Friday 9 September 2005

Talent not required

The Labour party has rejected the candidacy of Mr Charan Gill for the forthcoming Scottish parliamentary bye-election in Cathcart:
He joined the party only on Monday, so did not meet its rule of being a member for at least a year before being elgible for selection.

The executive decided there were no "exceptional circumstances" which would have allowed him to stand.

How ridiculous. Mr Gill would have been an outstanding candidate and surely the "exceptional circumstances" clause in Labour's rulebook should have been activated. I heard Mr Gill on a radio programme a couple of weeks ago and was mightily impressed:
Rather than being born with the silver spoon syndrome, on the contrary, Charan's childhood was tough. He arrived in Glasgow from the Punjab, India in 1963 at the age of 9 with little knowledge of English or indeed the western culture. Denied a university education, he started his career as a turner and fitter at Yarrow's Shipyards on the Clyde
Gill went on to found a restaurant empire and is now a multi-millionaire.

The Scotsman covers this story today (payment required unfortunately) and isn't in the least surprised at Labour's decision. What intrigues me is this: Why on earth would a self-made entrepreneur want to be a Labour politician? It's not as if the Indian restaurant business is in line for juicy government contracts, and anyway Mr Gill has now sold his company. Shouldn't the Scottish Tories be asking themselves why the likes of Mr Gill aren't turning to them?

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Hector Maclean
They have selected a Grade A moron like Charlie Gordon have they? Oh for F. sake :o(  
 
Why would a successful business man like Charon want to aling himself with a bunch of fcukwits like Scottish Labour? Power. Simple as that. There would be bugger all point in him joining the Tories. Labour are the establishment party in Scotland, there is no alternative. 
 
In Scotland politics is a waste of time, and is only carried out by people who are a waste of space.

10 September 2005, 19:10:00 GMT+01:00
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Alex
I covered this in my own blog, and whilst I would have liked to have seen him in parliament, there were a couple of things that bothered me about his candidacy: 
1.Why the hell would anyone with any sort of intelligence (as Gill undoubtedly has) want to align himself to Scottish Labour? 
2.Given his choice of party, was Gill more interested in being an MSP than actually making a difference? 
 
Having said which they have now selected another Glesga Byraway - Charlie Gordon - to contest the seat, so a soft toy seems like a preferable option.

10 September 2005, 01:16:57 GMT+01:00
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hack11
A good candidate he might have been, but I'm not sure about the 'special circumstances'. He was Wee Jack's choice for Cathcart and would in all probabilty have walked it, but do you seriously think he would've wanted McConnell coming up to him in the future and saying: 'You owe me one.' I doubt it (unless of course he has a career death wish).

9 September 2005, 13:01:21 GMT+01:00