How can Howat be allowed to carry on after budget sham?
Council lurches into yet another crisis
So, finally . . . the damning truth is out. The Great SNP/ Labour South Ayrshire Budget Consultation of 2018 was nothing more than a calculated sham.
That “bloodbath” budget cuts were deliberately leaked – so they could be withdrawn after “consultation” – and show the ruling coalition in a positive light, is bad enough.
But the unfolding embarrassment that the entire charade was endorsed – perhaps even initiated - by the council’s own chief executive, beggars belief.
Ms Eileen Howat is not an elected official.
She’s paid by the public purse – and her duty is to administer South Ayrshire Council as fairly and as openly as she can.
Her email to council leader Douglas Campbell drives a disturbing coach and horses through both of these basic expectations.
To threaten cuts to hundreds of jobs – knowing the threats would never become reality – was grossly unfair.
And the fact that the pejorative email was only revealed though a Freedom of Information directive shows artifice rather than openness.
So – why is she still in her £ 130,000 plus a year job?
Well, there are probably just two reasons . .
1) She doesn’t want to quit
2) The only people who can fire her are the same people she sent the email to in the first place.
So where do we go from here? Rather interesting is that Ms Howat is quoted - in a separate matter relating to council “leaks” - of being “concerned that the council ends up getting sued”.
Even more interesting would be if GMB union leader Paul Arkison suddenly turned up in court with a host of members whose mental health had suffered due to the
“worry and anxiety of them losing their jobs”.
And it now surely falls on Tory leader Martin Dowey to initiate an independent investigation into whether Ms Howat’s outrageous email over- stepped her remit.
And whether the entire “consultation” farce was prejudicial.
Either way, hopefully we’ll soon be hearing the sound of metal grinding against stone from the Conservative Party meeting room.
It will be the scrape of knives being sharpened. Councillor Dowey should put aside talk of Tory “vindication” - and start talking about a Tory- led transformation.
Douglas Campbell and an unwitting Ms Howat have just handed them a loaded gun.
Now it’s time to find out if there’s a Tory mindset with the guts - and the guile – to fire the bullets.
The Nats have stumbled from blunder to bluster and back again – and they’re not even through their first year in office.
It does beg the question how much longer the five Labour councillors and two independents want their wagon hitched to a political juggernaut that’s heading downhill and jettisoning credibility just to stay on the rails?
Getting them to trade horses in midstream is the most obvious Tory move.
Or – the Tories could go for the death or glory option.
Four more years in the wilderness . . . or call the SNP’s bluff.
They could resign en masse, creating by- elections in Troon, Prestwick, Ayr North, Ayr East, Ayr West, Kyle and North Carrick and Coylton. They were by far the biggest party eleven months ago.
They could hope the current wave of disillusionment hits the Nats – and the preference vote system claims their two weakest links – Councillors Siobhian Brown and Julie Dettbarn.
And those two seats would swing the balance of power.
It’s a massive gamble. It’s the political equivalent of poker’s “all in”.
But do the Tories know when to hold ‘ em, know when to fold em’, know when to walk away . . . and know when to run?
The entire charade was endorsed by the council’s own chief executive, beggars belief