Another attempt at rewriting the history of the Labour party

Published 3 Dec 2010 11:30 2 Comments

I SEE in the Tele on Friday 12 November, Joseph McFadden and Colin Jackson made a futile attempt to rewrite Labour's history.

It is a great pity that in attempting to do so, these people did not declare their Labour allegiance.

One of the writers said the previous Labour health minister dissolved the Argyll and Clyde health board.

This was only after the minister had come to Greenock and met with the council's health working group, of which I was a community member at the time. At that meeting myself and others told the minister that the Inverclyde public had lost faith in the health board.

What people should be made aware of is the chairman of the then health board, John Mullen, was a former Labour councillor of Strathclyde Regional Council.

We should never forget the previous Labour/Lib Dem Executive were going to close the accident and emergency department at Inverclyde Royal in 2007, and at a number of other hospitals throughout Scotland. It was also going to impose parking charges at IRH.

Maybe the two letter writers should ask the doctors and nurses at IRH, past and present, what happened under the previous Labour/Lib Dem Executive?

Also let us not forget that the current Labour health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie MSP, who represents dunbartonshire, could not even save her own local hospital from her party's cut backs, and so the Vale of Leven Hospital was downgraded under the Labour/Lib Dem Executive.

As for protecting jobs in Scotland, we should never forget that during the Thatcher years of the 1980s that while the Tory Government was destroying Inverclyde and Scotland's industrial infrastructure Labour sat back and allowed it all to happen.

Councillor Jim MacLeod, SNP Group Leader, Inverclyde Council

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• 

  CardyTeam
  2 posts
  May 20, 20:23
  Report comment

  Jim, I never thought I'd see the day, free speech was allowed where it was to tell the truth of the rightful condemnation of Labour in Greenock.
  
  But times have indeed changed and it seems we have a more even handed brand of editor working at the Tele now... (in charge of the letters section anyway)... I really can't speak for the rest of the paper at the moment, I moved to Glasgow 6 years ago and haven't seen a Tele since (except when I read the ones Anne McLaughlin of the SNP posts on Facebook).
  
  Anyway, I hope to contribute more at a later date, excuse the username... those who remember the tenement houses in the old Cardross Road (Kilcreggan View) will remember the Cardy Team that played fitba at the Lady Octavia park... we were rotten, our best player was a big lassie fae Clynder Road! :)
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

• 

  Tiddles
  1077 posts
  Jun 15, 13:04
  Report comment

  Oh and Jim, let us NOT forget the parking charges that the, 'new and improved' health board was intent upon imposing on visitors, patients and staff. That was a nasty, slimey little thing that the Lab-Lib coalition was happy to allow until Nicola Sturgeon ended it at a stroke! Of course, Duncan McNeil was as usual, "very concerned" just as he was when his Holyrood pals were going to more or less shut IRH.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 4     No 0

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