THERE'S something wrong with the system. Seriously wrong with a set-up that allows retailers and whoever to slap massive – but massive – advertising banners on the side of prime site buildings in Edinburgh and get away with it.
They don't pay a penny. They get away with a pathetic slap on the wrist from the council who'll tell you legislation is such that miscreants can appeal any order to rip the banner down and spin everything out so that a banner can stay up for four or
five or more months.
A scandal, you're right. But that's the law, I'm informed, so effectively advertisers are within their statutory rights while they hum and haw. The city's environment leader Robert Aldridge appears to be powerless in this scenario.
You've seen the slap-in-your-face banner that's sullied Princes Street's east end for weeks, throughout the Festival. Must have been worth thousands in free advertising. A joke. And a bad one at that. Edinburgh must campaign to change this archaic system.
And, Edinburghers, let's kindle a mass protest, keep campaigning against the tramcarnage nobody wants except the sleekit individuals who hatched the plot. They're getting away with murder, too.
Bag a stag Staggered! Could it be, perchance, that Margaret Cook isn't exactly a fan of our Prime Minister? Here's what the former Mrs Robin Cook has to say: "He lurked in the Treasury for years like a wounded animal, growling and licking his wounds, never quite having the courage to make a decisive move.
"He spent a decade with his head below the parapet, cannily avoiding committing himself over controversial issues, with rumours spreading of internecine warfare with Blair.
"He used his skills as much to cautiously calculate his next career move as to control the country's finances. An ageing stag, he seems to have had his day."
Afterwords . . . . . Labour-supporting Bee Gee Robin Gibb on our leader: "Gordon has too many people telling him to be serious. In fact, he is very contagious and infectious. He should show that side more often. People would respond." No they wouldn't.
The full article contains 355 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
