Adam McVey doesn’t care about consensus – John McLellan

We know we won’t always have political consensus,” wrote council leader Adam McVey in the Evening News this week and that’s undoubtedly true.

Adam McVey does not care what the Conservatives think (Picture: Ian Georgeson)

But of course if consensus isn’t sought it will never be achieved, unless your definition of consensus is that everyone should agree with you.

The truth is Cllr McVey doesn’t give a stuff what the Conservative group thinks, and why should he when the Greens guarantee his schemes get through every time.

The faux concern fools no-one, especially when his administration’s idea of consensus is to exclude a group of independent councillors simply because they had the temerity to leave the SNP. How consensual.

Road closures driven through

The principle of pavement widening to enable safer self-distancing and to take account of higher cycle use as people continue to avoid public transport is not in doubt.

But as a wide-ranging list of emergency road closures across Edinburgh is voted through by a small group of councillors today, the question is the extent to which the emergency is being used as an opportunity to drive through a wider agenda.

There are calls for the legal process for changes to be accelerated which is understandable, but that can’t be at the expense of proper consultation with those affected, as happened with the first three closures when there was no consultation at all. There were claims of acting on police advice which turned out to be totally untrue.

City centre businesses especially fear the negative impact will be considerable at a time when every sinew should be stretched to help the economic recovery, but there isn’t much of that in the grand plan.

When is a queue also a question?

Lockdown quiz 1: If you can join a well-ordered queue at B&Q and Homebase and go shopping for all your gardening needs, why can’t you go to Dobbies or Klondyke to buy the same kind of stuff from them?

Lockdown quiz 2: If you can walk along a golf course, why is taking a bag of clubs and some balls against the rules?

Lockdown quiz 3: If I am on one side of the garden fence and my neighbour is on the other, is that breaking the law?