Edinburgh Sucks! | Reply to Evening News Article

Uncategorized

Reply to Evening News Article

By The Basa ⋅ June 24, 2005 ⋅

Email this post ⋅

Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

There were some inaccuracies in the recent article in the Evening News.

The EdinburghSucks website is attracting up to 1400 “hits” a day and even has its own merchandising brand.

The site is attracting an average of 1,400 visits a day. When someone tells you that their site attracts a number of hits a day, tell them that hits stands for “How Idiots Track Success” – in fact on the day the article was released we had neary 7,000 visits – actually 6,894 visits.

Mr Duffy-King’s gripe with the city council began exactly four years ago when he submitted a planning application for a two-storey extension on his elderly mother’s home in Portobello. The application was refused by the council on the grounds that it would block neighbours’ sunlight, even though there were no formal objections from the public.

“I have intended to bring my successful business into Europe and move its HQ to Edinburgh,” he said.

“But after the planning committee refused my application I decided not to boost the city’s economy. The only people who disagreed with the application were the council employees.

“So I bought the website domain name EdinburghSucks.com to expose how the politicians are screwing our city.

Actually, when the planning application was turned down I started following what the council was doing. It took those 4 years to make me angry enough to start this site. It also wasn’t only what was in the press but what I was seeing around Edinburgh. What I was hearing in bars, restaurants and shops about how the councillors were treating the city. In fact the first post here was on March 25th, 2004. So this is not about the planning application – that just opened my eyes. At that time, because the very well researched and opinioned application was refused, I did ask all councillors on the planning committee at the time if there was a bung system in force, who I was to bung and how much.

Council leader Donald Anderson today said he was “sad” about the growth of EdinburghSucks.com.

“An individual decision by planning has no political whip and it’s regrettable that some people take their decisions very badly,” he said.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now and I wish we could all put it behind us, but this gentleman seems determined to campaign against us and we will have to deal with that.”

The “Telflon Don” got this one wrong. As stated above that was only the start. All artices have been since March 25th – start answering those!

Home is now a luxurious apartment on Roosevelt Island, New York, where he lives with his American wife Laurie. Neighbours include Janet Jackson and Meatloaf.

In the words of Marvin Gaye and later Paul Young “Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home.” I have a number of properties, all of which I call home to some extent, however the house I was raised in and my family have lived in since it was built is my real home – whether the apartment is NY is luxurious or not – that is not up to me nor have I ever said that. The abovequoted information is from a previous article written by Jason Cumming who is now with the Herald in Glasgow and I questioned it at the time.

From the local scandal I hear in Roosevelt Island’s only diner, I hear that Janet moved out. Damon LaScott, Meat’s long time guitarist moved in. More relevant to the article, fellow scotsman and veteran funkster Onnie McIntyre from the still excellent Average White Band has laid his hat on the Island for over 20 years with his author wife Marion.

More info: Man who says city has gone down Tube