WHENEVER I raise a glass to friends and assembled company, I often like to exclaim a toast of "peace and low taxes". Well, for this year of 2008, I heartily offer such wishes to all readers of the Evening News – but at the City of Edinburgh Council there is unlikely to be either peace or low taxes.
A constant stream of stories is emerging from the lips of councillors and their officials of never-ending departmental belt-tightening, overspent budgets and financial commitments that cannot be avoided.
The latest revelation that some £8 million
will have to be spent on replacing 5000 of the city's lamp posts must surely have been known for decades – so why the surprise now? Was the money never put aside? Still, I wager it's less than the previous Labour administration poured into that black hole in the ground that is the Ratho climbing centre.
We all know about the huge education deficit, then there's the funding of the Royal Commonwealth Pool's upgrade – not to mention the Meadowbank Stadium saga – which will test financially those that promised to save it. Meanwhile, the new bar facilities at the Usher Hall are being built while the Kings Theatre's seats and dressing rooms will soon condemn it to a state of permanent darkness.
Previous commitments that we are all paying for now look daft, not just for their high costs but also for the perverted priorities that put them at the front of the queue.
Labour councillors have no monopoly on the willingness of politicians to do things with council taxpayers' money that they wouldn't pay for with their own. The latest lot in charge, the Lib Dem/SNP coalition, are cooking up a scheme to use our money to subsidise first-time housebuyers that's akin to throwing petrol on to a fire – no doubt they think they will be thanked for their little wheeze.
Subsidising demand only creates further demand and drives up the price that is being subsidised. It is an exercise in futility, essentially transferring taxpayers' money to the banks, building societies and developers through the hands of the poor purchaser. A better slogan for the scheme would be "Council to make donation to wealthy banks and property speculators". That doesn't sound so good, though, does it? The way to make homes more affordable at a time of rising demand is to increase supply – something Edinburgh City Council can do through its control of the planning system – but which it steadfastly refuses to do.
Until there is an understanding of economic reality – coupled with an aversion to grandiose schemes that neither work or are needed – the council will continue to struggle to balance the coming year's budget, never mind pay off last year's deficit.
So this year there will be little peace at the City Chambers and, if there is a tax freeze, it can only mean a larger bill for us all when the day of reckoning comes later.
Teach young drinkers that getting wasted just isn't coolIT IS to be expected that after the Christmas and New Year festivities – when many revellers, but probably a smaller minority than we realise, drink to excess – there will be the usual Pavlovian calls for more restrictions on alcohol and especially higher duties and taxes.
It seems obvious, doesn't it, if the drink is dearer then fewer will be able to afford it and there will be less hedonism and violence? Well, the evidence and experience available continues to refute this simplistic thesis.
One only has to look at the many, many European countries where booze is cheaper than it is in Britain. In these low-cost countries they do not have the "let's get blootered as quickly as possible" attitude to drink and all the attendant problems that then follow.
One can also look to many countries that have high alcohol prices and various other restrictions (such as state monopoly off-licences, no advertising) and find that the levels of alcoholism are as high as, or higher than, in Britain.
No, the answer is not to penalise the vast majority of people that like, but don't abuse, their occasional bottle of Cinzano, Campari or Kalashnikov Vodka – why should they pay for the irresponsibility of others?
The answer is for public figures, leaders and role models to make a concerted effort to change the prevailing cultural attitude towards drink.
We must show our future generations that getting wasted really is dumb and ridicule this behaviour.
Such an approach is, of course, far harder – but only by making responsible drinking the responsibility of individuals will we finally reverse this ugly side to a free and open society.
Honest John refused to play the lying gameIT'S now been a few weeks since John Collins left Hibs and as he has not been appointed as Fulham manager – a position he was favourite to get but for which there was no evidence that he had even applied for – the accusation that he left Hibs for a bigger job now looks rather hollow.
The lack of a significant investment in players at Easter Road following what can only be described as the asset stripping of the team was, I suspect, only part of the story. Collins appears to have been unwilling to live with the charade that all managers and chairman conspire to present – that he and Rod Petrie took the same approach to team development and enjoyed a good working relationship.
That Collins has since been criticised for lacking the bottle of other managers, who put up with a parsimonious chairman and constantly lie to supporters about how harmonious their clubs are, says everything about the perverse morality of football management where honesty is a priceless commodity.
John Collins was a danger to Scottish football for he not only had personal integrity but possessed a private wealth that meant a hypocritical silence couldn't be bought with a huge salary. He could afford to take a stand on behalf of the paying supporters and walk away if his view was not accepted.
If Scottish football had more managers like John Collins it would be in a far healthier state than it is today.
The full article contains 1042 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
