SNP-Labour attack on Edinburgh drivers causing real harm to business – John McLellan

The SNP-Labour cheerleaders for the anti-car assault on popular Edinburgh shopping streets are fond of selectively lifting statistics from elsewhere to claim that making life difficult for drivers is actually good for business.

Senior councillors argued that turnover would actually go up by over 30 per cent because cyclists spent 40 per cent more a month than motorists, when retailers knew from their own takings that the truth was the complete opposite.

Unable to deny reality, new excuses like growing unemployment have apparently been cited, but while the predictions of mass lay-offs after the furlough scheme ends might yet come true, it’s hardly the case just now and certainly not in places like Stockbridge and Morningside.

For definitive proof of what’s happening, Yolanda Luca of ice cream shop fame has provided an excellent measurement because she has one branch at Holy Corner which has been coned off, so to speak, and another in Musselburgh which hasn’t. Morningside’s turnover is down 60 per cent while Musselburgh has remained steady.

So, a 30 per cent benefit, according to SNP councillors, or a 60 per cent slump, according to someone who actually runs an affected business. Who do you believe?

A clip of Ms Luca on social media talking about the frustration being experienced by shopkeepers resulted in some supporters of the scheme saying they would boycott her business, including the partner of council leader Adam McVey.

Although I doubt they make many sojourns to Morningside to buy ice cream, the idea that the council leader’s family would support anything which damages a much-loved city business is, to borrow another phrase, chilling.

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