Posted missing

On Thursday evening at Edinburgh City Chambers I attended what was billed as a “Hustings Question Time” for the City Centre Ward, to be chaired by Lesley Riddoch.

Remarkably, not only was Ms Riddoch absent, but by my reckoning only three of the six candidates decided to grace the electorate with their presence.

While I can live without the regal presence of Ms Riddoch at the grown-ups’ table, the absence of both the Labour and Green candidates undermined the purpose of the exercise as I saw it, as well as displaying a lack of courtesy; a sizeable number of hapless city centre electors had taken the trouble on a weekday evening to turn up and hear what the candidates had to say.

How the candidates thought that by not making themselves known to the electors they would be doing their cause any good is baffling.

Needless to say, the meeting was not organised by any of the politicians, but by the Adult Education people at Infirmary Street.

Politicians tend to find meeting with and listening to the people they are proposing to represent a messy distraction from the real business of… well, what? Perhaps your readers would like to hazard a guess.

And so we stand helplessly by as local democracy slips into meltdown. Any wagers on a turnout this time of under 30 per cent?

John Reiach

High School Yards

Edinburgh