Brave move against soor pusses

This week Provost Little made, what Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister would have called, a brave move. You can read the BBC article for yourself, but in short, she wrote an open letter to the good folk of Dumfries telling them to shut their soor pus.

Now Sir Humphrey knew a thing or two, and not many politicians have survived telling the public what they think about them, but I’m more than inclined to agree with the Provost on this one. I don’t think this is her Gerald Ratner moment. I see it as more of a John Prescott moment where the press scramble to vilify him for punching a punter, but the nation rallied to say, “I would totally have skelped that minger too.”

I doubt this will do the Provost any harm because the majority of Doonhamers are sick of the default position of negativity that some around them take. A backwards looking, “can’t do attitude” may seem all pervasive, but it’s quite superficial and quite easy to gently challenge except amongst a hardened groups of naysayers who are domiciled on Facebook.

They’re a relatively small group and they’re dying off - literally - but they are vocal. But don’t mistake loud for majority. Old farts, get a new hobby and spend less time on Facebook, it’s munging yer brains.

I say all of this as an old fart myself. Stand aside, stop clinging to power and putting everyone off with your, “We tried that 20 year ago and it didnae work then” stories, maybe, just maybe, other folk know what they’re doing.

Gaun yersel, Provost Little. More power to your elbow.