Were better than that

Trio blasted for whitewashing guilt

Sunday to be kept clear in her diary - just incase something else pops up?

Messrs Clark, Connolly and Grant go further and say that they’ve never seen me in the County Buildings in their “17 years of local authority service”.

Gentlemen – I was reporting on meetings in the County Buildings back in the days when we still had a County Council!

My “service” to journalism is nearer 47 years, and I’ll take no lectures in fake news, false news, good news, bad news or yesterday’s news from the owner of The Sweetie Shop in Girvan or the Spar store in Maybole.

But no – I don’t regularly attend council meetings.

And neither do 99.99 per cent of the people I write for. You don’t have to sit in the US Senate to appreciate that Donald Trump is a blustering buffoon.

I wouldn’t sit through most of South Ayrshire Council’s political ping pong if you paid me.

And I suspect neither would Messrs Clark, Connolly and Grant if you DIDN’T pay them.

Let’s see now - Councillor Brian Connolly has pocketed around £ 198,000 in allowances and expenses since he won his seat by a single vote in 2006. And that’s excluding 2017!

By the end of his current term, he will be a quarter- millionaire from his “service” to South Ayrshire.

In their last five years serving the public, Alec Clark and William Grant have received over £ 80,000 each in allowances and expenses. Again, 2017 excluded. Any false news in those numbers, gentlemen?

Finally, all three conclude their missive with “Come on Mr Shields, we thought you were better than that”.

I suggest they take a walk though their constituencies and tell any passer by “Hey – there was a motion to honour our war heroes with a flag – and I didn’t support it”.

My guess is that your voters will think . . . “we thought you were better than that.”