Rocket range - continued
This is not going to go away, and the unequivocal statements from Mr MacSween need verification, simply because of the implications of what he says.
I have spoken to a number of Lewis/Harris Councillors about their recollection of events. These Councillors are not part of the 'inner circle' but they all confirm that they were unaware of the nature of the review until June 2009. One Councillor said that they were vaguely aware of the Uist Councillors mentioning this and that it might have been raised at one informal meeting, but that at no time was the seriousness of the possible outcome of the review mentioned.
All the Councillors were told by the Chief Executive, after the event, that Mr MacSween had been asked to use his Labour Party contacts to get some feedback, as the Council was getting no feedback from the MP or the MOD. It was due to his ability to connect with the political system that Mr MacSween was asked to be on the Task Force.
All the other matters are either undisputed or a personal take on events.
In summary, it appears that Mr MacSween is accurate in his statements and that Mr MacNeil has sought to mislead the public over the timing and nature of his involvement.
It also appears that the failure of Southern Isles Councillors and the leadership of the Comhairle to bring the seriousness of the matter to the attention of the other Councillors, and the delays in chasing information from the various parties also contributed significantly to the overall mad panic as the announcements rolled out.
The failure of our MP or MSP to address any of the substantive issues or even deny them points directly to the accuracy of what he alleges.
I have spoken to a number of Lewis/Harris Councillors about their recollection of events. These Councillors are not part of the 'inner circle' but they all confirm that they were unaware of the nature of the review until June 2009. One Councillor said that they were vaguely aware of the Uist Councillors mentioning this and that it might have been raised at one informal meeting, but that at no time was the seriousness of the possible outcome of the review mentioned.
All the Councillors were told by the Chief Executive, after the event, that Mr MacSween had been asked to use his Labour Party contacts to get some feedback, as the Council was getting no feedback from the MP or the MOD. It was due to his ability to connect with the political system that Mr MacSween was asked to be on the Task Force.
All the other matters are either undisputed or a personal take on events.
In summary, it appears that Mr MacSween is accurate in his statements and that Mr MacNeil has sought to mislead the public over the timing and nature of his involvement.
It also appears that the failure of Southern Isles Councillors and the leadership of the Comhairle to bring the seriousness of the matter to the attention of the other Councillors, and the delays in chasing information from the various parties also contributed significantly to the overall mad panic as the announcements rolled out.
The failure of our MP or MSP to address any of the substantive issues or even deny them points directly to the accuracy of what he alleges.
7 comments:
Game set and match MacSween. I can't wait to see what lame excuses the Cyber Nats are going to come out with now.
This episode sheds some light on an issue that some of us have been vaguely aware of for some time:- that is that Mr. Angus B. MacNeil MP has completely failed in his duty to act as an advocate in Westminster for Western Isles matters, and his lack of activity on the Range issue is only one example.
Mr. MacNeil's rather frantic attempts over the last few weeks to give an impression of activity will fool no one.
He has left some of his supporters who gave him such a handsome majority in 2005 feeling badly let down, and SNP activists must be demotivated and apathetic, in much the same way that Labour activists felt at the last election.
If I was Mr. Allan MSP, I would be making doubly sure that none of the negative fallout from the MP was rubbing off on me, because he will have a difficult enough job getting re-elected himself without a hangover of failure from the MP.
What a shower of wingers you shower are, we elected MacNeil to futher the cause of Nationalism, and so what if a few jobs nwere lost they sould all go, we will pull out of Nato and all the forces occuping Uist and our nation will be thrown out along with trident. there will be jobs galore in Scotland once we are free
macneil's refusal to answer questions about anything that matters - like rocket ranges and windfarms - while rushing in to act as rentaquote on the misfortunes of another mp confirm just how shallow he is
Anon 4.49
Can you please clarify what is ' a shower of wingers ' what is a 'nwere job' and what does 'sould' mean?
I also didn't realise that we were an occupied Nation, and just where are these 'jobs galore' going to come from once we have pissed off the rest of the world. Oh I know looking after the lunatics that will have taken over the asylum.
There are a few more questions still to be asked. It seems to me that if many more defence jobs were to be lost in Scotland, the Scottish Labour party would be the main losers in May.
With this in mind, did Mr MacNeil ever pick up the phone to speak to Jim Murphy to see if the Secretary of State for Scotland could help him save the Range jobs? If not, why not?
Has he even done so yet to see if they could help make the Range safe in the future?
Think the employees and the people in Uist have a right to be told - if AB's ever left the retreat he was attending in the USA when he should have been doing his job.
At long last, the connection - and the reasons for the silence ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8521868.stm
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