MSP stands by council attack as row heats up
AN MSP has defended an attack she launched on councils as she came under further criticism from a senior figure within her own party for her comments.
Joan McAlpine insisted that some local authorities are “failing their communities” and singled out the Labourrun Dumfries and Galloway and West Dunbartonshire Councils for criticism, claiming the SNP’s main opposition want to “empower their cooncil cronies”.
The Nationalist MSP, who served as an aide to Alex Salmond when he was First Minister, sparked outrage after saying in her weekly newspaper column supporters of decentralising power from Edinburgh wanted to “bring down” Holyrood.
She also accused non-SNP parties in local government of “empire building” and said they wanted to “channel money back to their cronies”.
The comments were condemned by Cosla, which represents Scotland’s councils, and opposition parties of all stripes.
Calum Cashley, an approved SNP Westminster candidate and former head of media at campaign group Business for Scotland, said her comments showed “a politician out of touch, arrogant and unthinking”.
In a blog for Holyrood Magazine, he added: “Her lack of respect for Scotland’s councils, the institutions that the SNP Government relies on to deliver an enormous chunk of Scotland’s front-line services, stands in stark contrast to the regard in which those councils are held by Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries in the Scottish Government.”
However, Ms McAlpine stuck by her column, pointing out she had praised some council employees and local politicians. She branded the Liberal Democrats “dozy” for saying she is currently an aide to Mr Salmond in a press release, and attacked Labour for voting “for continued austerity at Westminster”.