Double Standards

So, the political posters that used to go up on lamp posts across the city were banned a few years ago on the grounds they were clutter, wasteful and no longer relevant. Never mind that they usually only went up the weekend before an election and were most all taken down the following weekend. And if any rogue ones did remain there was a clear person responsible for them as the election agent was named on every one. On the other hand, come festival time the city's streets are covered with Fringe advertising for weeks at a time. Clearly all those 'businesses' putting on shows, from the smallest community group in their local church to the massive external companies that come to Edinburgh every summer to suck as much money as possible out of the Festival think it's worth the expense. While much of it is concentrated on the Royal Mile, odd outliers do pop up elsewhere, even here in Portobello. Like this advert for a politically-themed show at Udderbelly inconsiderately stuck on top of something much more legitimate promoting the local sports centre. Time the council cracked down on flyposting - send a bill to the venue for every poster that is somewhere it shouldn't be. And then relax the rules for political posters that inform our democracy. If you are interested in politics it can be amazing to speak to people who are unaware there is an election on. But it is the case and that applies even more to local government - the tier of government that has most impact on people's day-to-day lives and yet which gets the least attention and the lowest election turnouts. I'd contend that the posters that went up before elections would help raise awareness of the election amongst the less politically aware. And we all need to remember that politics is the way the rest of us can hold the powerful to account. The systematic discrediting of politics and politicians in recent years has done nothing to help inequality and on the contrary every time ordinary voters repeat the lie that 'politicians are all the same' they are only serving the interests of the elites who see politics as a constraint on the 'right' to make as much money for themselves as possible.