malcolm burr is a trained lawyer and does what he wants. He always has. He knows the labour group is disorganised and of course he has the backing of attack dogs like donald manford and rae mackenzie. that is why his lovely wife turned up blatantly wearing snp colours at the referendum count last sepetember. he and his family should be above that kind of partisan behaviour but they treat everyone like muck on their shoes. disgaraceful behaviour which would not be allowed anywhere else. he must step down voluntarily as a returning officers because no candidates can have confidence in his fairness ever again .
The angry response from the minister’s office is extremely interesting. Amid the bluster, they don’t actually deny the invitations were handled by the SNP office so they obviously know the game is up. They pretend to support Burr and “officials” because they know he must now fall on his sword if there are complaints from any candidate. I will be shocked if there aren’t any.
Privately though, even the SNP Government must be astonished by Burr’s behaviour and his refusal to follow even basic impartiality rules. He is obviously out of control and for someone in his lofty position to flaunt his blatant partiality is unacceptable to any side.
He has become a source of acute embarrassment so no one will plead his case to allow him to stay in post after this. He is purely a victim of his own arrogance. Very sad.
I don’t know Malcolm Burr very well but I get the feeling he is fed up at the council and probably wants to be the next msp. He may well get the nomination after this fuss dies down.
Mr Francis also has questions to answer. He is paid a large salary to work for the benefit of all residents of the South Uist Estate, but it seems he’s let his own not so subtle political leanings cloud his judgement on this occasion. Extremely poor show from all involved – and shame on Mr MacNeil (AGAIN) for shamelessly piggybacking on the minister’s visit to the islands for cheap political gain (although I’m not sure Mr MacKay set much of an example himself on this front – as James Maciver says above, the important part of the allegations are not actually disputed amongst the usual SNP bluster about ‘smears’…).
Iain X . why dont you write to storas uibhist and and ask john macmillan the chairman and the rest of the board why they cannot tell the chief executive of a community company to keep his political affiliations private as happens in the rest of the civilised world .. a lot of us are bloody angry at his behaviour.
I have had quite a bit of correspondence on this so I have asked Storas about their policy on staff political activities and about Mr Francis specifically.
Has Mr Burr apologized yet for his council’s error in allowing the Press Release of 2 April to refer to a Referendum and not to a General Election? (The press release has now been quietly corrected.) I must have missed it if he has.
Mr Francis is getting away with a lot since Angus MacMillan left. The board of storas are weak. They should question his friendship with the SNP and MacInnes Bros (his favoured contractor)
Not sure on Mr Burr, but this looks like one of Madfords little stitch up’s
What a disgrace. Can our Council and our bosses get anything right. I’ve no doubt that this will be all over the national media tomorrow. Frankly I find it difficult to believe that a Returning Officer could have been so naive as to allow his SNP leanings to cloud his judgement. But for many of them their head gets turned when they see a Government minister. too scared to stick to the rules. He can’t be allowed to continue in the role over overseeing the election. I can’t comment about the Uist fellow – by the looks of it they were all in it together. Looking forward to coffee break tomorrow morning…..!
Mr Burr used to be a member of the WI SNP in his previous role as a Cnes lawyer. Just saying…
I’m sure he can’t and won’t deny this.
malcolm burr is a trained lawyer and does what he wants. He always has. He knows the labour group is disorganised and of course he has the backing of attack dogs like donald manford and rae mackenzie. that is why his lovely wife turned up blatantly wearing snp colours at the referendum count last sepetember. he and his family should be above that kind of partisan behaviour but they treat everyone like muck on their shoes. disgaraceful behaviour which would not be allowed anywhere else. he must step down voluntarily as a returning officers because no candidates can have confidence in his fairness ever again .
The angry response from the minister’s office is extremely interesting. Amid the bluster, they don’t actually deny the invitations were handled by the SNP office so they obviously know the game is up. They pretend to support Burr and “officials” because they know he must now fall on his sword if there are complaints from any candidate. I will be shocked if there aren’t any.
Privately though, even the SNP Government must be astonished by Burr’s behaviour and his refusal to follow even basic impartiality rules. He is obviously out of control and for someone in his lofty position to flaunt his blatant partiality is unacceptable to any side.
He has become a source of acute embarrassment so no one will plead his case to allow him to stay in post after this. He is purely a victim of his own arrogance. Very sad.
I don’t know Malcolm Burr very well but I get the feeling he is fed up at the council and probably wants to be the next msp. He may well get the nomination after this fuss dies down.
Mr Francis also has questions to answer. He is paid a large salary to work for the benefit of all residents of the South Uist Estate, but it seems he’s let his own not so subtle political leanings cloud his judgement on this occasion. Extremely poor show from all involved – and shame on Mr MacNeil (AGAIN) for shamelessly piggybacking on the minister’s visit to the islands for cheap political gain (although I’m not sure Mr MacKay set much of an example himself on this front – as James Maciver says above, the important part of the allegations are not actually disputed amongst the usual SNP bluster about ‘smears’…).
Iain X . why dont you write to storas uibhist and and ask john macmillan the chairman and the rest of the board why they cannot tell the chief executive of a community company to keep his political affiliations private as happens in the rest of the civilised world .. a lot of us are bloody angry at his behaviour.
I have had quite a bit of correspondence on this so I have asked Storas about their policy on staff political activities and about Mr Francis specifically.
Has Mr Burr apologized yet for his council’s error in allowing the Press Release of 2 April to refer to a Referendum and not to a General Election? (The press release has now been quietly corrected.) I must have missed it if he has.
Mr Francis is getting away with a lot since Angus MacMillan left. The board of storas are weak. They should question his friendship with the SNP and MacInnes Bros (his favoured contractor)
Not sure on Mr Burr, but this looks like one of Madfords little stitch up’s
i am intrigued that no nat’s have come on here to defend burr . that tells it’s own story !!!
and no councillors either. oh dear
What a disgrace. Can our Council and our bosses get anything right. I’ve no doubt that this will be all over the national media tomorrow. Frankly I find it difficult to believe that a Returning Officer could have been so naive as to allow his SNP leanings to cloud his judgement. But for many of them their head gets turned when they see a Government minister. too scared to stick to the rules. He can’t be allowed to continue in the role over overseeing the election. I can’t comment about the Uist fellow – by the looks of it they were all in it together. Looking forward to coffee break tomorrow morning…..!