It’s just one week to go until the local elections and up in Scotland, the SNP have sportingly decided to dedicate a day to highlighting the kind of successful administration which voters can expect if their party candidates are voted into office. For no less than three separate incidents happened in the last 24 hours which perfectly demonstrate the nats’ commitment to thrifty, frugal and competent government.
First up was belated confirmation from Sturgeon’s deputy John Swinney that his colleagues blew more than £7 million of taxpayers’ money on a flawed Covid vaccine passport app. The Scottish Government pressed ahead with this initiative last year – despite numerous warnings that it wouldn’t work – and quietly switched it off last week after, er, that did indeed prove to be the case. Along with the cost and months of hassle for hard-pressed publicans, the app was also found to have breached data protection laws. Trebles all round!
Then there were the latest developments in the ongoing ferries farce. The initial £97 million deal in 2015 for Ferguson shipyard to deliver two vessels has now spiralled into a quarter of a billion pound disaster with two new lifeline vessels still out of service after seven years. Erik Ostergaard, the former chairman of the quango CMAL which approved the deal, has now revealed he was not given a written record of the reasons ministers wanted him to go ahead with awarding the contract to Ferguson shipyard. With such poor record-keeping, it’s not surprising that the Scottish Government’s failure to provide documentation is being described as ‘institutional corruption on a grand scale’.
And finally there was the return of Britain’s worst council leader to the headlines. For Susan Aitken – head of the bankrupt, rat-plagued city otherwise known as Glasgow – has been forced to apologise for a ‘brazen breach’ of pre-election council rules after filming a politically-based interview in her City Chamber office. This was despite Aitken’s own colleagues circulating a document beforehand to all councillors and staff reminding them that ‘council facilities and resources must not be used in any way in support of a political party or election candidate or for political purposes.’ Whoops!
If all that doesn’t get the voters out, then just what exactly will?
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