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Labour presses on to silence opposition |
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Friday, 07 April 2006 |
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At the full Council meeting on Thursday 6th Labour's plan to exclude opposition councillors from decision making committees was challenged. In a rare show of unity all the opposition councillors united round one amendment. This called for a review of the present committee system to be carried out by an all party working group. Comparisons were made to cross party discussions which were held before the Holyrood committee system was established.
The amendment was proposed by the longest serving opposition councillor, Christopher Mason of the LibDems, and was supported by SSP, Conservative, and independent councillors as well as the SNP. The debate was unusually heated at times with Labour leader, Steven Purcell, asking why the SNP and LibDems were supporting the same amendment (this does not often happen!). He seemed to have been riled when the SNP's John Mason reminded the chamber that Labour had lost 2 by-elections in 6 weeks.
The clear message was that the opposition councillors, representing around 50% of Glasgow's voters, are united in standing against this draconian Labour move. It was especially ironic that this step away from democracy happened on the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath which made such an important move towards democracy 686 years ago.
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