NOTEBOOK by Bill Heaney
However, as we are fewer than 100 days until the Council election, the final recruitment stages should be held as soon as possible following the May elections.”
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West Dunbartonshire Council is not as uninteresting a body as might be thought by most of the local electorate who seldom bother to get off the sofa and go down to the polling stations to cast their vote.
Why should local people care when so many of them are excluded from witnessing what is being said in meetings about contentious projects embarked on in their name, and off the wall projects – chopping the bottoms of doors of classrooms in schools to improve ventilation, for example.
There have been lots of other daft suggestions such as putting the new Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School down the Shore in Posties Park and allowing grass and weeds to grow unabated in parks and public spaces which was promoted by the dossers in the Burgh Hall.
Thankfully the voice of sanity has intruded at times on the hubristic subservience and unswerving loyalty of Jonathan McColl, pictured, and his council croneys to Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP government in Edinburgh.
Still, however, the SNP administration cannot shake off the “basket case” scorn and criticism that has been so rightly foisted on them.
They claim they cannot get the coverage to reach out to the electorate. That their wise words fail to be heard by the majority of the population here.
The truth of the matter is not just that the electorate ignore them because they have no interest in anything they have to say.
It’s that the council refuse to grasp the nettle and accept that the press and public are doubly handicapped by the fact that meetings in public have been banned during the pandemic, which is perfectly excusable.
And that the council are themselves to blame because they haven’t done enough to connect the elderly and others who are not familiar with the internet to give them access via the cash it takes to access it and education to use it.
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Everyone seems to be on their high horse these days about the language we use in our daily lives. So much of it has been deemed not to be politically correct.
Eyebrows shoot up – and often the police are called out – when someone says something even in a private conversation, or includes something in an article or report which they find insulting to people of colour or women gay or trans people.
Now, I know we should not do it, but occasionally even the most vigilant of us slips up, but the reaction we receive is too often away over the top.
Do you remember the old saying that sticks and stones would break your bones but names would never hurt you?
That saying may have gone to the knackers yard for words that are past their sell-by date.
A clear example this week which had nothing to do with racism or women happened in Clydebank where the ugly face of sectarianism, which the authorities say has gone away but clearly hasn’t, reared its head in the form of offensive graffiti.
Councillor John Mooney raised a motion for emergency graffiti removal. It seems that you can’t even get a vaccination for Covid without being slagged off.
And he had this motion passed by the members: Council is very concerned about the recent spate of sectarian graffiti in the area. The recent conflation with anti-vax sentiment at the Hub in Clydebank, which is a vaccination centre, is particularly worrying. The Council has a responsibility to remove such offensive graffiti as quickly as possible.
Council thanks our Roads & Greenspace Team and Y-Sort-It for the removal next day of the graffiti on the Hub. In order to facilitate speedy removal in future, Council agrees to allocate £15, 000 from free reserves to the Anti-social behaviour (ASB) budget for emergency removal of offensive graffiti in the evenings and at weekends. Council also agrees that these funds be used to cover the costs of any additional call-out
charges.
£15, 000 then from public funds. No wonder the Council Tax is going to spiral out of control. Isn’t it time to stop walking past on the other side of the street when we see these things happening?
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And she claims she’s been so “overwhelmed” by the interest from folk, both alive and dead, that she’s had to hire someone to help her with admin.
In a video clip eccentric Gillian, 46, even says sorry to anyone put off by her boast that she gets messages from spirits. She said: “I do understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I 100 per cent get that. Just like religion isn’t my cup of tea. But spiritualism is my fave and I believe in it. It’s got me through some dark times. For anyone who doesn’t believe in it I apologise if I’ve offended you by talking about it right now. But it is my belief and it comforts so many people.”
Gillian warns followers that she doesn’t do tarot reading in the “conventional way” and is taking tips from a reality TV star.
I have a couple of questions for Gillian: Can you tell me the result of the local elections in West Dunbartonshire on May 5 and the result too of the elections for the Scottish Parliament the following year?
Be interesting to see how many SNP candidates are left standing after the May elections.
My own view is that the current administration is perceived as a basket case. Moreover, national policies and indeed nations nail failures are adding to the absolute discontent that so many ordinary people now feel.
Inadequate levels of GPs, nurses, ambulances, queues to get into A and E as patients sit in ambulances awaiting access, huge waits for surgery, failures to treat cancer patients promptly with the initial crucial time period, surging drug deaths, the concerns just go on and on.
And now, small beer in the truly grand scheme of things, Nicola Sturgeon announces that she wants to reintroduce bridge tolls and workplace parking charges. Not quite sure what people think about that but the spectre of paying again to cross the Erskine Bridge or paying to park at the Vale of Leven Hospital or the Golden Jubilee or the RHI in Paisley very much outrages me.
And then we have all of this inordinate focus, and in our schools too about sexuality of trans and gay pupils. It just doesn’t compute. But it must be important when not just our national politicians but also our local council leader focus on the matter. For most folks quite honestly I think their focus will be on other matters such as heating or lighting or feeding their households than reading on the front page of the local newspaper how the council leader had known since he was ten that he was bi sexual.
There are truly huge issues not being addressed in our community and we all need to think about that. The May council elections are an opportunity for ordinary people to pass comment on who they think would be the best individuals to support peoples needs and aspirations.
I remember when Tim Huntingford announced he was planning on a name change for WDC. He said it “did not resonate.” Well that was a lie, as he well knew it resonated with “BASKET CASE” the world over. Of course, I had direct personal dealings with Tim. He was a great “name changer” and water often changed into wine in our correspondence. Sadly, Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission eventually caught up with him about 2006-7. There was another name change…as he vanished into thin air. Last I heard he was working for Renfrewshire Council….”LOOKING AFTER CHILDREN.” Working class people have their reasons for not voting etc. One of them is they are fussy about the company they keep. I’ve had more than my fair share of dealings and meetings with WDC. Your readers would be better off clubbing together to hire a team of solicitors….with instructions to lock them up and throw away the key. .