The city’s spin cycle is getting out of control - Kevin Buckle

You would think post-internet that bare-faced lying would have died a death. Donald Trump note-0has taken all this to a new level but Edinburgh council it transpired this week had chosen to draw the line at the outright lie and instead gone for the Boris Johnson spin.

The case for a luxury hotel at the old Royal High School was strong

Earlier in the week this very paper reported: “A briefing sent to councillors on the measures proposed for Lanark Road said over 300 emails had been received from the public ‘both in favour and against’ – but it later emerged 300 were against, 19 in support and ten neutral.”

Given the well-publicised opposition to this scheme you do wonder if they really thought they could get away with such shenanigans but compared to other recent statements by the official bodies opposing the Old Royal High School hotel this is nothing.

The handful of us who have read the report to ministers about the six-star luxury hotel will have seen that it was accepted the hotel would be a substantial benefit to both the Edinburgh and wider Scottish economy. The works involved were in fact less intrusive than the proposed music school.

However it was also deemed that the setting was of great importance and on this basis the hotel failed in its appeal even though the Reporters praised the quality of the architect’s work and the attempt to have the adjoining new wings blend in. Those bodies against the hotel though couldn’t settle for that insisting that the economic benefits had been much exaggerated while failing to comment on the damage that would be caused by the proposed school.

Back with the council and their campaigns are always hailed as a success by either choosing easily available targets or not actually measuring the success at all. This has become particularly important to businesses over the years as projects deemed to help them are not actually measured by an increase in customers but rather by whether people have heard of the campaign.

The Forever Edinburgh campaign is just the latest example and I look forward to hearing how it helped shops given the current number of listings even after a second push is 15.

The council gives money to various events on the basis that businesses will benefit but funnily enough that benefit is never measured. On that same note we are still waiting to hear the promised detailed results of how the Open Streets initiative aided shops.

When it comes to events Underbelly of course lead the way in spinning, aided by the council, when even the most basic analysis can see the flaws.

None of this is new. I was surprised to read in a Living Streets report what a success the Grassmarket pedestrianisation had been as it bore no relation to what I had seen outside my window. It then turned out the architects involved had written the report quoted from.

Lies, damn lies, statistics and council spin.