Having been left without a councillor since Steven Purcell resigned due to ill health, stress, gak inhalation and up closes associations with the err associates of know gangsters, the poor folk of Anniesland and Drumchapel have been left to their own devices, with no councillor to help them out it must have been a fraught time.
Fear not for last night Labour achieved a quite remarkable victory and the good voters of the ward went X happy and plunked their mark down beside the name of Christopher Hughes - Labour.
Mr Hughes who sounds like an eminently sensible chap despite his premature baldness and the African sunset of his manly beard was most effusive in praising the legacy of Mr Purcell, stating, "He did a lot of work and was a very fine councillor for them for a number of years. It was not an issue at all."
The hardest part of coping with addiction is moving on, and I'm genuinely thrilled that the good voters of the Blairtardie ward have had the bravery to put questions of Mr Purcell's judgement, his association with some err shiftier characters in the Glasgow business underworld and of course the role of cronyism with regard to his various quangocrats, to one side...
One can only hope that this is the last of the criminally supplied gak infused political scandals to hit the country...
Cooooeeeee, hullo Steven Purcell, former leader of Glasgow City Council and ex Labour Councillor here. With a wee message for all you pure dead brilliant fans of Scottish Labour. We're pure brilliant sos we urr. Jist when youse hud thought ahd vanished or something here am urr all ready to pile in and help Labour beat they nasty Scottish natz...
See this Thursday youse have got a great big decision to make in Glesga. Cos like, my old seat Drumchuckie and Anniesland is up fur grabs, so it is. Now youse know it makes pure sense that youse all vote fur Labour cos we're like the party that cares an that innit, we look after youse. They other balloons urnae interested in helping youse wi saving yer dole money or gieing youse jobs wi oor pals businesses. So see on May 6th vote for ma wee pal Chrissy boy Hughes, he's taking over frae me. He'll set about they Nats, jist you watch. Oh and see if youse don't vote fur Labour, youse huv had it. Ah'll get ma pal big Jim tae come round and take a bite oot ae youse. Got it?
Not so long ago on this here blawg, I posed the following question, "How soon before Mr Purcell's £5,000 a day crisis management team manage to sell his exclusive, 'How the Evil Cyber Nats turned me into a Cokehead.' story to one of the Scottish tabloids?
It seems that the answer was exactly 21 days, a mere three weeks, during which time the Scottish bloggeratti and our meeja have hummed, hawed, empathised, condemned, cajoled, conjectured, postulated, fumed and become increasingly exasperated at the drip, drip, drip of real news and the veil that the Labour party and their establishment and media friends have attempted to draw over the whole sorry mess.
In a spectacularly badly timed reappearance for the Labour parties re-election chances, Mr Purcell has popped up in Ireland en route back from Australia, to set the world to rights, fess up to coke use, boozing, blethers with senior plod and err falling through the ice. So much for the supposed munificence of his big business Caymen based backers...
Anyhoo, this past weekend saw the Labour Party spring conference lose money by hiring a decent sized hall at the SECC and throw a hugely expensive cordon of security around it to protect the Prime Minister. In reality there were more security people there than delegates, the applause during Brown's leaders rallying call was simply embarrassing and probably attracted less people than a kiddies birthday party for young Peter File.
The weekends sound-bites for Labour politicians Brown and Murphy, when grilled by the oleaginous GlenCampbelly and Paxman on buns, Brian Taylor, about Purcell, was that this was, " a personal tragedy" - the absurd anti-SNP "don't knock Glasgow" - "no evidence of wrongdoing, move along please."
David Dinsmore, 63, the editor of the Scottish Sun appeared on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland this morning and threw out the remaining vestiges of what journalistic integrity he might ever have possessed (stop snorting at the back) with the early morning bathwater.
In an interview lasting a mere three minutes, Dinsmore 72, appeared like a toddler looking for approval when handing its mother a fresh pooh, he trumpets that his paper triumphed in getting the story that every other journalist wanted. His 'confession' that Purcell was both a contact and a personal friend (note past tense) was no barrier to Disnmore, 87, crushing Purcell with hard hitting questions normally reserved for celebrity rapists and footballers burdz. Listening to the interview was like reading a Labour party press release, rather than that of a man who is supposed to show loyalty to his readers and employers. The lines between hack and Labour acolyte have been seriously blurred here, how can Dinsmore, 59, seriously not see that Purcell and his ilk don't choose to be friends with tabloid editors, they schmooze them and abuse them whenever possible. Naturally it's a relationship that works both ways. What was reprehensible was for Dinsmore, 68, to ignore the web of deceit, lies, patronage, bungs and favouritism that his colleagues across the 4th estate have exposed, which he in turn dismisses and undermines.
The one piece of PR fluff that sticks out, (I have a talent for these things) was his contention when asked about an inquiry into the wrongdoing, that just about every thinking person in Scotland has demanded, that there was "lots of smoke but no fire." Naturally he parroted out the Labour lines as if somebody had a hand up his back. It was a "personal tragedy", his readers can't fail to have "sympathy for Purcell" and so on. It's really vomit inducing stuff.
Of course, there'll be questions as to how much Steven Purcell was paid for his 'exclusive' interview? Our BBC man funnily enough didn't ask this question. Loyal Labour supporters have also got to question Steven Purcell's tactical nous and loyalty to the people's party. By selling his story to the Sun has he just had his Graeme Souness Hillsborough moment? The Sun down south have come out for the Tories. How can they support British Labour here but not British Labour down south?
So in tribute to the sad end to a beautiful friendship that saw Steven and David smile coyly across the table at James Mortimer's Rogano, shared smiles and laughs no more, a fleeting brushing of hands as they reached for their respective coats in the cloakroom. I give you the saddest music in the world, ever.
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:
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.
The above image seems to best illustrate the attitude of the Labour Party and their current denials of any wrongdoing in the Steven Purcell affair. Head in the sand and arse aloft, awaiting the latest engorged brown envelope missive from their wealthy backers.
Naturally after some fairly detailed work by reporters from both the Sunday Times (Scotland) and (surprise surprise) Scotland on Sunday, which highlighted the connections and influences on Purcell by Willie Haughey, the err Glasgow fridge magnate, emphatic denials of any wrongdoing by Steven Purcell or Glasgow City Council are spread around the media like soggy confetti.
As well as this ineffective denial strategy, Labour and their friends in the gutter press have devised another opportunity to kick the SNP in the balls, through the comments of a somewhat hat stand old age pensioner who suffers from views on sexuality last seen in public back in the 1970's. The Daily Record can't seem to make up their mind, last week they informed the world that a drugs gangster had footage of Mr Purcell snorting coke, this week in an article that would bring a tear to Gordon Brown's glass eye, they inform their readers that 'Steven is on the road to recovery'. All that's missing is a floral tribute and a card for everyone to sign
This defence is doomed to fail, much like former councillor Purcell's 'stress' strategy went down like a BNP float at Notting Hill carnival, it scored a resounding big fat zero in the honesty and credibility stakes. Honest journalists (yes, there are some!) and political observers are informed by the salacious tittle tattle of politicians of all stripes. Within moments of Purcell's decisions to quit as leader being released to the media, the tittle tattle started. Some of our straight backed, give-the-fellow-a-chance type blogger's, admirably if not a tad naively, swallowed the whole 'stress' line, hook and sinker. Unfortunately for them and Mr Purcell, enemies old and new were soon out of the woodwork trumpeting alternatives to stress, none more volubly than former mentors and those recently retired through ill health quangocrats.
Attacking your political opponents over perceived slurs or repeating the mantra, "nothing to see here move along please," does not make the story go away, nor does it convince the public that everything Labour in Glasgow is kosher. Serious questions have to be answered. In all sincerity, this is not, in my opinion, a party political issue. If an SNP, Tory, Lib Dem or Green Council Leader was snorting coke with gangsters and was deemed to be far too close to multi-millionaire businessmen and nightclub owners with huge financial interests in the decisions of Glasgow City Council. I'd be saying the exact same thing
Sticking your head in the sand is the fast track way of letting your political opponents kick sand in your face. It's time...to open up. Do yourselves and Scotland a favour, root out this culture of patronage and cronyism that has held Scotland back for so long
The only empathy I share with Mr Purcell is his hulk like rage aimed at the Vodafone helpline staff, they seem to have spectacularly failed to Bring His World Together...
The Sunday Times (Scotland) double spread by Mark MacAskill and Jon Ungoed-Thomas.
Ms Anne Moffat MP, the delightful lady who compared the First Minister to the little moustached German chap who started some unpleasantness in the 1930's, is facing a long drawn out firing squad by her own side.
The poor lady who was attacked by unknown assailants who purloined her jogging jewellery, but not her Blackberry, has had a fraught relationship with the local East Lothian Labour Constituency Party.
Seen as a 'flown-in' high profile Union member from down south, with links in 'nearby' Fife. An earlier attempt to de-select her after concerns over her eye watering expenses, lack of evidence of any local work, rude and unruly behaviour towards party employees and branch volunteers and allegations of a fondness for the liquid side of life, the local constituency were thwarted by Labour's National Executive Committee who allowed the block vote of the Union to ignore local concerns.
Last night she was convincingly rejected by the local branch of her East Lothian constituency 25 - 5. It's rather damning that only five loyal acolytes could be found to support Ms Moffat. It's even more of a poor show, that the largest constituency Labour branch in Scotland could only muster 30 souls to participate in the de-selection of their sitting Member of Parliament. Naturally, rather than abide by local democracy, the dithering, clunking fist of the Labour Party NEC have decided that all 500 constituency members should be consulted.
One would naturally presume that Mr Iain Gray MSP, as a dedicated and high profile constituency member, and a man who knows his way around assembling a Marquee, was in attendance at last nights vote. I find myself pondering as to which way Mr Gray voted in such a terribly important ballot. Will questions be asked by our ever so independent press?
How soon before Mr Purcell's £5000-a-day crisis management team manage to sell his 'exclusive', 'How the Evil CyberNats Turned Me Into A Cokehead.' story to one of the Scottish tabloids?
The same tabloids that have been ever so reluctant to dump all over Mr Purcell and the Labour Party this past week. An 'Exclusive' wherein, we will no doubt encounter a chastened, refreshed and tearful Mr Purcell pouring his heart out over his anguished torment, his loss of power, his fair weather friends, his search for love, his take on the many personalities, politicians and criminals he's encountered and his view of the modernised Scotland he was destined to lead away from the vile yoke of separatism.
Naturally should such an event occur, then those same tabloids who dithered, obfuscated and minimised the story, when Mr Purcell's resignation as Glasgow City Council leader first broke, will be first up to splash the wonga in Mr Purcell's direction, through his PR team, naturally. That would be the same PR team that has a huge influence on the stories the tabloids love to brand as 'Exclusive'. There's nary an 'Auld Firm' story that doesn't have their size 11 predator boots stamped all over it. The access and influence such people have over the 'power of the press' is quite simply wrong. A newspaper industry dependent on parasites, who control their stories and screw them out of substantial sums has lost direction.
As to Mr Purcell's fondness for the Bolivian marching powder, well, as Glasgow, indeed Scotland is blighted by a drugs epidemic, where an unimaginable amount of money is spent educating our youngsters on the dangers of drugs, where our police spend the majority of their time fighting the criminal effects of drug dealing, the NHS mop up the mess left by drug consumption, (how much out of their £11 billion budget goes on coping with the aftermath of drug abuse?) all I can say is congratulations Labour and their drinking and dining buddies in the Scottish press for keeping this story out of the public domain. Your silence has allowed the man who would be King to run a £2.4 billion budget, four-days-a-week, to the best of his ability as a functioning addict..
Remember behind every gram of coke lies a trail of misery, controlled every step of the way by criminals. Mr Purcell, snorting a couple of lines at the opening of some new fancy hairdressers salon in Drumchuckie, leads all the way back through the hard men gangsters in Glasgow's East End, via corrupt cops, customs officials, venal financiers, drug barons, to dirt poor bastards in hot climates scraping a living at the business end of a gun. Where do the profits end up? Well let's look at security companies, taxi companies, tanning salons, nightclubs and bars. Where 'special' clientèle can snort to their hearts content, safe in the knowledge, that if anyone kicks up a fuss, somewhere along the line, a cop, solicitor or politician has their back.
This story has set back all the good work previous Labour politicians and policies have done in fighting drugs. How can Labour councillors, MSP's and MP's stand up now and pontificate on the dangers of drugs, knowing that they have protected and promoted one of their own, who was at the very centre of Scotland's drugs problem? This is a problem that will be with us for years to come.
It appears that the Media House attempts to control the Steven Purcell story is in danger of blowing a tyre and plummeting down the ravine labelled 'No Chuffing Chance'.
For the first time in living memory the Hootsman actually defied convention, alleged threats of legal nastiness and reported yer actual bona fide-oops-Labour-in-the-shitter-news. News, which I hasten to add that the blogosphere has been voraciously whispering les gros mots about, behind cupped palms, since Monday evening, that Mr Purcell's stress, has been attributable to an alleged pharmaceutical dependency.
Jack Irvine's task was made even more Herculean when STV reported today that Mr Purcell went AWOL from Castle Craig Rehab centre on Sunday afternoon and told their gobsmacked audience that our dear chums at Lothian and Border were called in to poke about the bushes looking for a rather lost, bewildered and somewhat dis-inhibited Mr Purcell. If Castle Craig were a psychiatric institution, rather than a 12 step addiction centre, most patients would have been sectioned under the mental health act, and there would be no need to call police for a patient, unless of course when there is a significant danger of self harm.
As much sympathy as I have for any poor soul dependent on medication, legal or otherwise, to get through the day, I honestly feel, the time-line to Mr Purcell's implosion needs further investigation from our doughty press pack.
Just exactly was said at Gordon Brown's table to Mr Purcell at last Thursday's Labour fund-raising dinner at the Glasgow Hilton, when according to all the impartial Labour supporters and Rangers manager Walter Smith, who were in attendance, that Mr Purcell was 'at the top of his game'? What was it that made him, a few short hours later, express a desire to get the flip out of Dodge? Were the raffle tickets so eye blisteringly expensive that Mr Purcell, according to Paul Hutcheon, had to be 'escorted' home? Who were the MSP's with whom he had 'convivial' talks on the Friday morning? Did they not notice anything untoward in his presumably agitated state? Is Mr Purcell paying for Media House representation, and Levy &McRae defamation specialists from his own pocket or could it be that the Labour Party or friends of the Labour Party are dipping into their own deep pockets? Who overruled the rather expensively assembled 'Team Glasgow' who wanted to come clean and fess all? How long has Mr Purcell, suffered from this alleged dependency, did he ever self medicate in the Council Chambers or whilst on Council business? Does Glasgow City Council have a mandatory drug testing system for its employees, does this apply to elected members or merely officers and other lower paid employees? Where exactly did Mr Purcell procure the pharmaceutical in question?
One presumes, with a desperate desire to be truthful and transparent, that the new leader of Glasgow City Council will immediately instigate an investigation into these and sundry other questions of nefarious goings on at the City Chambers.
Naturally, in a normal independent country, a free press would be asking these questions rather than swallowing the cheap party line of praising some chap down on his hunkers and predicting his meteoric return a few weeks after defeating his inner demons.
Come on the press pack, you can pursue other people with great vim, gusto and template cut and paste reporting, how about doing some actual digging and living up to the once exalted title of 'journalist'?
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