I had to do a double-take when I read my Evening News today (15/05/22). SNP Councillor Adam McVey claimed to have “a mandate to lead the city” despite his group having just 19 of Edinburgh’s 63 Councillors and his party’s share of first preference votes fell to 25.9%.
This kind of outlook perhaps explains why the Greens, Labour, Lib-Dems and Tories all appear less than keen to work with Edinburgh’s nationalist Councillors.
In the article he rightly mentions the “cost of living crisis” as being one of the biggest challenges facing people in Edinburgh today, but he failed to mention his party’s role in making it worse. From driving up rents by allowing short term lets to run riot in Edinburgh for a decade to increasing our water bills to help fund Scottish Water’s boss taking a bonus of £227,000, the SNP have much to answer for.
Indeed, the SNP’s failure to stand up for ordinary people in Edinburgh is a key part of why Labour can’t support them in running our city. We will, however, work with progressive people in every party who put our city first to help tackle the combined challenges of the cost of living crisis, the climate emergency and the Covid recovery.
Dr Scott Arthur 