SADDo syndrome is spreading in Edinburgh's SNP and drastic treatment may be required – John McLellan

Sadly, it now appears to be contagious, and the latest victim is Portobello councillor Kate Campbell, once the housing convener, whose symptoms are very worrying because they do not just relate to her time in administration but to the very recent past.

At this week’s housing committee, she suggested decisions taken by the council’s once-mighty property firm EDI Ltd might be kept all hugger-mugger in private meetings, far from the curious eyes of opposition councillors like her in a public forum, pointing out there were only two councillors on the board.

What Councillor Campbell failed to mention was that she was an EDI director as recently as June last year, and that on two subsequent occasions the SNP group has failed to nominate anyone to fill a third place on the board. So, if Councillor Campbell is that concerned about decisions being taken behind closed doors, surely she would have remembered there was a seat available for her, or any councillor from the SNP or Green group for that matter, to make sure everything was being conducted to her satisfaction?

But perhaps this is another symptom of collective SADDo syndrome, which has its most extreme manifestation in the big SNP sulk because the other groups had the temerity to find a way to run the city without them. The cure is not easy, and leadership amputation might be the only option.