Edinburgh Sucks! | Councillor blog roundup

Andrew Burns

Councillor blog roundup

By The Basa ⋅ May 29, 2007 ⋅

We thought it might be a good idea to skip around the city’s councillors blogs to see what is happening in their world.Â There may be some of the new administration that have blogs but we haven’t found them yet so maybe if you are a councillor and you have a blog, let us know so we can keep up with your activities.

Andrew Burns – Labour – Opposition

Mr. Burns (known in the past by this site as ‘Bumbling Andy’) is the councillor in Edinburgh who actually gets this newfangled blogging thing and as regular readers will know, has been nominated for the New Statesman New Media Awards 2007 in the Elected Member category.Â

Some sour grapes about losing the election but all done in what seems a light hearted manner.Â Andrew brings up the standing order [Order 58(10)] that his administration passed to make sure that they would continue governance when Steve ‘Carbuncle’ Cardownie saw the light and crossed the floor to the SNP benches last year.Â This creates a problem for the now opposition:

Now last Thursday, to my slight annoyance, the new Council Executive met with the sole purpose of appointing the Leader, Deputy Leader and Executive Members so they can be treated as such and start attracting their respective salaries to their bank accounts.

All fair enough really, except that as well as there being an Executive Member for Culture and Leisure (Deirdre Brock) there is also to be a ‘Festivals and Events Champion’ (Steve Cardownie) … why do we need these two posts; what’s the rationale for this; perfectly valid questions for scrutiny I would say …

… except we can’t call-in the decision because of bloody Standing Order 58(10), which within a section on how to call decisions in, reads:
The “Call-in” Process …

58. (10) This Standing Order does not apply to decisions to appoint or nominate a member of the Council to an outside body or other office.
… yes, you’ve guessed it; it’s a relatively new Standing Order, instigated by the previous Administration (that included me!), a few weeks after Steve defected from Labour to the SNP so that we had no shenanigans around appointments when the Council was, briefly as it transpired, in a tight 29/29 split.

Oh … poetic justice ;-((

Poetic justice indeed….

Andrew was also on the receiving end of a tongue lashing from the Evening News for suggesting that the new administration may be Stalanist in their policies – so far, nobody believes they are.

The other major problem for the councillor since the election was the hamster escaping and munching on the mattress.Â Rumours going round the rodent population is that the hamster refuses to stay with a member of the opposition and is escaping to take up residence at http://www.hamsterforpresident.com/

Ewan Aitken – Labour – Oppositon

The former council leader, former Church of Scotland Minister and now seemingly former blogger has taken the hump.Â Last post on Ewan’s blog is Day 27 of the election campaign.Â Just after that he started removing all the comments left on his blog which we have covered here on occasion.Â Â Â

Now the councillor who brags that he welcomes “strong opinions strongly expressed” has expressed that he, like us,Â doesn’t welcome any opinions at all because as well as stopping to post himself, he as disabled the comments on his blog so that the only opinion you will get on his blog if he ever starts posting again is Ewan Aitken’s.Â

We also notice that although he has taken the position of Leader from the title of his blog, he has forgotten to change his profile where he is still has: “Occupation: Leader of City of Edinburgh Council” displayed.

Elizabeth Maginnis – Labour – Opposition

Maginnis (more widely known as Bunty Backhander) is doing the staff of Pilton Elderly Project a favour and has headed off to a sunnier climate.Â Thankfully she has informed us through her blog that the good people of Spain will have no worries – she has promised both us and them that “I will live in shadow, all body parts covered.”Â A huge “phew” was heard coming from the south of Spain.

Bunty’s blog is the one that really shows the bitterness of a loser.Â For those of you that don’t know Ms. Backhander only managed to get in by the slime that surrounds the aforementioned body, managing to squeeze through on Stage 9 of the count by the skin of her teeth and was the last councillor to be elected in that ward.

Lots of colleagues come in for Bunty’s wrath.Â On Trevor Davies, “Trevor did, at least in the public eye, become too closely associated with the development and his much publicised one finger salute did him/us/the development no favours.” On the Old Town, “the Old Town was labour’s re- invention…our triumph and now it is our wasteland.”Â On Jack McConnell and the Scottish Labour Party “McConnell’s future as leader is in doubt. So it should be. Yet where is the alternative? None inspire yet we live in a time where the personality and brio of the leader matter. Cast your eye down the list of hopefuls and you will scratch your head for an answer. That is Labour’s dilemma.”Â On Marlyn MacLaren, “I am pleased for her: she has had her share of vicissitude and she was too frequently abused by my South Edinburgh colleagues in the last administration (presumably because she was good at her job)…….. and where is Donald Anderson now?” – what an admission to make – my lot abuse people because they are good at their job.

All very interesting stuff from Bunty.Â But what she forgets about is herself.Â She never mentions how she only managed to poll 1,616 first past the post votesÂ whilst at the same time putting herself over as the most amazing councillor.Â The reason Labour failed in this election is purely down to councillors like Ms. Backhander who everyone believes is on the take.Â If She had to stand on her own name then her votes would probably be in single figures.

Bunty gives the Council Tory leader a slap on the back saying that “I like Ian. He has grown over the years and delivers a fine speech. He has played his group’s limited hand well. In one move he has isolated his enemy, provided temporary stability to the city and has been rewarded with the law & order portfolio, perfect territory for a conservative.” Nice words, shame she couldn’t spell his name correctly on both occasions she mentions it.Â It is spelt Iain, as he once wrote and told us.

Bunty doesn’t mention her other full-time job over at Pilton Elderly Project on her blog because she knows that now is the time for all of the Pilton Elderly Project staff who compiled the “Bunty Dossier” to come out into the open, there are people in the current administration willing to listen to them and take their accusations seriously.

Donald Wilson – Labour – Opposition

ThisÂ former “computing” teacher needs to go back to school himself and maybe take some lessons in computing that are post Windows 3.1.Â When challenged by plord, a commentator on his blog, about the total mess that is the Smart City initiative, Wilson goes to extol his history:

I have taught Computing in secondary schools for over twenty five years (still doing it)and been a Curriculum Development Officer ICT for three years so I think I can safely say I know something about both ICT and education. Given this and also my experience at the Council as head of the Smart City (which does not to date include the Police by the way). I know that none of the things you say are true.

Ahem, theÂ councillor speaks excrement.Â Whilst the rest of the world calls it information technology and has done since the second half of the nineties when the Internet started taking a hold, all the council wallies continue to call it ICT and we presume still subscribe to that nice seventies Ziff Davis publication Practical Computing and Electronics.

If this former ruling councillor really knew about IT then things like City Connect wouldn’t have happened.Â The council’s website would have a reasonable search facitlity and the people of the city would not be getting, according to an awful lot of council employees, shaftedÂ by BT who even have their staff emailing EdSucks towers lying and justifying those lies by calling themselves teachers.

With a grand total of 12 posts on his blog this year and two in 2006, it seems that Donald Wilson’s forte is not in the IT industry.Â He of course is not of the same opinion.Â Back in December ‘06 he says:

With a background as a Computing teacher in a Secondary School (I still do some supply teaching) and the Council’s Smart City person it was inevitable that I would set up a blog. I think this is a wonderful way to communicate directly with people so please feel free to make comments. There are not enough opportunities for people to tell Councillors and the Council what they think and this often leads to a sense of frustration and powerlessness. Well I’m here and I’m listening even though I may not always agree with everything everyone says.

He forgots to mention that he is only 6 years behind other bloggers and still hasn’t got the idea that to communicate with people he has to issue communcations (posts).Â If this was Labour’s leader in the Smart City initiative, now we really know why the voters didn’t agree with them to continue in power.

Hopefully, he will take some tips from Andrew Burns and then take those into the classroom to make sure our kids will have a good education.

If you know of any other MP, MSP or Edinburgh Councillor’s blogs do let us know so that we can have a peep.