Facebook - not here you can't

The Daily Mash (haven't quoted them for a while!) has a very funny article today on office workers and Facebook ... as regular readers will know, I succumbed to the Facebook addiction some time ago ...

... only problem is (and this possibly gives away the fact that I'm blogging from home at the moment!) you cannot access Facebook, MySpace, YouTube - or a host of other really useful sites - at the City Chambers??

So, just no escape from "the hellish, brain-curdling reality that is their shabby, predictable and ultimately meaningless lives" for Councillors :-((

Mind you, on the upside, "Blogger" hasn't been blocked yet :-))

Rugby mania

I'm not a massive rugby fan, but I do attend most Scotland home games, and have to admit that the flat is now completely consumed by rugby mania ...

... and just how can Scotland fail to win the World Cup after the thrashing they gave Portugal :-)

So, imagine my despair this morning when I realised that the Emergency Council Meeting this Saturday clashes with THREE World Cup games - New Zealand V Portugal (12noon); Wales V Australia (2pm); Ireland V Georgia (8pm).

There's clearly no way I'll see the first two (never mind that 12.30 Hearts game!) and the Ireland game could even be in jeopardy ... urgent negotiations with the Lord Provost may be about to commence :-))

Independent and Sun back campaign!

No, not against school closures ... but against those Crocs :-))

Have a look here ... this Independent article even mentions a 'front-page Sun expose' last week, but you need to pay to access it so I've not been able to reproduce it here :-(

There even appears to be a whole blog (absolutely nothing to do with me!) dedicated to the campaign now - see here.

- the momentum seems unstoppable ...

Community Council meetings galore

Hutchison and Chesser Community Council on Monday night; Tollcross Community Council Tuesday night ... Merchiston next week and Craiglockhart the week after.

These new multi-member wards have definitely led to elected Members losing touch with their communities and not being reactive to local events ... NOT, of course.

All the doom-mongers, who were certain that the mythical Member-Ward would be broken and local politics would collapse, do need to reflect on their predictions.

I've never seen so many elected Members at Community Council meetings; with healthy competition between them; and good, constructive engagement with the actual Community Council members themselves.

Okay - my Ward is obviously bigger, and I'm noticeably busier at a local level ... but isn't that a good thing?

Mind you, maybe that's exactly what the cynics were afraid of?

Lack of clarity

Start of the new week - and there's still a distinct lack of clarity in the air (and no real sense of direction) concerning just what happens next, following the collapse of the proposed Schools Rationalisation programme.

The first 'Children and Families' electronic newsletter - since early July - came round today and not a sentence about the events of the last few weeks ... just a link to the Press Release from last Monday announcing the end of Coalition support for the proposed programme.

To be fair, the Department have sent two e-mails to all members of staff - one last Monday (3rd) simply reporting the said Press Release; and a further one today (10th) indicating that a special Meeting of the Council has been organised for Saturday 15th September to formally terminate the whole process.

But - that second e-mail says it all really. The whole process HAS NOT yet been terminated; and all that's happened is a collapse of Coalition support for the programme that was announced to the world by Press Release.

As I argued last Tuesday (4th) ... Edinburgh does deserve some answers ... it still hasn't received any yet.

I, for one, am still not confident about the ability of the current 'political marriage' to offer a stable way forward for the city of Edinburgh. I'd actually like to think I'll be more confident following the meeting on the 15th - will they offer an apology and an explanation for what has happened, whilst accepting the need for a more inclusive-approach to these issues?

We'll hear soon enough.

Weekend from hell

Apologies are due for the complete lack of posting over the weekend ...

... I was somewhat pre-occupied with the seemingly never-ending, household D.I.Y. project list :-(

And, I have to tell you, I never want to see a tin of varnish again - what a nightmare :-((

Here's a quick synopsis of the weekend from hell:

• remove all furniture (everything on the floor in fact) from the kitchen and not insubstantial hallway


• sweep said floors (several times) to remove a huge amount of dust and a truly indescribable amount of cat hair


• sand both floors (by hand) to remove the top layer of existing varnish to ensure any new varnish 'takes' properly


• wash both floors with white spirit - I assume (just followed instructions) to ensure complete cleanliness and in preparation for the new varnish


• varnish both floors with 1st coat


• allow 2 hours to dry


• varnish both floors with 2nd coat


• allow 2 hours to dry


• varnish both floors with 3rd coat


• allow 2 hours to dry


• leave flat empty for at least 8 hours before 'heavy traffic' allowed on new surfaces
  

Now, the finished product does look pretty good (if I don't mind saying so myself) but what a performance getting there.

That is definitely it - no more D.I.Y. this side of 2008 ... my lawyers are on standby :-)

Yet another D.I.Y. weekend :-((

I'm fast coming to the conclusion that I must have been bad in a previous life ...

... regular readers will recall my absolute love of all-things D.I.Y. - well, I make it no more than 4 weeks ago (at the very most!) that I had to completely re-decorate the whole kitchen.

And yet, this coming weekend I'm under strict instruction to re-varnish the floors in said kitchen AND in the hallway. Now I live in a tenement flat - the bloody hallway is huge :-(

That's it - after this weekend, no more D.I.Y. in 2007; after all I'll be too busy attending weekend meetings of the Full Council :-((

FMQ untruth

I'm all for a bit of political banter, but really don't like complete 'untruths' - and, I have to say, at FMQ's yesterday I'd humbly suggest that we heard a bit of an untruth ... check out the First Minister's answer to a question put by Malcolm Chisholm - here.

The answer given states that "the so-called hit list was devised under a Labour Administration" ... sorry, this is simply NOT TRUE.

Now, I doubt if the First Minister himself reads this blog ... but I know some of his supporters do ... so I hope they might draw his attention to the 'History' section in my earlier entry - here - and some of the links therein.

I'm a charitable bloke, always willing to give the benefit of the doubt ... but the answer given yesterday was clearly an untruth and a public clarification wouldn't go amiss.

I'd applaud such.

Cancel the football?

Well, the rumour-mill appears to have been true once again - formal confirmation that the Emergency Council Meeting is to be held at 12noon a week on Saturday (15th) just received this morning.

Just can't believe there isn't another slot between now and the 17th September which is slightly more convenient than in the middle of a holiday weekend ... mind you, that's the whole (petty) point I suspect :-((

1st Neighbourhood Partnership meeting this evening

1st public meeting of the new Neighbourhood Partnership this evening ... I've rambled on about these new bodies at some length before: here, here an here.

... will be interesting to see if these Committees do become "a bit of a quiet revolution in the way the Council does business"?

I have to say, after my earlier optimism, early signs of the new Council being more 'democratic and open' don't really auger well :-(

Petty or professional?

As recounted a couple of days ago, a quarter of the Council has called an Emergency Council Meeting to ensure the city is given a prompt explanation over the recent schools closure fiasco. I won't repeat here why I think it crucial this happens quickly.

... well, a dark rumour is circulating the City Chambers (I've heard it from several sources, so that IS as good as 'true' in local politics!) that the Lord Provost has called the meeting for 12noon on Saturday 15th September?

Now, remember they've had the requisition for this Emergency Council Meeting since Monday and could have called it at almost any time between now and the 17th September - only three days notice required.

So why call it in the middle of a local holiday weekend, that coincides almost exactly with the 12.30pm kick-off of the Hearts V Rangers game??

Now, just to be clear, I am no football fan - unlike many of my colleagues! - but this all seems designed to make the Emergency Council Meeting as 'difficulty-timed' as possible.

'Maybe' I'm becoming too cynical in my old age - but it strikes me as petty and not very professional ... then again, maybe I'm being naive to hope that it wouldn't be so :-(

Vindication :-)

No, not over school closures ... but those damned Crocs!

Have a look at this story on the BBC earlier today ... here ... I just knew there was something suspect about them :-))

... 'health and safety risk'
... 'infection risk'
... 'static electricity build-up caused by the shoes could disrupt medical equipment'

- what more can I say?

Emergency Council Meeting

As most readers will now know, the Liberal/Nationalist Coalition abandoned the consultation process on potential school closures yesterday afternoon.

Whilst welcoming that decision, I really don't think it acceptable that this type of major policy-change should be announced at a Press Conference where Opposition members (correctly, I accept) cannot ask questions.

There still needs to be a 'formal' Council decision to put a 'formal' end to the consultation process, with a chance for the Opposition to hold the new Administration to account over the events of the last few weeks. And the next Full Council meeting isn't now until Thursday 20th September. I genuinely think a further three weeks of drift, rumour and uncertainty will not be good for the city.

So, the Council Secretary now has the required "quarter of the Councils' signatures" calling for an Emergency Council Meeting. The Council Secretary has up to 14 days to organise it - I seriously hope it's arranged as quickly as possible; as far as I can see, there's no good reason why the notice calling the meeting couldn't go out today.

Never mind 'formally' ending the consultation process (which is crucial but hasn't happened yet), there are very serious questions to be asked about the last few weeks and these need to be resolved as quickly as possible, so that the public know just where this new Administration is going.

I am increasingly worried about the potential damage all of this is doing to Edinburgh. We already knew that there was a complete inability of the Liberals and Nationalists to agree on the main tenets of transport policy, but now that inability to agree has stretched to Education policy. What will crumble next?

And more importantly, just what ARE they going to agree on over the next four years? - actually, it might now be five years!

Edinburgh does deserve some answers and some degree of clarity; and an Emergency Meeting should allow us to extract just that - I certainly hope so.

Maybe, just maybe, the Liberals would actually be better off going it alone in a minority Administration? ... their erstwhile Nationalist colleagues at Holyrood clearly decided that to be the best option.

2 Fountainbridge casinos? - no thanks

Very disappointing story in the local paper this morning ... seems the Licensing Board has agreed to give the 'amber-light' to a potential "second-casino" for the Fountainbridge area ...

... I have to say, I'm entirely unconvinced and the policy framework for all of this seems to be in a bit of a mess.

Two casinos, so close to each other, frankly seems wrong to me ... but worse than that, Stanley Casinos had to close one casino down in Edinburgh to get the first Fountainbridge licence, yet now we're being told its fine for Grosvenor to go ahead and have the second Fountainbridge licence as there is unmet demand??

Congratulations due!

In all the furore over potential school closures, some congratulations are slightly over-due to one of my Ward Councillor colleagues - Gordon Buchan, who became a dad last Friday afternoon!

Gordon may be a Tory, but he can't be all bad because at least he voted against the re-introduction of those damned robes :-)

Seriously - many congratulations to all his family.

Someone agrees with me :-)

At long last ...

... just spotted that someone actually appears to agree with me in my slight dislike for overly colourful, plastic shoes :-)

Could this be the beginnings of yet another mass campaign? You never know, it just could be :-))

Great News

Clearly, at both a local and city-wide level, I very much welcome today's about-face on the school closure consultation programme.

It does appear - although Council Policy cannot be made by press statement - that the whole programme is to be abandoned forthwith. Great news.

It's a victory for all those parents and school communities who spoke up and made their views very clearly known to the politicians in power.

But, there are very serious questions to be asked about how the whole process has been handled - or I should say, mishandled. Today's not the day to go over them - I'm just glad public pressure has paid off ...

... but I will come back to those questions of process, as frankly I'm finding it hard to see how the present crowd who are running the show can ever agree on anything after this fiasco?

London for the day ...

Down in London today for an Electoral Reform Society Council meeting - still managing to adhere to my no-flying commitment; down on the sleeper last night and back on the 4pm from Kings Cross this afternoon/evening. Works fine.

I should add, that the daily 'cycling to work' is also still going well :-))