Jobcentre minister’s e-mail gaffe
STEWART PATERSON Holyrood Week
DAMIAN HINDS, the UK Minister for Employment, who wants to shut half of Glasgow’s Jobcentres has been accused of a blatant disregard for people in affected communities.
He has already admitted he hasn’t visited Glasgow before or since the closure announcement.
And now it has emerged he invited an MSP to a meeting more than 400 miles away at just three hours’ notice. He e-mailed an invitation at 1pm to Labour MSP Jackie Baillie for a meeting in London at 4pm.
DAMIAN Hinds, the UK Minister for Employment, who wants to shut half of Glasgow’s Jobcentres is accused once again of a blatant disregard for people in affected communities.
He has already admitted he hasn’t visited Glasgow before or since the closure announcement.
And now it emerged he invited an MSP to a meeting more than 400 miles away at just three hours notice.
When announcing further closures which included Alexandria in Dunbartonshire, the constituency of Labour MSP Jackie Baillie Mr Hinds sent an e-mail at 1pm.
It was to invite her to a meeting to discuss the plans which was taking place at 4pm the same day, in London.
In a debate of Jobcentre closures Ms Baillie revealed the bizarre invitation.
She said: “The latest wave of closures includes the Alexandria jobcentre in my constituency.
“I first heard about the proposal two weeks ago when I received an e-mail at 1pm inviting me to meet Damian Hinds, the Minister of State for Employment, at 4pm on the same day in London.
“Clearly, geography is not the minister’s strong point.”
Had he used the DWP’s favourite website, google maps, he would have found the time taken to get there was a one and a half hour flight.
That would have left another one and a half hours to get to Glas- gow Airport and then from Gatwick to Westminster had she headed straight there.
It takes 23 minutes by car from Alexandria to Glasgow airport and another 53 from Gatwick to the House of Commons making a total trip time of two hours 46 minutes, leaving 14 minutes to negotiate security etc at the airport.
Ms Baillie added: “This is about properties and saving money. The last thing that it is about is the needs of jobseekers and local communities.”
IHAVE in my head a picture of Damian Hinds, the DWP Employment Minister, stumbling into the Bridgeton Jobcentre, like Goldilocks. “This office is too big” he frowns.
Then he heads to Castlemilk. “This office is too small” he whines, before heading off to Mayhill.
“Oh, this is too big as well” as he stamps around the office.
“Ah who cares? shut them all” and he flounces back to Westminster. “And shut another five while you’re at it,” he shouts.
Unfortunately, there is more chance of Goldilocks being spotted in Bridgeton, Castlemilk or Maryhill than Damian Hinds, as he also admitted. While he visits two or three Jobcentres a month, he hasn’t been to a single one in Glasgow.
This week at Westminster Mr Hinds, the UK Government Minister in charge of this shambles of a proposal, had the opportunity to state the case for the closures.
He didn’t because he couldn’t. He failed to address any of the concerns with acceptable answers. All he had to offer was that the offices are either too big or too small.
It can’t be both. How that leads to the conclusion that half of them need to be shut is unfathomable.
It is becoming clearer by the day that the UK Government’s plan to axe half of Glasgow’s Jobcentres is unravelling. Four of the five parties at Holyrood called for it to be scrapped this week and only tribal politics appears to be stopping the Tories from voicing outright opposition.
The arguments against have piled up and landed on the DWP desks in the shape of hundreds of consultation responses and thousands of names on petitions.
Travel problems, unfair additional costs, removal of services, digital exclusion, childcare difficulties, higher deprivation and greater need have all been highlighted from everyone from those who use the service, groups who work closely with them to the Church of Scotland and the Archbishop of Glasgow.
Mr Hinds did reveal the true reason why this sorry exercise is taking place. It is all about reducing costs. Mr Hinds said because 20year leases are coming to an end, there was an “opportunity” to review the DWP estate and save the tax payer money by cutting unused floor space.
THERE it is. The Tories have spotted an “opportunity” not to improve services or find new premises but to cut and save money and, once again, the axe falls on the poorest communities.
And if a mum in Maryhill or Castlemilk has to fork out the price of a day’s shopping to get to Springburn or Newlands then so be it.
While the Tories at Holyrood are being timid, at least one at Westminster sees it for what it is.
Anna Soubray, a Nottingham MP said after hearing from people about the Glasgow situation is was a “desktop exercise” which made little or no sense. It was not logical she told Goldilocks, I mean Mr Hinds.