Five New Year resolutions for Edinburgh - Susan Dalgety

Happy New Year! Have you made your New Year resolutions yet? I don’t bother. I gave up smoking on my 40th birthday.

Will Ian Rankin break the habit of a very successful writing career and promise to craft a happy ending for Rebus in 2024?

I have no intention of giving up red wine. And while I would love to drop a dress size, I am not going to sacrifice chocolate and crisps to get there.

But I do have five New Year resolutions for Edinburgh.

Number one on my list is for the Lord Provost. This year is the city’s 900th birthday, and while the city council hasn’t yet unveiled its plans on how we are all going to celebrate this milestone, I am confident that the programme they are working on will reflect Edinburgh’s status as Scotland’s capital and one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, if not the world.

So, Councillor Aldridge, I hope your 2024 resolution is to make sure our city celebrates its big birthday in style.

Even if you have left the planning a bit late.

Next up, I have a suggestion for Paul McLennan, MSP for East Lothian and Scotland’s housing minister. Edinburgh has just declared a housing emergency. Homeless families have to wait an average of 20 months before being offered permanent accommodation.

Rents are sky high and there is a shortage of social housing. I know your Finance Minister, Shona Robison, slashed housing expenditure by more than £200 million in last month’s budget, but Edinburgh needs help.

Will you resolve to sit down with the city council, housing associations and the private sector to hammer out a plan that will start to rebuild the Capital’s broken housing market?

Third up is for every city councillor. When you come to vote on whether the city should have a nil-cap on sexual entertainment venues, will you please vote yes? Your new year promise for Edinburgh should be to say no to the sexual exploitation of women. It is that simple.

My fourth resolution is for one of our most prominent citizens, Sir Ian Rankin. Your last book, A Heart Full of Headstones, left Edinburgh’s best-ever fictional character, retired detective John Rebus, in the dock.

Please don’t send him down. He deserves to spend his retirement sipping a decent malt while listening to Hackney Diamonds, the Stones’ new album, not slopping out in Saughton.

In a 2022 interview with our sister newspaper, the Scotsman, you said you don’t plot any of your books in advance. “When I start a book I have no idea where it is going to go”. Could you break the habit of a very successful writing career and promise to craft a happy ending for Rebus in 2024?

My final resolution is for you, the faithful Evening News reader. The paper has been bringing you the best of the Capital’s news and views for 150 years. Today, you are just as likely to read it on your smartphone as you are to pick up a copy in your local newsagent or supermarket.

But no matter how you choose to buy your Evening News, can I just say a big thank to you all for supporting the paper? And I hope your 2024 resolution is to keep on buying the best evening paper in Scotland.