The Funny Old World of the West of Scotland

As reported a few weeks ago the ex-leader of Glasgow City Council has a new job. Well it's not actually a job because his new employers say he won't be receiving any wage so perhaps it ought to be called volunteer work.

Mr Purcell is to work for an organisation called the Stewart and McKenna Foundation. However, it could well have been called the Bulloch and McKenna Foundation.

Allan Stewart, a partner in housebuilders Stewart and McKenna, was banned from acting as a company director for 7 years in the 1990s and twice declared bankrupt. Born Allan Stewart Bulloch, the 53 year old rebuilt his career under a new name. He says he dropped his original surname because of a speech impediment and that there had been no attempt to mislead people. He also dropped it from the electoral roll and official records at Companies House.

In the 80s Allan Stewart (then Bulloch) was a director of Grampian Glazing which was subject to numerous court actions. In 1984, Everest Double Glazing banned it from 'passing off' windows and doors by using a logo with a 'striking resemblance' to its own. The next year two creditors served warrants on the firm to freeze it's assets after it failed to pay for £32,000 of goods.

In 1986 Grampian, Bulloch and his partner Graham Gracie, were sequestrated (the Scots term for bankruptcy). The firm owed 55 creditors £160,000, equivalent to £350,000 today. Both men had to sell their homes but their creditors still lost every penny.

In 1990 both Bulloch and his wife Margaret were banned from serving as company directors after being judged "unfit to be concerned in the management of a company". Bulloch was disqualified for seven years, his wife for five. Just two years later Bulloch was sequestrated again after problems with a new window business.

If he was disqualified, how did he manage to set up another business?

It would appear Mr Bulloch's speech impediment occurred in the late 1990s when he stopped using the surname Bulloch.

In 2006 the council, under the leadership of Steven Purcell, agreed to pay one of Stewart and McKenna's firms £1.7m for land for the 2014 Common Wealth Games - £350,000 more than the company paid for it a year earlier.

In 2008 the 13 firms under the parent company Stewart and McKenna (holdings) Ltd made a profit of £41,586 but a loss of £5.75m in 2009. In January this year HMRC took Stewart and McKenna Ltd to court over an unpaid tax bill of £78,000 and the company was would up in May.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that Stewart and McKenna are anything other than upstanding Glaswegian businessmen who have offered the down-on-his-luck Steven Purcell some work with their charitable foundation, but I am curious as to how Mr Bulloch developed a speech impediment in the late 90s, which deterred him from saying Bulloch - although it would appear he has no problem with Stewart.

Aye, it's a funny old world the west of Scotland, particularly where labour donors are concerned.

source

Tweet

The Repenter Returns

Steven Purcell, the man who unexpectedly resigned as leader of Glasgow City Council blaming stress, has a new job. He looks thrilled to bits.

He is to work for the Stewart and McKenna Foundation, an organisation which co-ordinates a large number of charitable causes both in Scotland and abroad. Allan Stewart and Stephen McKenna are property developers, (the Stewart and McKenna Group based in Cambuslang, Glasgow), who set up the Foundation in 2007.

Mr McKenna and Mr Stewart said they hoped to give Mr Purcell a second chance after reading he wanted to become involved in charity work.

We're not risking the foundation by taking him on - we put 90 per cent of the money into it ourselves and we're not stupid. Steven's made a mistake and he understands that.

"I think it's fantastic that he will be working with us. He's said he wanted to work on Scottish projects.

"It will be great for our foundation, for Steven, and for Scotland."

Aye well, it'll certainly be good for Steven.

source

Update: Dubbieside has provided a link to the Sunday Herald website which digs a little deeper. Today's Sunday Herald wasn't online when I wrote the post.

Tweet

Purcell - The Lid Blows Off

Many in Scottish labour won't be feeling too cheery this morning, in fact, when they read the headlines some will be feeling decidely uncomfortable.

Stephen Purcell resigned as leader of Glasgow City Council on the 5th of March. The reason for his sudden department was 'stress' and it was strange not one senior labour politician made any public comment regarding the hurried exit of one of their brightest members.

However, the lid was bound to blow off sooner or later and today's papers have exposed the questionable relationship Purcell had with Willie Haughey, one of Scotland's most successful businessmen, a complex network of councillors, other businessmen and public sector chiefs, most with connections to labour. Haughey is one of labour's biggest donors and an ally of Gordon Brown.

Haughey chaired a quango called Scottish Enterprise Glasgow (SEG) and one of the firms given support by SEG was Haughey's own company. He received £970,000 of support from SEG. It was part of a £17m compensation and relocation package for the headquarters of his Glasgow business, which was in the path of a planned motorway due to be built by the Scottish government, Glasgow city council and two other councils.

He owned two properties on the proposed route that he had bought for £1.3 million. The independent valuer offered £7.4 million for them but it seems Haughey wanted Jack McConnell, then the First Minister, to intervene when dealings with the valuer ground to a halt in December 2003.

That month Haughey gave £330,000 to labour. The property offer was subsequently raised to £13.3 million. Jack McConnell denied any interference in the independent valuation.

One of Purcell's initiatives was a construction quango called City Building which is a construction company created out of the council's former building services. An investigation revealed that the wage bill for senior employees doubled in just two years. Some of those who benefited were labour members closely allied to the former leader. The same quango also spent thousands of pounds on hospitality, including paying £2,000 for a table at a labour party fundraiser where, among several labour figures, it entertained Scottish labour leader Iain Gray.

One of Haughey's companies had a contract providing heavy-duty vehicles for City Building.

We already know Purcell is understood to have had a cocaine habit and was warned by police he was a blackmail risk. Glasgow labour closed ranks once Purcell resigned but surely they realised it was only a matter of time before the truth started to trickle out.

This is very possibly just the beginning of Glasgow city council and labour's domination of the city. Formal investigations should be initiated so as Glaswegians can be made aware just how much money has been 'misdirected' by Mr Purcell.

Could this be one of Mr Purcell's ideas? It's a report stating Glasgow city council officials are in talks with a private company about taking over major services such as refuse collection, cleansing and the running of public parks. Senior council officers have planned to travel to England next week for further talks with the company Enterprise plc.

The only example of privatisation which affects me is the care and maintenance of our trunk roads. There is a definite reduction in the standard of winter care such as gritting. Where profit and shareholders are involved something or someone has to suffer the consequences. It could be the people of Glasgow if this proposal goes ahead.

Tweet

Stephen Purcell Resigns as Councillor

Stephen Purcell, ex-leader of Glasgow City Council, has resigned as a councillor today according to STV news.

The 37-year-old was one of Labour's rising stars and his sudden resignation from the post of leader of Scotland's largest council earlier in the week caused some drama in Scottish politics. It was said at the time he would continue to serve as a councillor.

Now he has left politics altogether. A loss for many.

Thanks to Mark for his sharp eyes.

Tweet

What a Difference a Day Makes

There I was yesterday, hurling along the reasonably quiet road to Perth, when the car radio emitted the news of Stephen Purcell's immediate resignation from his post as Labour leader of Glasgow Council, the largest council in Scotland. It is understood he will remain a councillor.

'Exhaustion' was the reason given with the pressures of the Commonwealth Games and the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport fiasco cited as likely causes. The news item then broadcast a decidedly tepid few sentences from Iain Gray and a glowing tribute from Alex Salmond who praised Mr Purcell's professionalism - in particular his contribution towards bringing the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Glasgow.

For many years I supported a couple of mental health charities and certainly hoped that, in this 'enlightened' age, the stigma of mental illness would have evaporated but sadly that is not so.

If Mr Purcell is suffering from exhaustion then he deserves privacy to recover in his own time. However, he hasn't helped his situation by cloaking his departure in intrigue, with the heavy hand of his personal lawyers taking control and the employment of the PR company Media House, even though Glasgow Council has an effective PR department.

The blogosphere has some interesting comment and those which have caught my eye are Anna Raccoon, Go Lassie Go (who has other links), The Universality of Cheese and Munguin's Republic. Angus Macleod pays his tribute to Mr Purcell, noting that there are few, if any, in Scottish politics who are giving any credence to the notion that this is just s temporary blip in Purcell's career and that he could soon be back. He is of the opinion it is simply not going to happen.

Not only will his departure as leader of Glasgow Council be a loss to Glasgow but it is a devasting blow to Labour just weeks from a general election.

I wish him well.

Tweet

GLASGOW COUNCIL SETS ITS OWN MINIMUM WAGE

Stephen Purcell, the Leader of Glasgow Council, has announced the council's minimum wage will rise to £7.00 an hour the Sunday Times reports. The increase will affect around 700 council workers. The present national rate is £5.73 and the rise to £7.00 is more than a 20% increase.  The only other authority which operates a similar policy is the Greater London Authority.

He also stated the council will give preference to contractors who offer the same rate to their workers, affecting up to 80,000 privately employed staff.

The move has provoked a backlash from business leaders and taxpayers groups who have condemned it as an unbelievable example of public sector profligacy while the rest of the country is struggling.

Mr Purcell said, "Almost one in five of Glasgow's workers are paid less than £7 an hour and the Glasgow living wage has the potential to make a huge difference to thousands of families.  It's the right thing to do."

The Times states Purcell's decision will embarrass the Labour party which has been resisting union calls to raise the national minimum wage.

A brave decision by Mr Purcell, very brave indeed and I hope it succeeds as he says, in raising staff morale, productivity and quality of life for the lowest paid in our public services.  He makes no mention of the sources which will fund this new policy and one thing's for sure, he cannot ask council taxpayers to accept any increase when other councils are freezing council tax.

Another move towards his future leadership challenge may be a fair assessment.

Tweet

JOAN McALPINE RUBBISHES PURCELL'S SUPPORT FOR PFI and PPP

Joan McAlpine writes an excellent article in today's Sunday Times in which she slates the comments of Glasgow council leader Stephen Purcell.  Last week Mr Purcell blamed the SNP for his scholastic slums but Ms McAlpine's having none of it.  

It was all Alex Salmond's fault said Mr Purcell, his hostility to the PPP and RFI models of funding building projects meant the school building programme in Scotland was slowing.

Ms McAlpine tells Mr Purcell he is acting like a child caught misbehaving in the playground, who then points the finger at an innocent child.  But he is easily found out because his timing is terrible.

She pulls Mr Purcell's statement to pieces, bit by little bit and does it without any of the usual SNP bias from a large majority of Scottish journalists.  It will be uncomfortable reading for Mr Purcell or indeed the labour group of Glasgow council, but do I care?

BellegroveBelle also posts on this subject and it's well worth a read as she's an SNP Glasgow councillor.

Tweet