Doctor Who And The Draconians - A New Adventure

THERE IS a story of a Tory grandee running through the litany of post-war Conservative Prime Ministers: “Winston (Churchill), Anthony (Eden), Harold (MacMillan), Alex (Douglas-Home), (Ted) Heath, Margaret (Thatcher),” he intoned.

 She was "One of Us" until it suited the men in the grey suits to get rid of her

Note the odd one out, Heath was never: “One of us,” the Upper Middle/Lower Upper Class elite, English public school-educated to rule the world. Strictly speaking, neither was the Blessed Margaret, but, she shared their beliefs and was tolerated – until they thought she couldn't win, whereupon she was dumped.

Methinks that same kind of thinking is now abroad within the BT Murrayfield corridors of power. Allow me to extrapolate.

The SRU's bye-laws and election rules are clearly written-down and can be viewed on their website. They are there for a good reason, but, the present “suits” don't do more than pay lip service to them, or so it seems to me.

Go to the “Who We Are” section of the SRU website and it is clear – the SRU Council takes precedence over the Board – except, these days it appears to be the Board - under the draconian rule of TCD - who are running things, and who have the final word – when it should be the Council.

One of the Draconians - currently running the SRU

It clearly states in the Bye-Laws: the Council membership should include four representatives, one each from the Premiership and the three National Leagues. As it stands, Peter Laverie is the Premiership representative – except, Peter does not have a current Premiership club, he is Director of Rugby for National League 2 GHK.

Also, and I accept, six of the ten clubs are rather busy with another big problem, but, the Premiership forum has not met since before the AGM. Not perhaps as big an issue, when it seemed the Premiership would vanish at the end of this season. However, that is no longer certain amidst all the kerfuffle around S6/A3.

The actual National League 2 rep is Colin Rigby of Stewart's-Melville, while vice president Iain Barr is also with a National League 2 club – Lasswade. Now, I have nothing against these gentlemen, in fact, they are all good, genuine rugby guys, but the current set-up means, the Premiership, National League 1 and National League 3 clubs do not currently have one of their own sitting round the Council table - their rep is Andy Little from Highland, who are now a National League 2 club. Andy again, according to those who know him is: "A Good Guy," howeer, good job though he is doing, Is it right that so-many albeit fine, reps, are from National League 2 clubs?

Elsewhere, on the Council and the Board, we have the esteemed Willie Gardner, who represents the Glasgow North Regional League clubs – these smaller clubs, who do a great job, in difficult circumstances, in the more-shallow rugby seams, have a second representative round the table, since President “Doctor Who” is a member of Oban Lorne.

The trouble with Willie Gardner being there is, his club, Lanark, no longer competes in the West Regional Leagues, while I am reliably informed, by a senior office bearer in one of the constituent clubs that, apart from the vice presidential hustings (which were held in the least-accessible place, at the least-popular time and were barely quorate) the clubs in the bold Willie's constituency have never held a for a since he got the job.

Willie Gardner is also on the Board, which makes his lack of communication with his constituents somehow worse.

Ah! The Board, there's another cause for concern. Now, I admire the Wee Bar Steward greatly, I will not hear a word against him, but, for all the great things he has done in rugby, on and off the park – according to the rules, Ian McLauchlan should by now be retired and have been replaced, he has served his sentence. But, he's still there.

Our near-invisible Chairman should also have gone, hopefully to be replaced by someone competent, while the process of recruiting (OPENLY) new INDEPENDENT non-executive directors ought to be under way. Needless to say, it isn't.

I also hear, from contacts with access to the corridors of power, that the bold Lance-Corporal Jones, whose propensity for panic got us into much of the current moger, is still a power behind the throne – where he ought to have been sent to the Scottish Rugby equivalent of the old: “managing a power station in Mongolia” sentence which was meeted-out to incompetent Soviet era apparatchiks.

The Doric Dan Quayle,being lined-up for a return to the SRU Council as a co-opted member

The good Doctor Who, apparently, has not yet fully-mastered the complexities of the sonic screwdriver, and wants “friends at court” around her. We hear the Doric Dan Quayle, fresh from a place in the Scotstoun posh seats for the recent Glasgow v Saracens game, is the only candidate for one of the co-opted Council gigs. Mr Monro, in everyone's view a huge loss (not) to the Diplomatic Corps, is seemingly being lined-up to be the SRU's representative on the EPRC, the body which runs the Heineken and Challenge Cups.

Still, there is the odd flash of half-light, Fergus Neil is, I understand, being lined-up to represent the Union at Rugby Europe.

We can only hope, in his in-depth look at the governance, Gavin MacCall QC can sweep away some of the cobwebs and allow light into some of the darker recesses of where we are through the machinations of TCD and his faithful Consigliore.

Finally, and I am not having a go at the guy, whom I rather like, but, back to Peter Laverie.

 Peter Laverie - paid a high price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time

Back in 2015 Peter was removed from his position as a Board member at Glasgow Clyde College. He sat on the Board as the representative of the teaching staff. I had a read at the case and it seems pretty clear – Peter's removal was a case of “collateral damage”. There is no evidence of any wrong-doing by him, he was simply, as were other Board members, innocently, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But, Peter was: “disqualified for life from being a member of a number of other boards of management in the further and higher education sector, where the context is the management of public institutions, with a remit involving the use of public funds.”

As I have said, there is NO EVIDENCE of wrong-doing by Peter, I am convinced he as in the wrong place at the wrong time, however, although not strictly-speaking “ in the further and higher education sector” the SRU does run the Scottish Rugby Academy, which is a form of Higher Education (albeit it that is an extreme view), but, the SRU does have: “a remit involving the use of public funds.”

Another issue in Peter's experiences with Glasgow College, on which the SRU, and the wider Scottish Rugby constituency might care to reflect is – Peter Laverie and everyone else on the Glasgow Clyde College Board was removed from office – under the protocol of “collective responsibility.”

OK, sadly for him and some other board members, they and Peter were “collateral damage”, but, the principle of collective responsibility was in play.

Would the SRU Board care to square that with the fact, one of their own – Lesley Thomson QC, conducted a still secret review into the conduct of certain board members in the Keith Russell sacking.

Conduct which led to Russell taking the SRU to an Industrial Tribunal, which then led to the character of the CEO and the General Counsel being publicly humiliated by the condemnation of their conduct by the Tribunal judge. However, that conduct was okayed by the entire Board, including Lesley Thomson QC, under the principle of collective responsibility.

In the case of Peter Laverie at Glasgow Clyde College, the actions which cost him his directorship and landed him with life-long disqualification from a similar position, were taken by a single board member.

Harsh though the punishment was, don't you wish the same standards were in-play around the SRU?