Far be it for me to meddle in Scottish politics (though they still meddle in ours; I take that back) but it would appear that Edinburgh’s leaders are just as dubious as their Westminster counterparts. With Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander embroiled in her own donor gate scandal, First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmon has entered the fray with his own controversy.
Most papers have covered the spat that has grown over Donald Trumps plans to build a “golfopolis” near Aberdeen. Rejected by the local planning committee, Salmond has “called it in” and will make a final decision himself.
However, what Salmond failed to mention was that the day before he made his decision, he met with Mr Trump’s spokesperson. Not only that, but Jim McKinnon, the Executives Chief planner, also met with said spokesperson only hours before the executive made it’s announcement re the calling in!
Naturally, Salmond has denied any wrong doing, sighting his meeting as “constituency related”. He also claims to have met all parties involved in the planning controversy, both for and against.
Yes Mr Salmond you have, but not a couple of hours before you overturned the democratic decision of a local council.
As David McLetchie, the former Scottish Conservative leader said:
“The people smell a rat. This will confirm fears that this application is now a shoo-in and is going to be rubber stamped by the Scottish ministers irrespective of what was decided locally”.
Hmm, despite being from another parliament, the language sounds strangely familiar! Gypsies Green anybody!
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