Tories urged to call everything in
Opposition called topileon pressure before election
To many people, ‘Purdah’ might sound like something you’d order from The Taj in Prestwick on a wet Saturday night. When you say it out loud – ‘chicken purdah off the bone’ – it even sounds quite appealing!
But in truth, it’s a very serious word . . . and nothing to do with food.
It has deep historical and religious significance for certain faiths.
‘Purdah’, with its roots in Hindi and Persian, means ‘curtain’ or ‘veil’ – and refers to the separation or screening of women from men in certain household and social circumstances.
It also has a more contemporary meaning – in the realms of local and national politics.
‘Purdah’ was the name given to the period before elections when making major decisions or announcements was prohibited
– on the basis that they could be interpreted as taking unfair political advantage.
It’s why Nicola Sturgeon can’t announce free mince, Irn Bru, Tennents lager and Tunnock’s tea cakes on the day before a referendum!
Out of respect for the word’s real origins – albeit belatedly – ‘purdah’ is gradually being replaced with more politically correct terminology, like “the pre-election period” or “the period of sensitivity”.
Meanwhile, in darkest South Ayrshire where ‘sensitivity’ was surgically removed years ago, the word ‘purdah’ has already been switched . . . to ‘murdah’.
In a headlong rush to get their legislation through before the deadline – South Ayrshire Council has left the democratic process for dead.
I understand the leadership group were even considering a motion to “approve everything that hasn’t already been approved” – which would fly in the face of representative debate and just about sum up South Autocratic Council!
Short of personally breaking into the riverside “High Flats” with dynamite and detonators – our councillors couldn’t try any harder to get this prize proposal over the line.
And as this page has said before, what kind of councillors do we have when their end of term “hoorah” is to celebrate turning 200 perfectly good flats into three piles of rubble?
I passed the flats on Sunday night to see a few lights still burning from the windows of the last remaining residents.
Good luck to Messrs Bowie,
Crockett and Travis . . . or whatever their names are. I hope a new council gallops to the rescue of this riverside Alamo before housing chief Phil ‘Santa Anna’ Saxton arrives with his wrecking ball. The other ‘big ticket’ item that SAC want signed off before the “period of sensitivity” is the new leisure centre. The ground under the building that nobody wants has managed to confound its supporters - with a giant burp of methane gas that clearly wasn’t in SAC’s script!
It’s left them in a Catch 22 situation. SAC can’t “close” the leisure centre’s approval until the final costs are known. Anything else would be illegal. And those final costs won’t be finalised until the geeks with gas masks drill down to unearth exactly what’s there . . . and what it will cost to fix it! I also understand there are still some financial question marks over several other issues.
But add them all together and the leisure complex advocates don’t have their problems to seek.
Hopefully, the Conservative opposition will grow themselves a big pre-election pair and pile on the pressure by ‘calling in’ everything and anything they can.
Who knows – perhaps, in this administration’s death throes, some of their Labour and Independent supporters might realise the game’s a bogey. In the welter of opposition to the leisure centre, how any councillor - claiming to represent his constituents – can support it, is beyond me! Meanwhile, I invite everyone in South Ayrshire to spend some of the “period of sensitivity” with a walk around our county town.
I suggest a route that starts with the “£1 Church”, with views across to the ‘car showroom’ hub, then along past the ‘death row’ high flats, down to the derelict Ayr Station Hotel and finally, to the commercial tombstones that are Dalblair Arcade, Hourstons and the Arran Mall.
When the “period of sensitivity” is over – the people responsible for it all will them come knocking on your door.
And ask you to vote for them.