Labour should publicly retract Range ‘lies’
Sirs,
If I responded to all of Labour’s jibes, spin and, half truths I would do little else. However this time Cllr Angus McCormack has gone into the territory of outright untruth when he states, ’He [Angus MacNeil, as MP] knew about the defence review 18 months before anyone else and did nothing.’
This is a lie on two counts. Cllr McCormack should publicly retract his statement and DJ MacSween must also distance himself from it.
We must all remember that both of these gentlemen are councillors who are involved with Labour, the same Labour party that threatened the 125 jobs in Uist in the first place.
The Comhairle’s Chief Executive has confirmed that the council received the information of a review from Labour’s Lord Drayson at exactly the same time Angus MacNeil did, in July 2007, as did I and some other interested parties. This was reported in the media earlier this year in response to Mr MacSweens false assertions.
The review notification gave no details of what the review would recommend but that we should wait until the end of the process. Labour’s Lord Drayson said in his letter of July 2007 that, ‘Once the studies have been completed I will write to you again and would encourage you to take part in the consultation that will follow. No decision has been taken and none will until consultation with MPs, MSPs, local authorities, Trades Unions and all other interested parties has been completed.’
Nevertheless, in the interim, Angus Brendan met with the Labour’s Defence Minister, Baroness Taylor, in London in February 2008, who said, she was, ‘not in a position to say anything as the studies were still ongoing and recommendations were someway off.’
Ultimately, over a year later in June 2009, this review process was completed and the Labour Government then threatened to remove 125 jobs from Uist. This was stopped by the hard work of the local Task Force and Angus MacNeil’s work at Westminster cornering Labour by uniting all other political parties against their plans.
Further, in a Defence procurement debate in the Commons, over a whole year before this process began, Angus Brendan pointed out the dangers from Labour’s privatisation of QinetiQ, and asked the Defence Minister for, ’a cast iron guarantee that the privatisation of QinetiQ would not put the Range in Uist at any risk.’ (Hansard, 2nd Feb 2006).
Do Labour hope that constant repetition of a lie makes it true?
Alasdair Allan MSP,
Western Isles
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