One of the first comments that he made was "I have a hard act to follow, and I see my good friend Alistair Carmichael in the public gallery".

Which we find strange as when council leader he sat through meetings chaired by Alistair, with all of his weaknesses.

Provost Fletcher having viewed your performance last night we are of the opinion that you will most likely follow on Alistair's act very well.

Throughout the meeting he could not work the on / off button for his microphone.

When speaking he switched it off, when not talking he switched it on.

After a while Eamonn Daly had to lean over and show him how to work the push button. (Must have been deja vu for him, as he required to do the same for Alistair over the past five years)

Eamon Daly (Clerk) showing the Provost how to work a button

Much more to come including a possible temper tantrum from Danny Devlin.......

The new Provost Fletcher said "I would ask councillors as well you know there are web sites out there and blogs and such like who seem to spend their time attacking the council and attacking officers of the council. I would hope that when we are having that robust political debate and it's quite proper that we do that we don't attack East Renfrewshire Council as an entity and in particular we don't attack any of the officers who work in it. We have people here that do a great job, work very hard and are not able to defend themselves and some of the stuff that's appeared on social media about some of our council officers, some of them very junior in the last few years is just absolutely appalling. So I think to move forward........

"some of the stuff that's appeared on social media about some of our council officers, some of them very junior in the last few years is just absolutely appalling."

Jim, do you know what - we totally agree with you.

It is appalling that the council staff who have had their activities reported on this web site, acted in the manner described.

It is appalling that you are speaking directly to the newbys and in our opinion telling them that they are in effect being gagged.

You and everyone who reads these threads are well aware that you appear to have little genuine concern for staff members feelings, it is a widely held belief amongst many that your concern is that you and your administration colleagues exploits are not, subjected to public scrutiny unless you wish to release them and put a spin on them.

Well do you know what Jim, we will not carry on as before.

As a result of your absolutely shocking statement on the first day of council, we will double our efforts to expose everything that goes on in your administration and lay it before the public.

Try and sweep something under the carpet, if we find it, we will place it in open display and shine a spot light on it.



The last time we looked East Renfrewshire was a democracy, we wish it to continue that way.

You were elected to work for the community, if you don't we will report on it and that goes for any of the 18 elected members.

There are many on this side of the wall surrounding Bunker Eastwood that are of the opinion that when you were the leader (supreme leader) you appeared to be moving towards something akin to a dictatorship.

Now that you are the Provost and given your performance at the very first meeting of the full council it appears that you are intent on pursuing that goal even further.

Can we suggest that you consider factoring in an 'overtime allowance' for poor Jim Sneddon as he may be even busier in the following five years than he has been previously.

Unfortunately the administration / newsline team require to stand down for approximately a week. When we return we will complete this thread.

A meeting where

Questions were being asked, and not answered.
Accusations of a stitch up over appointments.
A provost who did not permit a question to be asked, and provided a chastisement to the questioner. (Observers feel that was clearly an overstep of the mark, the question should have been passed to the leader of the council)

Danny Devlin, Alan Lafferty

Both on form........