You’ve got until Monday night to watch Anthony Baxter’s epic film You’ve Been Trumped on iPlayer, but last Sunday night, when it aired, it seemed as if everyone was watching it.
Although the film does not actually cover the Scottish Government’s shenanigans over the project in that much detail, Twitter was full of supporters of all parties aggrieved that SNP Ministers had put Mr Trump’s profit ahead of this community and their irreplaceable environment.
True, they did, but so too did their Labour predecessors, who investigated themselves and let themselves off – which appears to be the only function of the Ministerial code. I’d like to know what this letter says, for instance. The SNP knew all about this in 2007 (the recipient there is now the First Minister’s chief of staff). And it’s not just Scottish Ministers and their predecessors who’ve got questions to answer. So too do Grampian Police and Aberdeenshire Council.
Which is why David Milne is in the process of filing a petition to Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee calling for a full public inquiry going back to day one, to find out exactly who made what commitments to Mr Trump and when, whether any laws or planning rules were broken, and how, above all, we can ensure no community has to go through what the Menie residents have had to put up with.
I warned years ago that politicians and officials should watch themselves when dealing with him, and that Scottish Ministers, who called the plan in after it had been rejected, rather than waiting for a Trump appeal, should worry about what happens when it all starts to unravel. Let’s find out. When the petition has been finalised with the Clerks it’ll go round for signature. Please support it. Heaven help any politicians who think this process isn’t worthy of proper investigation after all this.
Declaration: I’ve been working with David on this petition in a voluntary capacity.
#1 by Topher Dawson on October 26, 2012 - 1:21 pm
Trump comes across as the bullying liar he is in the film, which is a brilliant piece of work. Salmond comes over as someone who is overly impressed by billionaires, and ready to over-ride local democracy to please his billionaire friend.
But this simple picture ignores the thousands of people in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire who were loudly calling for Trump’s development to go ahead. In that area Salmond’s decision was very popular, even if environmentally and morally wrong. We live in a blame culture, and I can see the SNP is going to get a hammering over this, but is anyone in the electorate willing to accept blame for falling for Trump’s plan?
Trump skilfully persuaded the public in many media interviews that were all going to become richer by his development, and their enthusiasm for money made them impatient with the people living in Menie and the principled councillor whose casting vote went against Trump in the first application.
The politicians involved are going to get criticism for doing what most of the local electorate wanted; is anyone going to criticise the local electorate for being greedy?
#2 by James on October 26, 2012 - 3:21 pm
To be fair, the local electorate were given very misleading information by the local media, especially the P&J: and actually public opinion was nowhere near as one-sided as you suggest.
#3 by John on October 26, 2012 - 2:45 pm
How different do you think it might have been if neither this FM, nor the last, had been so keen on golf…?