SNP's claim that Tories condone criminal behaviour is ludicrous – John McLellan

After news broke about the obviously despicable wire trap set across a Newcraighall pathway, there was a quite preposterous attempt to link the incident with challenges to city council’s pro-cycling transport policies, particularly by the Conservative group.

Police have received two reports this month of wire being tied across Newcraighall park's cycle track.

The claim was that vocal protest was only encouraging such criminal behaviour and that Conservative councillors were somehow complicit because no outrage had been expressed about the incident, despite this being demonstrably untrue.

By this token, every incident on the roads and pavements is proof that the SNP-Labour administration is right and anyone who sides with residents and businesses concerned about the impact of council plans on their communities is not just wrong, but criminally implicated.

The extension of the argument is that failure to speak about any criminal act is tacit approval for whatever might have motivated the perpetrators, even if their motivation can’t possibly be known.

And here’s the rub; according to city council leader Adam McVey, it’s actually Conservative councillors’ own fault that he can accuse us of quietly condoning criminal behaviour because only we are responsible for the tone of the debate and are not being respectful enough to him and his chums. Nothing at all to do with the dismissive attitude to those who disagree with them, and that includes local campaigners, not just us.

Nothing excuses reckless criminal behaviour such as the Newcraighall incident, but the local SNP – and the council’s attitude is being set by them, not their Labour partners – need to examine their own actions before casting such ludicrous and unbecoming aspersions.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.