'Missing' Salmond slammed.LABOUR leader Iain Gray Iain Gray (born June 7 1957, Edinburgh) is a Scottish Labour politician, and Member of the Scottish Parliament for East Lothian from 2007. Previously he was MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands constituency from 1999 to 2003. yesterday accused Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond, known as Alex Salmond (born December 31, 1954, Linlithgow), is a Scottish politician, and the current First Minister of Scotland, heading a minority government. of being "posted missing" from key talks on Scotland's troubled banking industry. He claimed the First Minister had been attending receptions at Stirling and Edinburgh Castles when he should have been chairing key meetings of the Financial Services Advisory Board. Salmond had claimed these meetings would lead the battle to save banking jobs. The board last met in June but Salmond wasn't there and he hadn't attended a meeting since February, Gray told First Minister's Questions First Minister's Questions is the name given to the weekly questioning of the leaders of devolved administrations in the United Kingdom. First Minister's Questions works in a similar way to Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. . He said: "He promised to strain every sinew sinew /sin·ew/ (sin´u) a tendon of a muscle. weeping sinew an encysted ganglion, chiefly on the back of the hand, containing synovial fluid. sin·ew n. for the bank workers but blew out the Financial Services Advisory Board in June, September and again in October. "On September 29, he managed to get to a Homecoming party at Edinburgh Castle. October 27, he was at a reception in Stirling Castle. "He is straining Scotland's patience - but not straining his sinews. He is posted missing again and again." Straining But Salmond said he had met a range of key people in the financial sector. And said he and finance secretary John Swinney had been in talks this week with RBS RBS Royal Bank of Scotland RBS Role Based Security RBS Rollback Segment RBS Rare Book School (University of Virginia) RBS Rural Business Cooperative Service RBS Ribosome Binding Site (genetics) and Lloyds TSB - plus the permanent secretary to the Treasury The Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is the most senior civil servant at HM Treasury. The post originated as that of Assistant Secretary to the Treasury in 1805; that office was given new duties and renamed in 1867 as a Permanent Secretaryship. - to try to secure and save jobs in Scotland. Salmond said: "I was straining every sinew when I helped open the Tesco headquarters in Scotland. "I was straining every sinew when I announced esure's 500 insurance jobs in Glasgow. "I was straining every sinew when I was on the Diageo march in Kilmarnock - which Iain Gray did not manage to attend." CAPTION(S): UNDER FIRE: Salmond |
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