Thursday 14th March 2019 will be a significant day for the future of Edinburgh Trams. It will be on that day that councillors from the City of Edinburgh Council meet to decide on whether to press ahead with plans to extend the line along Leith Walk to Newhaven – based on the results of the Final Business Case. Councillors have been given access to this in a special room before it is made public to help them reach their decision but, and let’s be honest about this, most had probably already made up their minds before seeing the document as opinions on major projects such as this are already pretty much entrenched based on previous experience and political persuasion.
In a recent series of articles in the Edinburgh Evening News both sides of the political spectrum have given their opinions. On the “For” side were Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council (SNP and Labour) whilst the “Against” opinion was put forward by a representative from the Scottish Conservatives. It is not our place to repeat in depth their comments as we have already covered the main arguments previously but they can be read online:
For – here
Against – here
It is likely that the next month or so will include plenty of claim and counter claim as we wait to see whether Edinburgh does get a bigger tram system or not.
Not everyone is keen on the extension as can be seen from this poster in the window of a café on Leith Walk. So far there doesn’t seem to have been a concerted anti-tram campaign but this one seems to be targeting how accessible the tram will be for locals. (Photograph by Roy Calderwood)
The poster you illustrate is a classic example of how extreme political expression has become now. Those who don’t like something become fanatically opposed to it, so they don’t use reasoned argument and discussion. They attack it in the most extreme way they can, using extreme language to the point of absurdity. Negativity is the only thing they know. So many good things in this country are trashed by extremists because it is easy to stir up emotions among disaffected people to turn against things that may even be to their advantage if they only considered for a moment rather than going for the gung-ho gut reaction. The attitude Groucho Marx parodied when he said “whatever it is, I’m against it”.