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Issue No. 132 | 19 April 2002 |
Brand Spanking
Interview: Generation Next Legal: We�re All Terrorists Now Unions: Holding the Baby International: Taking It To The Streets History: Off the Wall Economics: Financing International Development Satire: Queen Mum's Life Tragically Cut Short Review: Return of The People�s Parliament Poetry: Silent Night
Tobacco Giant's New Smoking Gun Evidence Proves McJobs A Reality Workers Die Waiting For Justice Sick As A Dog Or Pissed As A Parrot? Workers� Anthem � Hip Hop or Grunge? DOCS Crisis � At Risk Kids Slipping Through Net Call Centre Workers Stiffed - Survey South Coast Medical Centre in Della�s Sights Sydney Take-Off For Security Campaign Intel Faces Email Censure Challenge Megawati Reopens Marsinah Case
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Week in Review
Where's the Silver Tail?
Labor Council of NSW |
Tool Shed Frank Makes History
Fresh from being ravaged by the Australian markets, media and general public for his under whelming Positioning for Growth statement, he has now earned the ire of the entire Scottish nation by accusing them of having been in "permanent recession" for the last 200 years. At the risk of following Frank down the path of racial stereotyping, this is akin to telling Australians that they can't hold their piss. Cicutto's offending comments were made last week, in his capacity as chief of Clydesdale Bank - a wholly owned NAB subsidiary and another outlet slated for some of the PfG pain with 500 jobs to go. In response to a question by a banking analyst about why NAB was not pursuing growth in Scotland, he said: "Scotland has been in permanent recession for close enough for 200 years and if you look at the opportunities in Scotland, they're significantly inferior to the opportunities in Yorkshire." To say the comments set the cat amongst the pigeons, is an under-statement. John Downie, the head of the Scottish Federation of Small Business, condemned the remarks as "frankly insulting" and warned of a backlash among Clydesdale's business customers. A Scottish Executive spokesman rebutted the claims in a record-breaking 35 seconds, while Andrew Wilson, the SNP economy spokesman, dismissed the outburst as "neither accurate nor helpful". Meanwhile, Scotland's Enterprise Minister Wendy Alexander, speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress annual meeting hit back railing against 'pesky Aussie putdowns'. She then drew on the phrase "Gnomes of Zurich" used by the late Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, when he blamed financial speculators in the Swiss city for the sterling crises which dogged the UK in the 1960s. "There was a certain gnome, not of Zurich but a gnome of Melbourne, who as we say here in Scotland got a bit stuck in yesterday," she told delegates. "And so rather than saying Scotland doesn't give a four X I thought I would start by setting the record straight." Similar barbs were fired across the nation. The Scotsman newspaper got stuck in through its editorial: "Frank Cicutto . . . has got his facts, as well as much of his assessment, upside down." Meanwhile, the Scottish union movement said the comments smacked of arrogance in the extreme. UNIFI finance sector union general secretary Jim Caldwell said: "This is a man who is presiding over a business that lost billions [of dollars] in America, which has resulted in worldwide job losses, including a considerable number in Scotland." By week's end, Cicutto had been forced to make an apology to the entire Scottish people, claiming his 'light-hearted' comments had been taken out of context. "I have the highest regard for the country and its people and I am sorry if my attempts at a light-hearted comment caused offence," he grovelled. All of which at least served to divert Frank from the disastrous response to PfG, with the business sector dismissing the glossy McKinsey strategy as fluff, the unions continuing to scrutinise the job cuts and the media putting Cicutto's long-term tenure under the spotlight. As one scribe put it: "Analysts in Australia have recently warned that Mr Cicutto is one mistake away from getting sacked, though it remains to be seen whether insulting an entire nation qualifies as a fatal gaffe." Indeed.
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