincere is it?

A spokeswoman for Ms Harman said later:

"Harriet Harman has today apologised for her comment about Danny Alexander and says it was wrong."

The reason this angered me, was two fold, one I think childish name calling like this is exactly how playground bullying starts - believe me, I received enough of it to know first hand.  I cannot understand given her former job as equalities minister how she fell into that trap?

Secondly, this is the kind of politics that turns the public off, but it does just show that Labour are not above it and actually enjoy it.  The Labour Party are still out of touch with public opinion, perhaps they should take a break and return when they have grown up.

While the Labour Party participate in childish playground antics it is the Scottish Liberal Democrats led by Tavish Scott, who are fighting for Scottish jobs, reforming public services and wanting to restore the excellence back to Scottish Education.

The other 49 Labour MPs who want to be in the Shadow Cabinet

Here is the full list of the 49 Labour MPs who want to be in the shadow cabinet. Labour's MPs will vote to elect 19 of them, and then, the new leader Ed Miliband will choose the jobs they get.

Some of them I have never heard of and then there are some of the old school such as Alan Johnson, who I thought was taking a back seat.

There is in fact 50, but Harriet Harman is automatically on the list so, don't panic.

1. Diane Abbott
2. Douglas Alexander
3. Ed Balls
4. Hilary Benn
5. Roberta Blackman-Woods
6. Ben Bradshaw
7. Kevin Brennan
8. Chris Bryant
9. Andy Burnham
10. Liam Byrne
11. Vernon Coaker
12. Yvette Cooper
13. Mary Creagh
14. Wayne David
15. John Denham
16. Angela Eagle
17. Maria Eagle
18. Rob Flello
19. Caroline Flint
20. Mike Gapes
21. Barry Gardiner
22. Helen Goodman
23. Peter Hain
24. David Hanson
25. Tom Harris
26. John Healey
27. Meg Hillier
28. Huw Irranca-Davies
29. Kevan Jones
30. Alan Johnson
31. Tessa Jowell
32. Eric Joyce
33. Barbara Keeley
34. Sadiq Khan
35. David Lammy
36. Chris Leslie
37. Ivan Lewis
38. Ian Lucas
39. Fiona Mactaggart
40. Pat McFadden
41. Ann McKechin
42. Alun Michael
43. Jim Murphy
44. Gareth Thomas
45. Emily Thornberry
46. Stephen Timms
47. Stephen Twigg
48. Shaun Woodward
49. Iain Wright

Well, only 19 of these will get a job in the Shadow Cabinet, 30 will be unhappy.  Let's see how far Ed Miliband goes introducing the new generation, I'm certainly not holding my breath.

David Miliband quits conference; Shadow Cabinet next?

So, David Miliband has quit the Labour Conference early following a spat with Harriet Harman.

Will David Miliband even bother to serve in his brother's cabinet, the signs are not looking good, with only 19 hours until nominations close there is no sign of any paperwork from David, now back home in Primrose Hill, London.

Although David stayed in Manchester for Ed's speech, he was spotted by an ITV camera apparently snapping at Harriet Harman.


As Ed Miliband criticised the war in Iraq at the podium, David turned to the party's deputy and said: "You voted for it, why are you clapping?"

Harriet Harman apparently replied: "I am clapping because as you know, I am supporting him."

The Ed versus David saga is not going away and it will take labour's best spin doctors to sort this one out.

John Prescott, Labour and the truth about NHS Direct

On Saturday I blogged about the breaking news that the coalition government were planning to scrap NHS Direct and asking whether this in fact was the right decision.

Well it looks like the proposed changes will only improve the current service - straight away the new 111 service will be free to call unlike NHS Direct now, you pay for that privilege.

Where NHS Direct can only highlight other services, when you call NHS 111 you will be able to book a GP appointment or go straight through to local out of hours services. If you do need an ambulance the 111 service will cut out the need to go through the 999 service assessment.
Since Saturday the story has moved on a great deal, and I do hope and appeal once again that in future the Minister or Ministry responsible either announce these major policy shifts through parliament or at the very least announce it to the media in a proper manner.

Labour, especially via mouthpiece John "I want to be treasurer of the bankrupt party" Prescott have seized on this and are setting up websites claiming to Save NHS Direct.

In fact yesterday I ended up having a spat with John Prescott on twitter.

Leadership contender Andy Burnham MP said at the weekend of the announcement;

"The health secretary's statement will stun people across the NHS.

"It is yet more evidence that Andrew Lansley is on a vindictive mission to break up the NHS, ruthlessly dismantling services before alternatives are in place."

The reason Andy Burnhams comments, and the argument I used with John Prescott is that Labour are NOT being honest with the voters (again).  Actually they are being complete hypocrites.

That is not a comment I make lightly.

On page 35 of this year's Labour Party manifesto, sits the following paragraph:

"A new, national 111 telephone number will make non emergency services far easier for people to access and book."

Would the Labour government if still in power have had this 111 service running alongside NHS Direct?

Of course not!

Labour were planning to scrap NHS Direct themselves and replace it with a 111 service.

Yet Andy Burnham accused Andrew Lansley of being on a "vindictive mission to break up the NHS" when he would have done exactly the same thing himself.

John Prescott argued with me on twitter that "40% of NHSD staff are nurses - 1400. Your plan = replace them with call centre advisors. Ours was to change number."

What John Prescott omits there in his answer is that 60% of the staff are call centre advisors already.

They are taking people for fools in opposition in much the same way as they did in Government and unfortunately many people are still believing their shameful lies.

Labour close to bankruptcy - why is the co-op bank helping them?

Thanks to a tweet this morning from GetLabourOut I went on to read their blog post, Labour – Mismanaging Even Their Own Finances which in turn pushed me to read the piece in the Guardian titled John Prescott: Labour 'on the verge of bankruptcy' which in turn provided me with more information to write the following blog post.

I know the topic of the funding of political parties is an emotive topic for many members of the public.  Whether political parties receive state funding or not?  Should unions and big business continue to bank roll Labour and the Conservatives? Should cash in brown envelopes or legitimate donations receive favours in return?

But a political party being on the verge of bankruptcy is another area of conversation completely, especially given the political party we are talking about is Labour, the party that governed Britain for thirteen years and during the major banking crisis.

According to the former Deputy Prime Minister (a position now held by Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg) John Prescott speaking to The Guardian on Thursday, said:

"The Labour party stands on the verge of bankruptcy. We are more than £20m in debt, facing a long-term decline in membership and a crisis in funding."

Now, for a senior Labour politician to admit this is one thing, but John Prescott, sorry Baron Prescott of Kingston upon Hull, is currently campaigning to become the Treasurer of the said close to bankruptcy Labour Party.

The Labour Party governed the UK for 13 years and during the biggest banking crisis ever seen.

That banking crisis has led to banks closing the doors on small and medium businesses, rather than supporting and helping them at this crucial time.

Day after day we continue to hear politicians telling us that another small business in their constituency has unfortunately closed down putting more people onto the unemployment register - never a pleasant thing to face, trust me, I have been there.

Thankfully now that Liberal Democrats are in Government the topic of banking reform is high on the agenda and being acted on by Vince Cable MP, a real pity that Labour's Alistair Darling didn't do anything when he had the chance.

However, reading John Prescott's interview, one thing really stood out for me.  In the second paragraph, Baron Prescott said:

"We are only kept alive by the Herculean work of party staff and volunteers, trade union contributions, high value donations and the goodwill of the Co-op bank."

It's the final five words that caught my eye - goodwill of the Co-op bank - do you see my connection here now?

Here we have a bank that is happy to show goodwill to a political party £20 million in debt and yet the banks collectively are still failing our small businesses by not supporting them and offering loans to these companies to help them through this delicate time.

Thankfully the Labour Party is no longer in Government and therefore no longer mismanaging the finances of the whole country (just their own party's finances).

Let us hope though that any small or medium business customers of the Co-op bank needing help at this time receive the very same goodwill they apparently are showing the Labour Party.

Liberal Democrats now the only effective opposition in Glasgow

It appears the SNP Councillors in Glasgow are not taking there jobs seriously any more and have given up.
SNP Councillors have yet again failed to attend one of the key Scrutiny Committees on Glasgow City Council.

In the week when news surfaced of a Labour Councillor being arrested the SNP were quick to rush out press statements about the tip of a corruption iceberg and the need for more scrutiny of the Labour Council.

Yet just last week SNP Councillors failed to attend either the Finance & Audit or the Operational Delivery Scrutiny Committees and yesterday failed to attend the External Governance Scrutiny Committee.

These committees are chaired by opposition Councillors and are the very bodies that allow opposition councillors to hold the Labour Administration to account.

As the current official opposition the SNP Group earns over £60,000 in additional salaries from Glasgow’s external companies and have a full time policy officer paid for by the Council yet they don’t think scrutiny of these arms length companies or whether Labour are failing to deliver on front line services is worth turning up for.

Voters elected the Councillors and therefore pay them, and to represent their interests and to hold this Labour Administration to account for its actions.

If the SNP Council Group won’t do its job as an official opposition then Glasgow’s Liberal Democrat Councillors will step and be the official and effective opposition that Glasgow so badly needs.

Labour must be held to account in Glasgow and the SNP are failing the voters of Glasgow so it is down to Councillor Paul Coleshill and his fantastic team to step up and hold the Labour Councillors to account.

Glasgow Labour Councillor Gilbert Davidson arrested over lewd text and voice messages

A Glasgow Labour councillor and former Lord Provost of Glasgow has been arrested and charged over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague.

Councillor Gilbert Davidson faces criminal prosecution after police investigated claims he sent suggestive voice mails and text messages to former civic chief and senior councillor Liz Cameron, asking her to share a hotel room with him.

The BBC reports:

It is claimed Gilbert Davidson sent offensive voice mails and text messages to former Lord Provost Liz Cameron.

Councillor Gilbert Davidson has also been suspended from the ruling Labour group.

Strathclyde Police have said that a 67-year-old man had been charged with an alleged breach of the peace following an inquiry at Glasgow City Chambers.

A spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party said:

"Councillor Gilbert Davidson has been suspended from the Labour group on Glasgow City Council with immediate effect.

"As a police investigation is now ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further."

 A police spokeswoman said:

"We can confirm that a 67-year-old man has been arrested and charged with an alleged breach of the peace in connection with a police inquiry being carried out at Glasgow City Chambers and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal."

The arrest and allegations closely follow the story last week in The Herald.

Labour councillor Gilbert Davidson is already being investigated after being accused at the weekend of groping counterpart Ruth Black.

Given all of the issues the Labour Party have faced in Glasgow - Councillor Steven Purcell, Councillor Ruth Black and now Councillor Gilbert Davidson it really is time Labour were voted out in Glasgow, they have and continue to let the people of Glasgow down.  You wonder what tomorrows headline is going to be.

Conservative Council leader Councillor Kay Cutts snubs gay activist

Ian Campbell was to be presented with a youth citizenship award by the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Councillor Kay Cutts.

Now Ian Campbell who is gay, was to be presented with the award for his work promoting gay rights and fighting bullying and anti homophobia in schools.

Ian is also the youngest Mayor in the United Kingdom.  At the age of 23 the Labour Councillor was elected to the post of Mayor of Retford, also in Nottinghamshire.

In the past the Leader of Nottinghamshire Council has presented the winner with officials presenting the other awards.

Ian Campbell was chosen as joint Young Person of the Year in Nottinghamshire by a panel of judges including Nottinghamshire's chief constable and given the award at the end of last year.

According to the BBC News website:

The organiser of the Young People of the Year awards, Tony Gearing, claimed: "She was very off hand and had decided she wouldn't take part - despite pleading - with the photographs or with the handing over of the prizes."

It appears that Councillor Cutts asked Ian Campbell what the award was for, and once he had told her she withdrew her hand and was in a bit of shock.

However, as she wasn't available for comment it was left to a spokesperson to comment, who in my opinion has actually added even more fuel to the fire.

The spokesman said:

"The Conservative Party takes allegations of homophobia extremely seriously.

"(We) are satisfied that her conduct at the youth awards ceremony in question was exemplary and any suggestion to the contrary is completely inaccurate.

"None of her actions were in any way homophobic."

He then added Councillor Cutts had refused to be photographed with the winner because he was a Labour Party activist.

What?

The Conservative Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council has refused to have a photo taken with the Mayor of Retford, Councillor Ian Campbell.

Kay Cutts needs to grow up and apologise publicly and then donate money to a LGBT charity of Ian Campbell's choice.

Bassetlaw District Council is Conservative run, but chose to elect Ian Campbell as the Mayor - Ian won his seat from the Conservatives by just 15 votes.  So, in that part of the County the Conservatives are much more grown up than the leader of the Shire, Kay Cutts could well take lessons from her colleagues.

Ian was thrown out of his home when he came out, so I am sure this minor mishap will be nothing to him, but I hope he pursues it and shames Kay Cutts.

UPDATE Friday 6th August 17.37pm
Ian Campbell saw my original blog post and via twitter we have been chatting.

It appears that Councillor Kay Cutts has come out on the attack via BBC Radio Nottingham and has yet again today stressed that she refused to have a photo taken with Ian because he is a Labour Party activist.

Councillor Cutts - what a load of crap.

Go back and read exactly why Ian Campbell won the award, see what happened to him when he came out?

Ian Campbell's political allegiance has diddly squat to do with him winning the award and he was only at the ceremony because he won the award, nothing to do with being a Labour Councillor nor to do with him being the youngest Mayor in the UK.

Councillor Cutts either you are being homophobic, or just plain stupid?

Ian Campbell has stated on twitter to me (so it is in the public domain) that he will accept a full apology from Councillor Kay Cutts.

I think Ian is being great, I still think he should push for a personal donation to a LGBT charity, there is enough of them in Nottingham that would benefit from a donation of £100.

So readers, here is where you come in, if like Ian and I (different political allegiances) you think that Councillor Kay Cutts owes Ian Campbell a full and public apology, and if you like a personal donation of £100 to a LGBT charity of Ian's choice then email her today, in fact do it now!

Councillor Kay Cutts - Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council.  Just click on her name or here.

Ed Balls MP - "I’ve never been a front runner in this campaign" and "I am behind" but in it to win

Ed Balls MP has chosen to decisively stamp out the stories of last night when it was reported he was considering quitting the Labour leadership race.

Speculation about his leadership bid came last night after he failed to win the backing of the Unite union, which gave its endorsement to Ed Miliband.
Despite admitting on his campaign blog that;

"I’ve never been a front runner in this campaign, I did not have the early organisation of some other candidates and I am behind on formal CLP and union endorsements."

Ed Balls is adamant he is carrying on to the bitter end.

"I joined this contest because I believed this was a fight worth fighting for the future of our party and our country. I still do."

So, the Labour leadership race had a little hiccup last night, there was for a brief moment a bit of excitement to perhaps engage people that weren't expecting a Miliband moment and weren't bored of what appears to be a very dull campaign.

Ed Balls MP considering quitting the Labour leadership race

The Telegraph is running a story that Ed Balls is considering quitting the Labour leadership race because Britain's biggest union, Unite has backed Ed Miliband MP.

A source at Unite, which has 950,000 members who are eligible to vote in the leadership election, said: "The discussion before the vote was very much whether it should be Ed Miliband or Ed Balls. Ed Miliband won so clearly because it was thought he was the candidate best placed to be able to defeat his brother."

Ed Balls had been hoping to win Unite's backing, especially given that his close ally is Charlie Whelan who is Unite's political director – but only secured four votes compared to Ed Miliband's twenty four.

Photo: BLOOMBERG

The decision has left Ed Balls contemplating withdrawing from the fray and backing either Ed Miliband or his brother David, the former foreign secretary, who remains the bookies' favourite.

The fight now looks to be a straight two horse race between David Miliband and his brother Ed, after Ed Miliband secured the backing of three of the four largest unions, Unite, Unison and the GMB.
Each has well over 100 nominations from constituency parties – David with 151 and Ed with 140 – well ahead of the number obtained by the three other candidates, Mr Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott.

However, a senior Labour source said: "It's hard to see where Ed Balls's campaign goes from here. He faces some tough choices in the next few days."

Ladbrokes has cut their odds on Ed Miliband winning the leadership battle from 7/4 to 6/4 after yesterday's result amid a general sense of momentum building up behind the younger sibling. While David Miliband remains the favourite, his odds were lengthened from 4/7 to 4/6.
Ed Miliband last week won the key support of ex-leader Lord Kinnock as well as the backing of Baroness (Elizabeth) Smith, widow of the late John Smith, Lord Kinnock's successor as party leader.

John McDonnell withdraws from Labour leadership battle

John McDonnell has withdrawn from the Labour leadership battle with a matter of hours before nominations close.

John McDonnell had just 16 nominations at the time of his withdrawl, less than half the number required to go through to be included on the ballot paper.

John McDonnell is hoping that by adding his 16 nominations to the 11 that Diane Abbott already has that she can then get the final 6 needed to go through onto the ballot paper.

Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband all have at least the 33 nominations required and Andy Burnham is now claiming that he also has 33 nominations.

Explaining why he was pulling out of the race, John McDonnell said:

"I stood for the Labour leadership as the candidate of the Left and trade union movement so that there could be a proper debate about Labour's future in which all the wings of the party were fully represented.

"It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper."

Yesterday, acting Labour leader Harriet Harman said she was nominating Diane Abbott because she did not want to see a "men-only" contest where there has been wide spread criticism within the Labour party of the similarities between the perceived three main candidates, Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and David Miliband, who are already through to the next stage of the election - because they are all Oxford-educated men in their 40s, who worked as political advisers before becoming MPs and then cabinet ministers.


Let's see if Diane Abbott pulls it off.

Why Labour MP John McDonnell should not be leader of the Labour Party

Whatever you think of Margaret Thatcher and let's be honest, this is a person who generates feelings from hatred to love, wanting to go back in time to assassinate her is not something you expect of a Labour leadership contender.

John McDonnell had told the GMB union hustings event on Monday evening that he had been asked what single act he would do to improve the world if he could travel back to the 1980s.
John McDonnell replied:

"I said: 'Look, I was on the GMC that Mrs Thatcher abolished, I worked for the NUM and we had the NUM strike, I think I would assassinate Thatcher'."

This really highlights why John McDonnell will should never be leader of the Labour Party.

The Labour Party and Data Protection

This morning I received a letter from the Labour candidate, John Adams, not from Edinburgh but re-directed from my former home in Dartford, Kent.

Now, given we have just come through a general election this is hardly surprising I hear you shout.

True, however, at the end of this month I have lived in Edinburgh for two years and not only have I been on the electoral register here in Edinburgh North & Leith since June 2008, I was also removed from the Dartford electoral register since June 2008.

So, how have I therefore been selected to receive just one piece of direct mail from John Adams and the Dartford Labour Party?

In fact, it wasn't just any piece of direct mail it was a letter and insert directed at a Liberal Democrat voter.

So, where did they get my details from?

There is only one other database other than the electoral register (which as I said before I had been removed from two years ago) in Dartford that my details existed on.

Howard Stoate, the former Labour MP had communicated with me on various issues but as the MP.

Surely under the Data Protection Act these details should not have been used in the election by another candidate (Howard Stoate had stood down).

I have emailed John Adams, but the auto reply stated that the email addres was no longer in use.

I have therefore today written to Dartford Electoral Registration, Dartford Labour Party and the Information Commissioner - I am just annoyed that the party who governed for thirteen years blatantly flaunt legislation when it suits them.