Edinburgh Tram Inquiry report delay is beyond satire but we thought we'd have a go anyway – Scotsman comment

Anyone for an Inquiry Inquiry? Perhaps not.

It is a true story that would test the talents of the finest satirists of any age, from Jonathan Swift to Armando Iannucci, to come up with anything quite as farcical. The report of an inquiry, set up to discover why the Edinburgh tram route from the airport to the city centre cost so much and took so long, has itself cost a small fortune and taken nine years to apparently complete.

In April, we got our hopes up on being told it was definitely finished. Hurray, we thought, finally we’ll soon learn the lessons we’d half forgotten we’d signed up for. Admittedly, we were warned the printers might take “several weeks”, but now it turns out it will actually be several months, possibly September. “Is it being copied by monks onto parchment?” quipped Edinburgh Council’s transport convener, Scott Arthur.

Periodically during this saga, we’ve wondered whether there should be an Inquiry Inquiry. Clearly, there’s now a case for an Inquiry Report Printing Inquiry, quickly followed by an Inquiry into The Important Question of Whether Scottish Public Institutions including The Press are Losing Their Minds.