19th June 2009

Hold that hold that message. They’ve re-ratted! The SNP group has just announced that it is not, after all, going to support the Education Estates Review Group. It seems that the possibility of understanding the real problems of school provision, and maybe having to take unpopular decisions to address these problems, is to much for the SNP to bear.

So there we are. Back where we started. The SNP would rather not get involved, it would rather hide away, maintain ignorance, rather than be forced to face the truth, to know the problems and to take the hard decisions that real honest government demands. Nothing new there then. But sad just the same.

20 October 2008

Hold that message (see below). The SNP group on NAC has decided that members can join the Review Groups if they want! A giant step forward for common sense, but it’s still not clear if all SNP councillors will take advantage and actually get involved with the council’s opertions. We willwait and see.

1st May. Update to report below

Yesterday, in public at the full council meeting, I asked Allan Hill, SNP Leader, why his group had decided to renege on the decision to do the work, and if the SNP was willing to rethink its decision.

I have to say, I did not get any clear answer, except that they will not reconsider. It’s a puzzle.

Either the SNP doesn’t want to learn the workings of the council and help in improving it.

Or SNP councillors are too lazy to do the work involved.. even though they are getting paid to do the job!

28th March 2008

During the budget process in February, it was agreed that series of working groups be set up to review the councils services. Now the SNP group on the council has indicated that, after initially agreeing to co-operate in the working groups, the elected SNP councillors are now not willing to do the work. They have decided to quit the working groups before the working groups even start working!

Given that working together is a logical consequence of the proportional system of voting from which the SNP has benefited greatly, this seems a churlish attitude, to say the least.

As far as I can see there can be only two reasons for this change of mind: either the SNP does not want to know the facts, because they don’t want to have the responsibility for taking decisions based on those facts. Instead they want to be free to make mischief, regardless of the truth of the situation…..or…

…. the SNP councillors are just do not want to put in the time. This despite the fact that, for the first time ever, councillors get a wage for the work they do.

Either way it’s not right and it’s not acceptable for the main opposition party to shirk its responsibilities in this way. It is frankly astonishing that the Nationalist Party councillors think they have no responsibility to take on the hard work of serving the people who voted for them!

The public of North Ayrshire will not be sympathetic to their elected SNP representatives refusing to do the work they are getting paid for, and whose attitude, when asked to participate in the legitimate operation of the council and to take on some of the appropriate workload of the council, is to react with a brave “Run away! Run away!”