Will Edinburgh Council's Labour leader Cammy Day apologise over 'Miss Marple' jibe at Alison Dickie? – Steve Cardownie

It would seem that Edinburgh Conservative councillor Nick Cook is intent on creating a wee bit of controversy at tomorrow’s full council meeting by referring to a statement by Labour councillor Cammy Day in which he likened the then SNP, but now independent, councillor Alison Dickie to “Miss Marple”.

Councillor Alison Dickie resigned from the SNP group and will stand down at May's election

The Labour leader made the comment after she went public with her concerns about allegations of abuse, bullying and harassment and the treatment of council whistleblowers.

Councillor Cook has tabled a question, to be answered by Cammy, which asks: “Has the Depute Leader issued an apology for his comments at council on 23 September 2021? If so, to whom was the apology issued? If no apology has been issued, will the Depute Leader now take this opportunity to do so? Would the Depute Leader accept the impact his comment could have in helping to create an intimidating environment?”

I suspect that the answers to all the questions will amount to a two-letter response if brevity is to be the order of the day but that is unlikely to diffuse the odour that still pervades this sorry state-of-affairs.

By all accounts, Councillor Dickie was an effective administration councillor and a competent vice-convenor, so it is a shame that she was not provided with the support and assistance that should have been a matter of course. This led to her decision to resign from the SNP group and to stand down at the forthcoming council elections in May.

Conscientious councillors are in short supply – it’s a pity then that Councillor Dickie was treated as ‘persona non grata’ because she highlighted an alleged malicious malaise within the council.

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