Caveat Emptor

Today was strike day and so I found myself nowhere near the Council and barred from my surgery - I was half hoping 1 of the 4 UNISON members (of which I am one) at PEP might decide to mount an official picket at No.3 West Pilton Park...not this time, though.

So tonight I have no official business to report only local gossip...of which there is plenty. North Edinburgh is jumping with red hot kind of stuff - about the Unfairer Scotland Fund and how it is allegedly all the fault of the Labour Party!!!

[Just for the record, it's not Labour who agreed the formula that scythes the size of the grant to North Edinburgh. It's not Labour who is trying to force bona fide, long standing community reps off the funding panel. It's not Labour who is listening to and repeating endless, false tittle tattle about community organisations. It's not Labour who is trying to stop community organisations meet and it's definitely not Labour who is collaborating in the oldest trick in the book...create a diversion, send a false hare running, try to split the opposition and use any trompe l'oeil to divide and rule.]

Across the country political opponents of the Labour Party scent blood. That's politics with a capital P. The rules of politics with a capital P mean criticism is attributable so issues are debated openly and people get a chance to respond.

However, in North Edinburgh the Labour Party's enemies sneak around anonymously (with at least 1 politician with a capital P aiding and abetting, presumably in the delusion it gives some political advantage) stoking up a 'looking at the world through the wrong end of a telescope' view of the world.

Meantime, the interests of the community are being damaged.

Like the rest of the Forth Ward, I am still waiting for either or both of the Administration councillors to make any kind of statement that acknowledges there are risks to their constituents as a result of the funding agreement. Indeed, I am still waiting for either to acknowledge there is any crisis at all. I think it's called turning a blind eye...or maybe they genuinely don't really care...

I've been around long enough to know the wisdom of the old adage: you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Caveat emptor.