I’m not sure the residents of Colinton and Fairmilehead are thrilled to be receiving yet more council election leaflets less than two months after the last by-election was supposed to have completed their complement of councillors.
But barely had the result been announced than the SNP councillor Marco Biagi decided the lure of a backroom job with the Scottish Government was too great to resist, so voters would have to do it all again.
The City Chambers always seemed like a stop gap for Mr Biagi, having once been a government minister, and it has never been adequately explained why his appointment couldn’t have been sorted out sooner to avoid the cost of running another by-election, when it was known in July there would have to be a vote to replace Scott Arthur when he became an MP.
However, that pales into insignificance next to the actions of November’s by-election winner, the now ex-Lib Dem councillor Louise Spence, someone whose leaflets proclaimed her credentials as a local woman in the heart of the community, when it must or should have been known by the party officials who approved a campaign based on at best misinformation, that while Ms Spence might have owned a house in the area she didn’t live in it.
And even if, as they claim, the local party didn’t know she was likely to do a bunk to Dubai as soon as the election was over, she certainly did, but didn’t have the honour or integrity to admit her candidacy and her campaign was based on a lie.
Despite the party’s subsequent hand wringing, they are as culpable as her for daring to attack other candidates because they did not live in the ward, as if that mattered a jot. It is a disgrace that the council group leader Cllr Kevin Lang could approve this approach when he doesn’t live in the area he represents.
But then there has been the fiasco which followed the scandal and resignation of Edinburgh Council’s Labour leader Cammy Day, which has led to the ridiculous situation of the Lib Dems being in position to lead the administration and put their policies into action but then refuse to do so because they are all either too busy with other things or too inexperienced.
What, then, is the point of voting for a party which refuses to take office when it has the opportunity? It then led to the bizarre appointment of Cllr Jane Meagher to be the new council leader, even though she had to be embarrassed by her own side into speaking in support of her own candidacy in the debate about the appointment.
I’m sure the voters of Colinton/Fairmilehead have noticed and on 23rd January will make an informed choice to teach both Labour and the Lib Dems that if you stand for election then you must be prepared to face up to your responsibilities.
Of course, you would expect me to urge their votes to go to the Scottish Conservatives’ doughty campaigner Neil Cuthbert ─ the third time in a row he’s fought the seat and, yes, he does live in the ward ─ but I’m convinced we have seen enough of the SNP, Labour and Lib Dems to know their flushes are well and truly busted.
