Stormy Waters

Turbulent Times
I had quite a lot to write about last week but my blogging time was seriously curtailed by a real 'stooshie' that's blown up in North Edinburgh. Unsurprisingly, it's over Fairer Scotland Funding.
Drylaw Telford Community Council asked North Edinburgh Trust to organise a joint meeting with our neighbouring CCs and projects likely to be affected by some sizeable FSF funding cuts - North Edinburgh has taken a serious blow in our allocation. So far, information emanating from the Neighbourhood Partnerships on what's happening with FSF has been poor to say the least, so we saw the meeting as an opportunity to let local communities know what is going on, what the effects of reduced funding could be, and to try to agree a joint way forward to get the best deal we can for the area.
All very well-intentioned, you might think; laudable, even. But clearly not everyone shares that view, and since the day following the 23 July meeting there's been a flurry of activity. Malicious gossip, misinformation and accusations of political skulduggery have been flying around - all anonymous, of course - and the end result is a lot of mistrust and genuine anger. The motives of some good people have been criticised and an awful lot of damage has been done by some misguided individuals who see political plots where none exist.
This story is ongoing and there's a lot more to come out. All I'd add for now is that you'd be amazed at the time it takes to deal with something like this - even when it's founded on nothing more than mischievous tittle-tattle.
So all of the stuff that's been happening out there in the wider world - fuel price increases and obscene profits, hapless Hibs, two leadership election campaigns in Scotland (no, I'm not including Gordon Brown here), the capture of Karadic with his Papa Smurf comedy beard disguise, the Fringe ticket farce - all of these issues will have to wait for the moment.
There are a number of important meetings taking place across the area this week - North Edinburgh Trust's board, the Fairer Scotland Funding Panel and Evoc's Forth Voluntary Sector Forum are all due to meet, and each in it's own way will determine how things are going to look in the not-too-distant future in North Edinburgh.
I'll keep you posted - confidentiality clauses permitting, of course.