Tram pay freeze - 'Few will feel sorry for TIE staff affected'

THERE'S a story doing the rounds about a manager at trams firm TIE who is enjoying a break from the beleaguered project at a New Town dinner party. Then the person he has just met, sitting beside him, asks the dreaded question: "So, what do you do?"

A moment of quiet panic ensues, during which the trams worker toys with answers like "I'm a mortician" or "I work in a sexual diseases clinic" before, with a sigh, he tells the truth, knowing he is now condemned to an evening of endless questions and sarcasm.

The story is doubtless apocryphal, but like most such tales it is passed around because it contains more than a hint of truth.

All TIE workers must feel tainted by the tram project's problems and its unpopularity in many circles. And, rightly or wrongly, in Edinburgh at least they save bankers, politicians and - yes - journalists from the bottom of the league table of popularity of professions.

There will be few, then, who feel sorry for TIE staff after chief executive Richard Jeffrey revealed that he had imposed a pay freeze and banned bonuses.

After 1.1m in bonuses had already been paid out, most people would agree with Jeffrey that the current state of the project should rule out further payments.

With an eye on staff morale, Jeffrey keeps his options open on wage kicks and bonuses in future years. But they must only happen when progress on the tram project has become so good that dinner partying TIE staff are bursting to reveal what they do for a living.

OAP malnutrition

THERE are two alarming aspects to our revelations about the high number of malnutrition cases among elderly patients admitted to Lothian hospitals.

The most worrying, of course, is that twice as many pensioners are affected here than in any other part of Scotland. That means six underfed Lothian OAPs are admitted every week - and last year 12 died in hospital.

The second alarming factor is that no-one really seems to know why the situation is so bad.

It could be that Lothian hospitals are simply good at diagnosing the problem - which bodes well for the treatment in such cases.

But if the shock statistics point to some failing in care for elderly folk in our communities then serious action is needed to protect such vulnerable citizens.