Dear All
There comes a time when you should realise that something is
over and just walk away, it seems that Anas Sarwar has reached that tipping
point, question is, does he recognise it.
There is now a fresh Scottish Labour leadership row over pay
rates at Anas Sarwar's family firm; it appears that the Sarwar family don’t pay
the real living wage because it is only voluntary, not mandatory.
In other words, unless compelled by law the Sarwar family
has no interest in paying the real living wage. This prompts a series of questions:
just how ‘socialist’ is the family of Anas Sarwar?
have they ever paid more than the law compels them?
what are the terms and conditions of the lowest paid in his
family business?
In relation to sending his children to private school, Anas
did something rather weak, he sought to ‘share the blame’ by dobbing in his
wife by saying she was partly responsible for the decision.
When in doubt blame someone else, but still take some of the
blame yourself because as a leader you have to stand by your decisions, good
and bad. Anas has rightly said that people should respect a decision made by a
couple “in the privacy of their own home”.
The bit that this falls down is that, Anas is a public
figure, in politics there is such a thing as leading by example, clearly he isn’t
prepared to do this, but then he is a millionaire, he can spend his money where
he chooses.
One other statement which he may regret later is saying:
“The fact is too many of our schools aren’t good enough in Scotland .”
In Glasgow , the Labour Party
has control of the council and education for 40 years, so he has opened up a
can of worms there, now he has to talk about Labour failure in education in Glasgow . Of course, I am
sure he will rope in the SNP Government for 10 years of their failures as well.
The decision by Anas Sarwar to criticised Good Morning
Scotland presenter Gary Robertson, accusing him of focusing on personality
issues rather than policy was clearly a sign he was rattled by having to defend
his decisions and those his family have made in the past.
Anas Sarwar is a centrist millionaire MSP in a party
that was setup by the working class for the betterment of the working class,
although having money and influence to a certain degree in the Labour Party due
to the minority vote, the wider movement wants a Corbyn supporter.
Anas Sarwar had a crack at leadership when he was Johann
Lamont’s deputy, that didn’t turn out well just in the same way that Kezia
Dugdale being deputy to Jim Murphy was a disaster too.
The Labour Party has a slogan which doesn’t help Anas at the
moment, ‘for the many, not the few’; the truth is that Anas Sarwar is one of
the rich privileged few, a multi-millionaire born into wealth, private schooled
and university educated, to make matters worse, he joined the ‘Progress’ crowd
of entitled middle class people who gain control of the party to the detriment
of working class people. The Labour Party ‘Progress’ crowd brought in such
measures as the ‘bedroom tax’ and ‘ATOS assessments’ not the Conservatives.
Although sending his children to private school is something
he will ride out in his leadership struggle, his links to his family firm aren’t
something which can be swept away under the carpet.
Anas Sarwar said:
“One, I’m a minority shareholder in the company. Second, I have
no role in the company. I’m not a director in the company. I have no say in how
the company operates. But I have had assurances from the company that they do
want to transition to a real living wage for all employees”.
Was that discussed round the family kitchen table?
Anas added:
“They too have welcomed the fact that a Labour government
would introduce a real living wage much quicker than the current UK government,
meaning they’d be able to implement it quicker, and also so it’s compulsory on
every company. I don’t care who the shareholder of any company is, I don’t care
which company it is, I want every company to be mandated by the government to
pay the real living wage and not use the market as the excuse.”
His family ‘welcome’ it but won’t pay it unless they are
compelled by law?
Is there any obstacle to them paying the real living wage
for all employees now?
Clearly the answer is yes, have you figured out what the
problem is, it isn’t the law, the problem is the Sarwar family.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights atGlasgow University
The Campaign for Human Rights at
No comments:
Post a Comment