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Alexander could have avoided sanctions



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Published Date: 11 July 2008
By HAMISH MACDONELL
Scottish Political Editor
WENDY Alexander could have avoided suspension from the Scottish Parliament – and her subsequent downfall as Labour Party leader – had she sought advice from the standards clerks earlier, according to a report published yesterday.
Under parliamentary rules, any member who receives any donation or gift has to register it within 30 days.

Ms Alexander did not approach the clerks to the Standards Committee to ask whether she should declare donations to her leadership campaign until after that deadline had passed.

Some MSPs on the committee felt that Ms Alexander's failure even to approach the clerks until after the 30-day deadline for registration was a serious enough breach for her to be suspended, and this was the reason for the action against her, rather than her failure to declare the donations.

The report stated: "Some members concluded that the failure of Ms Alexander to seek advice prior to the expiry of the 30-day registration deadline was sufficiently serious that sanctions should be recommended."

A source close to Ms Alexander admitted it was "sloppiness" on her part that caused her to forget to approach the Standards Committee clerks until after the deadline had passed.





The full article contains 198 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 10 July 2008 10:44 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Scottish Labour Party
 
1

,

11/07/2008 00:01:07
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 11/07/2008 00:16:49
Oh Wendy ain't goin' marchin' in
3

,

11/07/2008 00:17:21
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
4

Jeeemy,

St Andrews 11/07/2008 00:42:48
Ah yes but where are the “E/mails”
This entire fiasco was about not declaring anything but only what has to be declared. Taxi anyone? Bottle of milk? Not to mention running your expense claims through a company you are the sole director off.

The sleaze and corruption that prevails through the public life in Scotland has to be brought to an end very shortly. There will be a nasty uprising and a new prison will be required to be built to house those convicted, of perverting the course of Justice because theft and fraud in the expense claims is a criminal offence no mater which “High” office you hold.


5

Iainbroch,

Moray 11/07/2008 01:28:43
Sleaze and corruption in the ruling Party - are we talking about UK or Zimbabwe? Or some other Banana republic?
6

,

11/07/2008 04:39:39
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
7

Ubi,

Edinburgh 11/07/2008 05:53:33
Why were Labour so desperate to find the one route to avoid disclosure? Disclosure itself would have rendered this a non story.

It simply reinforces the widely held belief that there is not a more pathologically corrupt, primitive life form than Labour anywhere on this earth.
8

steve 1511,

aberdeen 11/07/2008 06:48:21
wee wendy of the bungs, had no shame of her wrong doings in the liebour sleaze and corruption party,she was supported in her claim of no wrong doing by herr brooon ,part time des browne ,wee dougie,cairns,and and many other members of the labour stasi party who also refused to recognise her breaking the rules.and what has happened to (jackie i ate all the buffet bailie)is she on holiday at a health farm
9

M.Corleone,

2nd Vatican State...... Coatbridge 11/07/2008 07:56:27
Welll Wendy is ... sorry was.... the Queen of Scotland at the time and our only saviour so she is entitled to assume she is above the law.

How tall is she again?

Where is she anyway?
10

Foresight,

By thw Water of Leith 11/07/2008 08:10:34

#10 Where is she anyway?

She is wendying her way down the hill of shame.
11

jacquesmac,

Looking for Nihlon 11/07/2008 08:14:36
#10

In a darkened cellar, with Jackie The Hutt, hunched over a keyboard, connected to multiple internet connections, posting nonsensical posts on The Herald and Scotsman, trying to disrupt discusion lines; some of their feeds are perversely against Mgrit Gyrn (wonder why)

See Labour
See Liebore
See Corruption
See Sleeze
See Westmister
See John Lewis
See Expenses
See £5000,000
See Holyrood
See Brown Paper Envelopes tied up with Strings
See Glasgow East
See Labour Meltdown
See Voter Anger
See Disolution of The Union
an that!
12

Gdgy,

dundee 11/07/2008 08:24:07
Oh see how high and mighty the SNPites are...

Just wait, your turn will come....
13

Linda,

Edinburgh 11/07/2008 08:29:49
Scotsman fails to point out that the report specifically mentioned that following an initial enquiry a Holyrood official advised Wendy Alexander that she should record her leadership donations. Apart from not asking in time, this advice was ignored.
14

SEUMAS,

fearn 11/07/2008 08:41:27
Oh Hamish-Will you ever consider objective, truthful reporting, perhaps ypu are too long in the tooth to start now.
15

brownlie,

11/07/2008 09:19:23
13 Gdy

We unionists have been saying that for ages and all we need is some kind of proof irrespective of how specious. Obviously you can help so let's have the proof!

Incidentally you managed to get a wee plug in for "high and mighty". Any significance?
16

Mr. Lachie Todd,

Edinburgh 11/07/2008 09:33:52
It still remains a mystery as to why Ms. Alexander did not accept advice sooner, and simply register these donations?
17

Alan B,

11/07/2008 09:59:46
Hopefully the scottish electrate will kicked labour off the electral map of scotland. They really are a morally corrupt party.
18

donald,

glasgow 11/07/2008 10:02:16
Bendy was behaving as if Labour was in power and had control over the administration. It's all the clerk's fault and a plot by the SNP to make her hand in her fiddled expenses on a whim, after the time limit. What a bam.What a bunch of bams. Dic none of her cronies tell the Green Caterpillar Empress that she had nae claes?
19

ochone,

Sauchie, Clack's 11/07/2008 10:56:32
Never mind Wendy. your a certanty for the hous eof Lords someday.

BTW, has she been campaigning in glasgow East yet?
20

Alternative (High-Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 11/07/2008 11:00:55
She wanted to lead the labour party in Scotland. Presumably this meant that she aspired to run Scotland as First Minister.

She cannot even get her house in order enough to comply with a basic requirement. It would have been a simple enough matter for her to give someone on her campaign team the job of ensuring that all donations were registered as soon as they were received. Therefore, job done.

That kind of management would be expected of someone who had attended a basic management course. There is no excuse for not doing something like this and for someone who aspires to be at the highest echelons of management as Wendy does, it should be a matter of course. If she can't organise her own small campaign team, what hope has she of organising a major (unfortunately) political party and heaven help us, the government of Scotland?

She has come a long way since the golden days when she was "Minister for just about everything" under Dewar---mostly downwards. We are probably well rid of her.
21

Saoghal Beag,

11/07/2008 12:29:33
22 no worrie plenty more like her from where she came from.
22

Arfur,

11/07/2008 12:51:42
'Alexander could have avoided sanctions' - yep its called not being corrupt.
23

,

11/07/2008 15:14:38
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
24

Jwil,

11/07/2008 16:21:34
Surprisingly, the Daily Record puts an even more damning slant on the affair.
25

The Former Mr. Angry,

Perth 11/07/2008 16:41:49
If "sloppiness" is a tacit admission on Wendy's part that she screwed up declaring donations why would we trust her being "sloppy" let's say (kindly) with £30bn?

Unfortunately that's all too often the case with the UK handling of tax revenues courtesy of Brown. I won't say Darling because he is not running his own department without reference to Brown. They make Wendy's "sloppy" look benign by comparison. "Criminally negligent" springs to mind.
26

ratzo,

12/07/2008 02:45:41
JWIL is right enough - here's the Daily Reptile view:

"WENDY Alexander's leadership campaign team were accused of a cover-up yesterday after it emerged they gave false details to watchdogs.

New evidence showed they told the Electoral Commission that donations for her Labour leadership battle were received weeks later than they really were.

This meant they seemed to fall within the strict 30-day deadline for declaring political donations.

But six donations, all for just under £1000, were actually received much earlier.

Last night, the SNP claimed the false dates were evidence of an attempt to cover up the fact the Labour team missed the deadline.

MSP Roseanna Cunningham said: "They tried to cover up the timescale for reporting donations and this report exposes that.

"If she had not already resigned, she would have had to resign now."

The report also confirmed that an illegal donation from tax-exile businessman Paul Green was wrongly declared as coming from a Glasgow company, making it appear within the law.

The evidence was revealed in a report into the Holyrood probe that led to Alexander's resignation as Scots Labour leader last month.

It showed her team, which included MSPs Tom McCabe, David Whitton and Jackie Baillie, declared donations to the Electoral Commission on November 7.

They claimed 10 donations, each worth just under £1000, came in between October 19 and October 25 - well within the 30-day deadline.

But they later admitted they received six donations and banked four of them more than 30 days before they registered them.

The evidence showed that by October 19, when Alexander's team claimed they received their first cheque, they had actually taken £7000 out of their campaign bank account.

Aware that newspapers were investigating her campaign, Alexander asked parliamentary clerks on November 8 if she needed to declare the gifts at Holyrood as well as with the Electoral Commission.

She was first told that she had

 

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