Labour on Glasgow Council "hit self destruct button"

The SNP claim that the Labour Party in Glasgow have "hit the self destruct button" over the mass deselection of around 20 Labour councillors. There is speculation that a rival Glasgow Labour party could be launched. The deselection do seem to be driven by cronyism rather than merit. The Labour MP Tom Harris has written in support of two deselected councillors - which I don't think he would have done if they were idle or incompetant.

Also the deselections appear to be pushed from London rather than Glasgow. The Labour official in London Ken Clark is the deselector in chief driving the process along.

The Herald reports that Glasgow Council leader Cllr Gordon Matheson in facing "intense criticism" for failing to defend his sitting councillors.

It adds this background:

Glasgow Labour has been in turmoil since the resignation of council leader Steven Purcell in March last year, when he admitted to having a drink problem and to taking cocaine while overseeing the city’s £2.5 billion budget.

His exit led to a divisive contest to replace him between Matheson and councillor Paul Rooney. Matheson’s win failed to unite the two men’s followers, who have waged a low-level war of attrition ever since.

The recriminations are all becoming rather uncomradely:

One ally, city procedures secretary Jamie Mallan, has overseen much of the bloodbath, which has culled several supporters of both Matheson and Rooney. Mallan’s position has fuelled suspicions McAveety is trying to get a raft of his supporters on to the council in order to become Labour leader instead of Matheson or Rooney.

In a bizarre twist, it also emerged Mallan, 25, runs a website pretending to be his pet dog. The Brodie the Beagle Facebook page, which sports a picture of Mallan with cartoon dog ears and whiskers, includes babyish comments purporting to come from the animal, such as “Jaymee spraydeded me wiff waters! He is a bum!” Mallan’s credibility has been badly damaged.

Why shouldn't Mr Mallan have a Facebook group pretending to be a pet dog? Surely he can differentiate between his role in the Labour Party and his role pretending to be a pet dog? He has now taken down the site which is a pity.

The Herald also reports deselections of Labour councillors in North Lanarkshire albeit on a much more modest scale.