Saturday, 16 January 2016

Labour council tries to avoid paying people for flood damage by blaming the SNP

I was planning to enjoy my break from blogging for a while yet, but tales of local government stupidity are just too good to miss, so let's hear it for Dumfries and Galloway's attempt to avoid paying people for the recent flood damage and then blame the SNP government for that.

The government set aside £700,000 to pay the victims of the New Year floods, but D&G Council decided not to tell any of their residents about that fund. Then, when people began to make claims, the council brushed them off with the excuse that the fund was only for the victims of the earlier flooding the month before.

Unfortunately at least one victim of the December floods came forward and told her MSP that when she had applied for the compensation the council had told her that they knew nothing about any fund that the government had set aside to compensate anyone for any flooding at all!

Things became entertaining when Labour decided to make political capital out of the cock-up, which led to John Swinney, the Finance Minister, losing his rag completely and  handed out a dose of the old heavy manners:

Joan McAlpine, who sits in Holyrood for the South of Scotland region posted the full, sorry tale to Facebook on the 11 January, and needless to say, the council promptly altered its website and is now advertising the fact that people who suffered in the floods can get money for repairs to their property, but it's a bit late for all that now, isn't it?

This has nothing to do with Jeremy Corbyn, Momentum, the takeover of the Labour Party by Trotscum, or any other fantasy that the political right wants to come out with. This is the old story of Labour incompetence at its worst, with local councillors sitting back in the members' bar and leaving matters to the council's officers to run. You could not make shit like this up if you tried.

In just over four months Scotland will have a general election, and Labour are going to need a miracle to save them in the South of Scotland.
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