CORONAVIRUS: STAY WELL, STAY SAFE THIS EASTER

Bill Heaney’s Easter Notebook

We are all in this together. Everyone’s the same. Coronavirus does not discriminate.  That’s the line being taken by politicians of all shades.

It is nonsense, of course. Deception, downright lies, dis-ingenuousness and maybe even, giving them some slack, verisimilitude, which is nearly the truth but not quite.

And if there really is only one God, only one king, why is it unprecedented for the Churches to join together to send out an Easter message of hope? Why isn’t there only one church?

Is it because the world is in crisis?  Why are we being lied to by these Pharisees of the modern world?  There is no way politicians can expect us to believe their propaganda. Not if they don’t think we are all daft.

Nor the clergy for that matter, many of whom peddled this stuff from the pulpit before the virus forced  them to shut their doors, not before time for many of them.

And most definitely not when the people in charge are handing out only the odd miserly fiver to asylum seekers and refugees to feed, clothe and home themselves and their families.

Then they go  filling their boots with an extra £10,000 in expenses to tide them over until corona virus goes away. Yes, a cool £10,000. Hypocrites.

It’s hard to believe either that the West Dunbartonshire Council leader, part-time Jonathan McColl, pulls down £42,000 a year for what he does – or doesn’t do.

I think we should be told what it is, and where he is right now, but he won’t tell us. Nor will the semper silent SNP let us know when he breaks cover.

Cllr McColl believes the basket case Health Board, of which he is also a member and receives money from, even when he fails to turn up for meetings, is taking the correct path by phasing out the Vale of Leven Hospital.

What kind of a roaster is this man who keeps informing us that the SNP administration he is in charge of is a listening council, which is open and honest?

I give you just one word to ponder while seeking an answer to this question. Procurement.

Remember the golf outings, the fine dining at fancy hotels, the Rioja and the T-bone steaks? Of course you do.

I take it that McColl neither supports, nor has ever been part of, the Save the Vale campaign, to which thousands of local people of all political views and none have given their backing.

And that he has given his support to John Brown and Jane Grant, chairman and chief executive respectively, of the Health Board, without noticing that things are so bad in that organisation that special measures have had to be brought in and Jackie Baillie MSP has asked for them to be unceremoniously sacked.

So, to whom is Cllr McColl listening? Is it you? It most certainly isn’t me.

Does he realise the damage the SNP council, acting in concert with the SNP government, have done to West Dunbartonshire in the past 13 years?

Isn’t it time we dispensed with the expensive, inexplicable austerity-linked policies and incompetence of this person and his party, who has disappeared during the current coronavirus crisis? Have you seen him about?

Please let us know whenever he breaks cover.  Has he been around to your house to comfort and reassure you during this crisis?

Worry not, he will unfortunately turn up on your doorstep next Spring when he is looking for your vote at election time.

We are assured that things will be greatly changed when this lockdown ends. Changed utterly and forever, one pundit wrote.

Let’s pray this Easter Sunday that Cllr McColl and his cronies have nothing to do with the new West Dunbartonshire, which is expected rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the coronavirus crisis.

And that in future our politicians and churchmen (and women) will be open, transparent and honest in their dealings with the public as this community – all of us together, which used to be our motto before McColl took charge – does its best to recover from the pain this pandemic has brought to us.

Happy Easter everyone. Have lots of fun.

A seasonal picture to cheer you up. Like most senior citizens, the Heaneys are missing our annual Easter visit from our grandchildren, whom we all love dearly. This is our granddaughter, Jane, when she visited us previously at this time of  year. This year, she wrote a prayer for all NHS and care workers, which appeared on Facebook and has now been read by more than 5,000 people. Stay safe, stay at home and help to bring about soon the end of the danger from this terrible virus.