What's happening re the Steve Purcell affair?

News Net Scotland report that the answer is not a lot:

'the Scottish media quite casually reported that there would be neither an inquiry nor any investigation into the fallout at Glasgow City Council following the Steven Purcell scandal.



There was no media outrage at this announcement and no furious editorials; in fact no serious questioning whatsoever of the decision by Audit Scotland and Strathclyde Police to simply drop the matter. As far as these bodies were concerned the goings on were nothing to do with them, there would be no investigation which meant no evidence would be uncovered and therefore those involved would face....... 'no charges'.

It's almost impossible to envisage a more serious or scandalous series of revelations than the ones that have emerged this last few weeks from Glasgow council.



Here we had one of Labour's most high profile Scottish based politicians resigning and fleeing the country in disgrace without answering a single question. An English newspaper reporting that this politician had admitted taking cocaine, that he had been interviewed by drugs enforcement officers in his office and that he had been connected by them to drug dealers.

It is also reported that these officers were concerned that the politician may have left himself open to blackmail from these same gangsters. If true, then that alone leads one to ask what it was that the police believed could have been used in order to blackmail this politician? Were they aware of the aforementioned allegations of drug use? If so, why was an investigation not carried out then? If it wasn't drug use then what else did the police feel could have been used against this senior Labour politician?



Remember that this individual was in control of an annual budget in excess of £2 billion, he was making decisions that would affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of Glasgow citizens.



Subsequent revelations involving local authority owned companies, public cash going to the Labour party and contracts to businesses owned by senior Labour donors led to cross party calls for an investigation into the council.



A more clear-cut case for an independent inquiry in order to restore public confidence in Scotland's largest local authority is difficult to imagine.



Of course we now that isn’t going to happen, the matter has been dropped and concerned citizens of Glasgow have been told to ‘move along, there’s nothing to see’.



Only media pressure can compel Audit Scotland and the police to change their minds and carry out an inquiry; but that media pressure simply isn’t there – nor is it likely to appear.'

Read the whole piece and you will note that News Net Scotland also wonder how this story would have been reported if it had related to a Conservative local politician rather than a Labour one:

'For those who see nothing wrong with the Scottish media coverage of the whole Purcell affair then imagine instead of Purcell, Labour and Glasgow being at the centre of the scandal that it was instead Boris Johnston, the Conservatives and London that was the focus.



Yep, the English media would still be savaging the Conservatives over this and a posse of journalists would now be closing in on the whereabouts of the ‘Tory Fugitive’.'

Remember what I wrote on March 8th:

'Just imagine that a rising star in the Conservative party, a city council leader no less, had resigned under strange circumstances. Imagine if the story involved claims or speculation about drug taking, rehab clinics. Imagine if high powered lawyers had become involved. Imagine if there were photos of this former high-flyer sitting next to David Cameron last week. Imagine if the young council leader had disappeared and was rumoured to have relocated to warmer climes. Just imagine all of that happening to a Conservative councillor and tell me that it would not be headline news on the BBC.

Oddly when the story concerns a rising star Labour councillor who was pictured sitting next to Gordon Brown last week, not a word on the BBC whose political lead stories still include a Lord Ashcroft story.'