Midlothian Council

Interesting article in the Evening News today:
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Provost-denies-150-mile-trip.6270139.jp


Just shows the high quality people we have serving as councillors in Midlothian. Roll on the next local elections and we might finally get rid of them (though I won't be holding my breath)

Not sure where these Midlothian kiltmakers are that Beattie is burbling on about. Not in Yellow Pages, for sure.
Bit of a political blunder but the guy has a clothing allowance; this is well within it; typical bloody Nat newspaper has to have a go.
Grow up.

RogerRabbit wrote:

Not sure where these Midlothian kiltmakers are that Beattie is burbling on about. Not in Yellow Pages, for sure.

Well, there are a few in Edinburgh.........

And even Midlothian Cooncil Tax payers, who like me actually quite like Adam, might think that this

http://www.internationaltartans.co.uk/district/midlothian-tartan/

was maybe a wee bit more appropriate than Kilmarnock Fitba' Club's tartan.

He is a popular chap with articles in most of the papers today such as:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/2010/05/05/i-ve-done-nothing-wrong-say-provost-who-claimed-950-for-kilt-and-150-mile-trip-to-get-it-86908-22235744/

and this:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2959253/Midlothian-provost-Adam-Montgomery-kilty-as-charged.html

and even the Daily Express:
http://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/173191/Anger-at-provost-s-1-000-kilt-bill

Bet that is not the way he would prefer to have his picture in the paper!

This just all shows publicly what we've all known for years, this guy is not suitable for the role - however unfortunately it's folk like him the length and breadth of the country that have these jobs...

I'm not defending the guy, rubbereye, though I quite like him as well. This is a good example of shooting your self in the foot as far as I'm concerned but good old Johnston Press just have to make a meal of it.
Typical Nats that whinge about the amount of money even though it's inside his budget. Midlothian tartan would obviously have been more appropriate for the provost but their brains don't work that way.

You can get kilts here in Midlothian - there is a kilt shop right in the centre of Dalkeith, and one at Hardengreen Industrial Estate too. I'm sure they'd have been only too happy to meet the Provost's requirements. For me, it's not so much to do with the amount of money being spent, but the fact that
a) if public money is being spent, it should be spent here in Midlothian, supporting local businesses, and
b) if the Provost is wearing the kilt on official business, then it should be Midlothian tartan - yes, you do get a Midlothian tartan. If he wants a made-to-measure Kilmarnock kilt, let him pay for it himself!

Oh, and by the way, as this forum is so Penicuik-centred, it may interest you to know that Yves Le Marchand, the Belgian consul, who lives in Penicuik, proudly wore his Midlothian tartan kilt at the Brazil-Scotland game in 1998.

And Roger Rabbit, why shoot the messenger here? Are you suggesting this should all have been swept under the carpet? Why should the papers not report this issue? Why point the finger at any particular paper too? If, as a Midlothian council tax payer, my hard-earned cash is going to support the Provost's Kilmarnock-supporting whims, then yes, damn right I want to know about it!

Quote :

And Roger Rabbit, why shoot the messenger here? Are you suggesting this should all have been swept under the carpet? Why should the papers not report this issue? Why point the finger at any particular paper too? If, as a Midlothian council tax payer, my hard-earned cash is going to support the Provost's Kilmarnock-supporting whims, then yes, damn right I want to know about it!

No, Sue, I'm only suggesting that it was fairly typical of Johnston Press (and I didn't mention which paper) to focus on the money, which the Provost was perfectly entitled to spend since it came within his clothing allowance, rather than the cack-handedness of choosing a Kilmarnock FC tartan rather than the Midlothian one. I'll happily join in that criticism, including to his face, but the cost is a red herring. Unfortunately the Nats press never was all that good at grasping the essential that makes a story "work".