Jack and the Beanstalk at His Majesty’s Theatre may be over, but Aberdeen still has a long-running pantomime on the go, which would be hilarious if it weren’t so disastrously serious for us, the citizens.
Take a bow the now minority ruling group on Aberdeen City Council, the coalition between the SNP and Lib/Dem councillors, whose obsession with bus gates has turned the whole administration into an utter farce.
From what I read, Lord Provost David Cameron pulled off a bit of a pantomime dame – or probably more Basil Fawlty – performance last Friday, going feel with his gavel, hammering it no less than 50 times in a bid for – wait for it “civil debate” and “civic order,” before giving up the ghost and walkin’ oot. No, you couldnae mak that up.
From his dismal record conducting other full council meetings – eg not allowing protesting parents to speak to their plea to save libraries and the Bucksburn pool, it’s pretty clear his handling of the job as Aberdeen’s First Citizen leaves a lot to be desired.
Tory leader Rick Brooks claims his informal legal advice points to the whole bus gate scheme being invalid, the fines already imposed possibly illegal – a bombshell he’d wanted debated on Friday before the meeting was aborted.
I thoroughly agree with him that this bizarrely incompetent administration’s power hangs on a shooglie peg.
He’s also dead right about the poor residents of the city having to put up with these bungling ruling councillors for another two-and-a-half years unless Lib/Dem leader Ian Yuill does the right, sensible and desperately needed thing – puts an end to this “coalition of chaos.”
Moreen Simpson is a former assistant editor of the Evening Express and The Press and Journal and started her journalism career in 1970.
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