THE LIBDEMS, THE SNP, THE TORIES OR C.U.P. THE FIESTY MOTHER AND BLUNDERWOMAN McCARTIN.

24 06 10 - 09:25 A.M. The Full council is about to start and I am abruptly confronted by the object of my last post Cllr. Eileen McCartin leader of the Libdems on the council. She hands me a photo copy of my post about her with a scribbled comment paraphrased from Hamlet; presumably to impress me with her education; she is far too late with that I can assure you. She then later on started to speak about the post in a most uneasy way; uncomfortable because she; yes Eileen McCartin of all people was actually trying to look for sympathy, accusing me of libel; telling lies and abuse; none of which had anything to do with the issue being discussed, a clear exploitation of the meeting and so very typical of her. She even accused me of disparaging her dead parents! There is no way I could know that her parents were dead so I can only conclude that she thinks so much of them that she is quite happy to exploit the fact that they are deceased to get at me; not something I would do nor most of you I’ll wager but I suppose it takes all kinds; it rather vindicates my picture of her in my last post, later in the meeting she made a rather pompous contribution where she mentioned 'Libdem principles' honestly; I couldn't help remembering the great great quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson about a fraudulent dinner guest,which I now paraphrase "The louder she talked of her dignity, the faster we counted our spoons"

Cllr. Mackay not for the first time tried to charge us with misogyny in relation to McCartin and called on the Labour Group to be better behaved; to anyone who has witnessed the conduct of the SNP over the years this goes well beyond chutzpah. Asking for sympathy for McCartin is like saying Mrs. Thatcher was really quite nice you just didn’t look hard enough for her gentle side; Mackay and the SNP were famous for having to be removed by the Police; something that has never happened to any Labour Cllr. In my memory.

We moved a motion to scrap parking charges at the RAH and despite the SNP candidate at the Last General Election Ms. McLaren promising to campaign for their abolition and Nicola Sturgeon saying the SNP would scrap them they voted us down and supported an amendment to let the NHS deal with it on their own; they washed their hands of it. Then came the charade over the alleged Privatisation of Council houses; the SNP /Libdem position here was that despite agreeing to ballot for a transfer in Ferguslie Park and the SNP decision to transfer to a Social Landlord in West Dumbartonshire they were not privatising council Housing but if Labour did it we were Privatising Council Houses. Housing Convener Brian Lawson who should know better said that the Ferguslie Park proposed Transfer did not count because it was only 500 houses truthfully that was his position.

I asked how the Libdems could defend the Libdem/Tory budget and Eilenn McCartin came in and spoke unintelligible gobbledygook without actually trying to defend it at all. No one in the administration was able to explain how the Libdems could be in coalition with the Tories in Westminster and with the SNP here when the SNP were opposed to Osborne’s Budget; strange bedfellows indeed. At one point the young Tory Cllr. For Linwood Cllr. Clews objected to being called a Tory; he insisted on being called the “Conservative and Unionist Party” and claiming that they have not been the Tories since Disraeli’s time; I could not get back in but; I was itching to tell him that the great “One Nation Tory” Disraeli would not touch today’s C.U.P. or Tory Party whichever you prefer with a barge pole.

The meeting ended in high farce when we once again discussed school busses with parents present; the item was kept to the last intentionally to sicken them and get them to leave but they stayed; the angry parents were subjected to a pretentious diatribe from Council Leader Mackay who caused a sharp intake of breath by again telling them that getting a child to school was the responsibility of parents and not the council something which dates back to horses and carts and not fast cars and lorries; a display of self-importance and disdain.

And finally back to big Chief McCartin and if she thought that she had been harshly treated on my blog there was a parent there who rapidly corrected that suggestion. This woman rose after being told to keep quiet and started to leave; changed her mind and marched back and let McCartin have it with both barrels. She was magnificent in her wrath and she called Eileen McCartin all sorts she made the wounding allegation against devout Catholic McCartin that she was making it harder for her to provide her child with a catholic education because of the bus cuts. Provost Lawson shouted that she would have her thrown out and the woman looked at her with cold fury and said “go ahead” Council Bouncers Drew and John approached the woman tentatively and she said to them “what are you going to do manhandle me; are you going to throw me out” John and Drew wisely backed off and everyone said “well what now”? we said “Gaun yersell missus” or words to that effect and she left triumphantly still directing her anger at the abject McCartin and Mackay. She reminded me of a line from an old folk song where an angry mother remonstrates with the army over her injured son “were you deaf or were you blind when you harmed a hair of a child of mine”

The Tories or the C.U.P. have now sided with Labour on the school busses; I thought you would like to know that, I tell you these busses will be running along the road to Damascus.