Edinburgh Sucks! | New Leader Vol. II

City Council

New Leader Vol. II

By The Basa ⋅ July 5, 2006 ⋅

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Volume II in the new leader contest comes in the form of what is known the most left wing of all three candidates.

Councillor Maginnis, who is known by her colleagues in the chambers as Bunty Backhander. Like Dick Dastardy in Volume I she doesn’t seem to want to run on her record.

On transport Bunty goes for:

Successful introduction of tram system to Capital is crucial; try to ensure Granton-Roseburn spur is included in the first phase; but ensure that people know how the plans have changed.
Bring in distinctive school minibuses, based on American-style “yellow buses”; aim to make the buses self-financing.

Obviously as all Labour councillors seem to be pusing for, Bunty is going for trams. Bunty needs trams more than anyone else in the city because as Chair of the Edinburgh Waterfront board if they don’t get trams down there, the whole prkject of which she is in charge will fall to pieces if the trams are not totally integrated with the development.

When she speaks about the American yellow school buses, she has not looked at the legislation and dependence on independent contractors required to get that going. Pretty much she is speaking out of her oversized a*se.

On Development/Economy:

Ensure Edinburgh’s wealth benefits all its citizens, not just four-fifths as at present
Offer more support to small and medium-sized businesses, possibly including compensation for loss of income through roadworks.

Where the hell did she pull that 4/5ths figure out from - it is definitely WRONG. We think that she means “Ensure Edinburgh’s wealth benefits all councillors, not just four-fiths as at present.” Nice to see she is looking after her friends

On Education:

Look at why one-third of pupils at state schools are not currently achieving their potential.
Ensure that the curriculum is relevant to the needs of individual pupils.
Find ways of growing confidence in pupils, possibly through introducing a mentoring scheme.

Now this is all getting very very funny. She obviously hasn’t read the recent reports which state: School pupils in Edinburgh are among the worst in Scotland when it comes to reading and maths. A snap survey of all of the city’s primary and secondary schools found a significant number of pupils taken out of classes and tested at random failed exams in both skills. Even the development manager of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said: “This report suggests we need to look at numeracy in Edinburgh.”

Councillor Bunty is really living on another planet from us. Obviously the fact that she has at least three full-time jobs is playing on her thought process. Bunty is not only a full-time councillor but also the full-time Manager of the Pilton Elderly Project and runs her own Consultancy company with her husband.

Not content with the three full-time jobs she also has several part-time ones. Being chair of Edinburgh’s Waterfront board is but one example. Of course this extremely secretive project, under her chair, has been slated by all and sundry including her fellow runner in the leader’s race, Trevor Davis who has told the press he is not happy with what is happening down at the Waterfront.

Maginnis stated in an interview with the Evening News’ John Gibson that her ambition was to have “”A penthouse flat overlooking the sea there once I’ve retired” - these are currently going for around £620,000 - lucky lady or is the fact that she is chair of the Waterfront just one of the financial irregularities that need to be addressed and investigated.

Regular readers will also remember that Maginnis was slated in the Evening News in January for being one of the councillors without special responsibilities on the Council’s executive who ran up a huge taxi bill.

Bunty also has lots of questions to answer in her own constituency where people are complaining that she has stuffed the community council with her friends and family and of course she is the Chair of the Pilton Partnership which funds her own employment in the Pilton Elderly Project - Howzat for back scratching? Is she the Paul Nolan of Pilton?

Of course being the most left wing candidate running for leader, it was interesting to note that Bunty launched her manifesto at the extremely expensive Witchery restaurant near the Castle which normally only millionaire superstars and mere scribes like us on expenses can go. Obviously, Bunty has left her contituents in Pilton behind and is now hanging out at high-priced eateries around the city. Nice for the socialist. [Erm… don’t you mean socialite, Ed.]

It would be interesting if Bunty did become leader and all of the financial irregularites and conflicts of interest in her backyard came to light before the election in May 2007. That would take the labour vote in the city from the toilet to the sewers.