Where's Stevo?

Now that Audit Scotland and Strathclyde Polis have decided that there is absolutely 'nothing to see here, move along please', with regards to any investigation into the assorted ne'er do wells that were spotted hanging around the wraith that was Steven Purcell. Establishment Scotland can now go back to sleep delighted that a line has been drawn in the sand and they don't have to answer any tricky questions from competent and probacious men.


The assorted coke fiends, nightclub owners, football shareholders, wealthy local businessmen, hangers on and Labour party placemen suited and booted in arms length quangos can continue as before, safe in the knowledge that they can continue to hump the public purse with gay abandon, much as they have done since their forefaither's persuaded the electorate that they were ra people's party.


The one question that those who are unsatisfied with being force fed bullshit by our media want answered, is where is Steven Purcell? As the prodigiously prescient Ms Go Lassie Go stated in her Sunday Times (Scotland) column last weekend, "if the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, had vanished in similar circumstances, we would hear of little else." Yet, Mr Purcell has indeed vanished, our medi placated by the mystic runes strewn by Media House inferring that he will be Homo Sacer for at least a year. By which time he will be a mere curious but sad footnote in the history of civic Scotland. So where is he? We're told Australia, Spain, the States (no doubt in anticipation of another five star Lady Ga Ga performance), is he sitting in a semi-detached in Bothwell twitching at net curtains...or is he in the sunny Cayman Islands? 

Obviously the Cayman Islands came into the equation after Messrs Irvine and Watson flew out first class for a consultation with the Cayman Islands government, who are trying to persuade Gordon Brown that threatening offshore tax-free enclaves around the world is not a good idea. Especially if a lot of your donors have homes and companies registered there. 

So do any wealthy Scottish individuals have homes or businesses registered in the Cayman Islands? Is there a Scottish community there? Are there any Scottish place names or house names, that might suggest some kind soul who might have a spare room where Mr Purcell can rest his weary head in?

You would be amazed what a dedicated half hour of google trawling can bring up when you cross reference search Scotland and the Caymans. Apparently the local accent has both a Scottish lilt and  a brogue. Scottish missionaries arrived in the 1840's setting up Presbyterian kirks there and in neighbouring Jamaica, naturally there's also a Grand Masonic lodge. The island is peppered with Scottish street names and houses, Kintyre, Turnberry, Walker, Strathvale, the Kirk supermarket, Glenwood, Dunedin, Bonnie View estates, jings there's even a place called Hell Road and Purcell Port!

It's really quite a remarkable place, somewhere that has been chosen as the seventh best place in the world for the wealthy to reside.

Now if any news hound were curious to start looking through the Cayman Governments website with particular regard to the gazettes section wherein various companies and holdings are registered, they might find some seriously interesting names, some of which have been noted in the past for their largesse towards ra people's party.

If the above doesn't contain enough clues for our 'Where's Stevo?' competition, this might help: 

Coordinates: 19°17'57"N   81°22'54"W 

Somebody's got to pay.

Recognise this happy chap above? No, well like the Lee Marvin character, Walker, in the iconic John Boorman daylight noir film, 'Point Blank', I'm a great believer in the theory that if you go far enough up the chain in an organisation, you always find the one man who makes all the decisions. 

The man in the photograph is Craig A. Dubow, no not the one with the gun, that's Lee Marvin. Craigie boy sits at the top of the corporate chain and is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gannett Company Incorporated of America. He makes all the decisions. 

Gannett is the largest newspaper publisher in the USA, operating some 90 daily newspapers and 23 television channels, including the tabloid 'USA Today'. The company was founded by former Republican presidential candidate Frank Gannett, whose family arrived in the USA via Dorset, the Netherlands and Scotland.  

In the UK they operate under a subsidiary called Newsquest, owning and running 17 daily and 300 weekly newspapers, including the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times. It could be said that as the man at the top of the chain, Mr Dubow's decisions and deliberations directly impact on the news that these 'Scottish' papers deliver.

It is claimed that Newsquest executives are so cowed by Gannett, that not only do they have to raise their hands when nature calls, but they also have to submit a lengthy cost benefit analysis, breaking down the gross cost of their ablutions and what impact such bowel evacuations might have on the Gannett share price...

Some of you may remember Pete Wishart of the SNP in 2007 alleged that Newsquest had mislead the Competitions Commission as to their intent regarding jobs and err standards, when they paid SMG £216 million for the three titles in 2003. Subsequent strikes, redundancies and dramatic collapse in the quality of reporting may have proved Mr Wishart as being not too far off the mark in his assumptions.


After the Sunday Herald's excruciating mea maxima culpa regarding inferences by Ms Go Lassie Go , Mandy Rhodes at Holyrood magazine and The Drum magazine that their relationship with lawyers Levy and MacRae was a conflict of interest in the reporting of the Steven Purcell cocaine story, one can't help wondering if the Newsquest executives are starting to check the exit strategies. Herald editor Donald Martin's decision to leave Glasgow for the bright lights of Dundee and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Sunday Post, this was a career move that allegedly caused spontaneous outbursts of joyful applause and whoops in the Herald building.


The news today that Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson dumped 16,250 of his Gannett shares on the market, netting a tidy $200,000 profit may be causing further ruffles, particularly as 16,250 is the maximum he's allowed to sell under US Security and Exchange commission rules.  These shares are his reward for seeing the Newsquest group shed 23% of their workforce to a mere 5,100. Has he seen the writing on the wall? 

Mr Dubow, the man at the top of the chain has been rewarded nicely too, bringing home an estimated $8 million last year after seeing sales decline by 22% and the workforce decimated by some 6,000. He garnered snorts of derision when he announced in 2008 he was taking a cut in salary from  $7.5 million to $7.3 million. The poor man.

A dedicated blog which chronicles every twist and duplicitous turn by Gannett and Newsquest executives makes for excellent reading and is a great foreshadow of what probably awaits journalists at the group. It shines a bright light into the murkiest corners of the old Herald group who have managed to drag the good name of good old fashioned Scottish journalism through the mud. 


Mr Dubow can thank his lucky stars that he doesn't owe Lee Marvin's 'Walker' any money.