I think it’s a fair assumption that a lot more people will recognise the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party than the author, the leader of Edinburgh Council’s Labour group, but it is interesting that such a question should be posed when the answer was already known.
The column was published on Monday, yet by Friday lunchtime every one of the Edinburgh Conservative MSPs had supported Douglas Ross’s call for the Prime Minister’s resignation, and the details widely published.
So, I have a few questions too. Did the author think that by asking the question readers might presume the MSPs had said nothing? Did he hope they would believe Edinburgh's Conservative MSPs had no spine? Did the author think he could persuade readers of something that he should have been well aware was not true? Or couldn't he be bothered to check?
With the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar ruling out formal coalitions with the SNP, such as the local Labour Party has enjoyed for ten years, and with Labour now opposing the introduction of workplace parking levies which Edinburgh Labour has enthusiastically supported despite the clear implications for working people, maybe it doesn’t matter who the leader of the local Labour Party is because the job might be changing hands soon anyway.
John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston