City council has every right to debate international matters

One motion before councillors tomorrow asks that the council to write to Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, above, expressing its ‘continued and unwavering support’ for his city

It is fair to say that most of the comments were less than complimentary and they are unlikely to be cheered by casting a glance at the agenda of the full council meeting tomorrow, as six out of the 18 motions up for discussion deal with international matters.

Some of the contributors bemoan the fact the council is debating such matters at all and suggest that it should confine itself to local matters such as potholes, road layouts and wheelie bins to the exclusion of everything else. They are of the opinion that valuable time and money is being frittered away on matters over which councillors have little influence, if any. However, I beg to differ.

If you look at the agenda, items that some could construe as political posturing or virtue signalling actually do have a role to play in forming the council’s policy on important international matters of the day.

The agenda headings for such motions cover several topics such as; Condemning Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians; Three Year Anniversary of the Invasion of Ukraine; Edinburgh Does Not Welcome Donald Trump; Afghanistan Women and Girls; Condemn State Visit Invitation to Trump; and Condemning the Loss of International Aid. So, a fair smattering of world issues in anyone’s language.

Granted, Donald Trump is unlikely to lose any beauty sleep over the city council’s condemnation of his proposed visit to the UK, but one of the motions refers to Edinburgh’s possible role and puts up the marker that: “Edinburgh Council – its officers and members – will not, in any official capacity, be involved in a Donald Trump or JD Vance visit to Edinburgh and will not use its resources to support such a visit in any way.”

The motion relating to the three-year long war in Ukraine asks that, “The Lord Provost should write to Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv, to express this council’s continued and unwavering support to those living in our sister city and to the wider Ukranian people.” I had the pleasure of meeting Mayor Klitschko in his office a few years back and know that he values the link between Kyiv and Edinburgh and is looking for ways to strengthen it.

The international motions on the agenda of tomorrow’s meeting are fairly straightforward and should not take up a great deal of time as the various political groups on the council will have adopted a position before they set foot in the chamber. They largely call on letters to be sent to various people outlining the council’s stance, but whether some of the recipients of the letters take a blind bit of notice of their content is anyone’s guess. As councillors in Scotland’s capital city however, it is right and proper that they air these issues – with the caveat that as long as it is not at the expense of matters that directly affect Edinburgh’s citizens.