Weakness, exclusion and the last laugh

It is decided: a Lib/SNP administration to be run on the Lord Provost's casting vote: a risky strategy indeed and a sign of weak leadership by Jenny Dawe. On her own admission she and her experienced colleagues prefer the stability of a majority lib/lab pact but she cannot persuade her new colleagues to her point of view. She is forced to a compromise which she must privately acknowledge is less good. The liberals have made their first fudge: it may ultimately prove very costly for them. Costly for Jenny too. Her new group has tested her mettle and she has buckled - how long I wonder, before her situation is untenable? But also very costly for Labour. I do not think the penny has yet dropped for many exactly how bad the outcome of the election has been for our party. Excluded from government in the Scottish Parliament and excluded from the Capital our influence will wane quickly. Marginilised we will soon not know what we are missing ...what we are excluded from, until we read about it in the newspapers.

At a local level there will also be many changes and though eventually a new pattern will emerge it may take some time. The long period of labour hegemony has made community groups and organisations lazy. They have grown accustomed to easy redress through their labour elected members: now they face a new future. Some will fall naturally into campaign mode, others will retreat into the long complaint. I spent 12 years in local government in opposition to a Tory government: I know the mischief to be made and the headlines to be grabbed. I also know the difference between having power and being without. I know which I prefer.

Yesterday I sat with Ian Whyte at Tynecastle. He is a hibernian supporter so he did not leave a happy man. I like Ian. He has grown over the years and delivers a fine speech. He has played his group's limited hand well. In one move he has isolated his enemy, provided temporary stability to the city and has been rewarded with the law & order portfolio, perfect territory for a conservative. Perhaps he was not so unhappy after all.

And finally, Marilyne is to be Lord Provost. I am pleased for her: she has had her share of vicissitude and she was too frequently abused by my South Edinburgh colleagues in the last administration (presumably because she was good at her job). She is living testament to the truism that if you stick around long enough you always have the last laugh. Marilyne is Edinburgh's premier citizen for the next 4 years and where is Donald Anderson now?