NOTEBOOK: Even their expensive band of spin doctors could not save Labour (updated)

* THREE more patients contracted infections from bird droppings but health chiefs dismissed the cases and claimed they’re not linked to the hospital’s pigeon problem

* ROTTING sponges and debris were found inside water tanks servicing the hospital and

* PRIORITISED environmental credentials over safety when the facility was built.

But all this appears to have been ignored according to a report of the meeting, presided over by the relatively new chairperson Lesley Thomson KC. It wasn’t even on the agenda.

Dr Thomson, pictured right,  succeeded John Brown, whose resignation was rightly called for by Dame Jackie Baillie MSP, the Dumbarton MSP and health spokesperson for Scottish Labour in the Holyrood parliament.

Dame Jackie also called for the board chief executive, Jane Grant, to resign, but Ms Grant is still hanging around presenting gongs to people for the “wonderful” work they have done during their careers. You would think she would have better things to do.

Makes you think the mid 20th century poet Louis Macneice had a point in Bagpipe Music which contained the following extract:

It’s no go the Herring Board, it’s no go the Bible,
All we want is a packet of fags when our hands are idle.

It’s no go the picture palace, it’s no go the stadium,
It’s no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums,
It’s no go the Government grants, it’s no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.

What people in West Dunbartonshire possibly don’t know is that Councillor Michelle McGinty is also a member of the Health Board, where she has failed to make much of an impression  over the past two years, despite picking up the extra cash she receives for that.

Certainly, we haven’t heard from her on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Children’s Hospital scandal, despite the fact that she is paid for what she does or doesn’t do in relation to health matters.

Now that she  is no longer a member of the Council administration, where she was deputy leader, believe it or not, and given that the health board appointment is such an important one when you see what is happening there at present, perhaps she will resign and let someone who will speak up for this community take her place?

However, I doubt that her exit from the gravy train of public service will come soon. And don’t expect any other Labour councillors to quit either. There is considerable money to be earned from being part of the Lavender Hill Mob down there in Church Street. It ranges from £50,000 to £25,000 a year plus extras from outside bodies and expenses. And salary plus pension packages up to £150,000 if you are a suit or a skirt in the management team.

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The time on my HM Samuel never right watch is 10.25am on Monday, September 2. It’s also the time on the town clock that overlooks the High Street at Church Place. It’s wrong, of course.

On a dreich Dumbarton morning, I took the bus into town. At least the bus was on time unlike the Council which is supposed to look after the clock. Inevitably it doesn’t.

I got off the bus at the stop on Dumbarton Quay and had time to spare before turning up for my eye appointment at Specsavers. I’ve been missing too much recently and turning a blind eye to things I shouldn’t have.

However, I should have been more observant. The Council told us all that they were going to get rid of the wrecks in the River Leven. They haven’t.

A visitor to the town came down to the waterside from the High Street with his camera to take a picture of the Castle. He didn’t. His view was blocked not by a wreck but with a portacabin sitting on top of one, falling apart with the windows smashed in. I did all the usual things people do when they go to the shops. I took money out of the cash machine at the bank and crossed to road [carefully] to pick up my new specs.

That done, I went into Greggs for Belgian buns and a couple of Scotch pies and then into a nearby shop to buy a sympathy card for the family of a friend who died last week and was buried on a beautiful island on Ireland’s West Coast on Sunday.

There is no butcher, no fish shop, no greengrocer to purchase the makings of a healthy dinner. There are vap shops, pubs and bookies’ of course. There’s an odour of poverty and deprivation. The once proud Church of Scotland in High Church is a warren crammed with wee businesses – and a night club.

Even the swans are no longer being fed. People need the bread for themselves and their families. We are one of Scotland’s many sink towns now.

Like so many other shops, the card shop was empty, of course, so I took the opportunity to ask the man behind the counter how was business.

Not good, he said predictably. The rates are too high. The council promised they would look after small businesses to encourage people to make use of the shops and cafes. Something radical needed to be done. It wasn’t.

But what? Well they have begun demolishing the shops across the road in what was the Artizan Centre and they are building the new library and museum at Glencairn House, he said despondently.

Too many shops have closed. The businesses in them were not viable. The man didn’t have much hope that the council could turn things around. It seemed to be too late for that.

A couple of drug addicts were sitting on the seats at the bus stop smoking. The rain was getting heavier. When was the next bus due? The clock was still at 10.25am and there was no sign of the bus. I got the feeling it might never come, but it did … eventually.

The Labour council have given up the ghost. Would the last person to leave Dumbarton please turn out the lights.

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Author: Karin Goodwin

At least 16 children and young people have died of suicide or drug overdoses while in the care system since 2021, the youngest of whom took their own life at just 11 years old, The Ferret has found.

Their deaths – which have prompted “outrage” – were among 38 of young people in care reported to the Scottish Government by local authorities. The young people were aged between three months and 21 years old. They died between Jan 2021 and June 2024 while in foster placements, care homes, or government after-care programmes.

Eleven took their own lives, the leading cause of death in this group. Others who died by suicide were teenagers, with one just 15. Another six were under-18 at the time.

THE FULL STORY IS ON THE FERRET WEBSITE TODAY

So, what’s the situation with this in West Dunbartonshire? The Council spin doctors won’t comment to The Democrat. We are hoping now that Labour have gone and the SNP are rapidly disappearing into the political distance that the newly-consitituted council will lift the restrictions on us. Watch this space.

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Kate Forbes was accused of thinking Scots’ heads “button up the back” after getting the SNP excuse book out to insist that NO manifesto promises had been broken by her party.

She was grilled on John Swinney’s programme for government which has been roundly criticised by MSPs, charities and other organisations.

One of the main issues with it is the axing of universal free school meals for primary six and seven pupils, which formed a key part of the SNP’s vows in the lead-up to the 2021 Holyrood elections. The Deputy First Minister repeatedly insisted it will happen but refused to be drawn on a date.  Now SNP opponents – and thousands of hungry weans – are left wondering: “What will Katie do next?”