Why be a Councillor??

Several long-standing (come on, this blog has been running for MONTHS now) readers have asked if I can expand on just why I was mad/inspired enough to become a Councillor??

Well, it's another one of those "what do you do" questions, that is not very easy to answer.

Best to start with my Council "register of interests" I reckon ... do have a look, and you'll see that I'm a member of lots (and lots!) of campaigning groups. Most of these I have actually been a member of longer than I've been a member of the Labour Party - which I joined in 1992 after complete moral apoplexy at John Major defeating Neil Kinnock ... if only things had turned out differently back in April 1992??

Anyhow, I did spend most of the late 1980's and early 1990's rallying against a whole host of reactionary (as I saw them) forces. I was living down in middle-England at the time and watched what was happening to Scotland from a distance. Back then, I did spend an inordinate amount of time at a huge variety of 'pressure-group meetings' moaning and whingeing with the best of them.

After Kinnock lost, I'd simply had enough (from the outside) and decided the only way to assuage my moaning and whingeing tendencies was to get involved with politics from the inside. A couple of nano-seconds later, after deep philosophical thought, I joined the Labour Party ... and a few months later, got the chance to move up to Edinburgh in mid-1993.

The rest, as they say, is history - I got totally absorbed in the devolution movement and went completely native. The whole of 1997, in particular, is a blur of change that I'm certain the history books will pick out as pretty memorable - general election victory in May 1997, referendum victory in September 1997, and my son born in December 1997 ;-))

This ongoing, political involvement led to me becoming a local government candidate in May 1999, from whence I was successfully elected onto the City of Edinburgh Council. And from then, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Council - still privately have the tendency to 'moan and whinge'; but publicly do try my utmost to convert that into positive, long-term change.

That's not the half of it obviously ... but hopefully gives you a flavour of why I was mad/inspired enough to become a Councillor ...