Tom Little: Olympian effort thwarts daft rings

WHERE else could I begin this second Editor’s Notes column other than by talking about the extraordinary saga of Edinburgh’s Olympic rings?

As regular readers will know, the Evening News launched a “Say No To Coe” campaign ten days ago, when we revealed the ridiculous plan to stick our Castle behind a massive logo that would be seen for miles around.

Thousands of you supported our stance – which strengthened with our further revelations that the logo would be there for nine months and would cost £200,000.

Thankfully, sense prevailed, and everyone who backed us deserves praise for helping force Historic Scotland into a U-turn.

But serious questions remain about the quango, which is supposed to be custodian of so many of our landmarks.

Olympics organisers are adamant that Historic Scotland not only knew about the plan but helped steer it – and they’ve accused the watchdog of flip-flopping in the face of public pressure.

There’s no doubt Hysteric Scotland – sorry, Historic Scotland – did the right thing in the end. But it is worrying that it could have ever contemplated that this might be a good idea.

* ANOTHER News story brought on a distinct dose of deja vu this week. The city council is moving ahead with plans to honour current and past provosts with portraits costing up to £30,000 – eight months after another News campaign forced a change of mind.

What’s going on at City Chambers? After years of being spanked over the trams are they now addicted to being ridiculed for profligacy?

When we broke the story in March we had a lovely painting of current Lord Provost George Grubb made for £100, but our offer to hand it over was never taken up.

I still have it, if you want it guys. You can spend the £30,000 on the breakfasts for homeless people you are thinking of cutting.

* TALKING of councillors, several past and present honourable members (and a few who may not deserve the adjective) were on hand at Evening News HQ on Wednesday.

They were there for the launch of the second collection of Boyling Point, political cartoons by our very own Frank Boyle.

It was the eve of the controversial vote on the privatisation of bin collection and other services, in which coalition “allies” Jenny Dawe’s Lib Dems and Steve Cardownie’s SNP ended up in opposite camps.

Suffice to say that, unlike in so many of Frank’s cartoons, Jenny and Steve didn’t seem to be on quite the same page that night.