"Get on board or get out of our way"

What type of senior politician, do you think, would make such a statement as the title of this post in an open public debate of a major decision-making committee?

- Ewan Aitken? ... do you really think he'd say such a thing?; I've certainly no recollection of ever hearing such a statement coming from Ewan in the 9-years I've known him.

- Donald Anderson? ... bit of a reputation for speaking his mind, so maybe he would say such a thing?; well, not that I can remember in the 8-years I worked with him.

- any senior MSPs ... Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell, Alex Salmond?; nope, I just can't recall ever hearing any of these people voicing such an inflammatory statement. Not even Alex Salmond ;-)

- any senior MPs ... Tony Blair, Gordon Brown?; do you know, even at the height of debate on very, very serious national issues I cannot recall hearing such language from either.

I can recall one very senior American politician saying something similar - along the lines of "you're either with us, or against us" ... George W. Bush, of course - and Wikipedia seems to agree with that recollection.

Well, a senior member of the current Council Administration made the statement that is the title of this post, in an open public debate, of a major decision-making committee of the Council, earlier today.

For me, the whole sorry-episode just about sums up the 'style' of politics we're all being forced to suffer in the City Chambers at the moment.

And it sure as hell isn't a new politics.