CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
In the spirit of the Miles Briggs thread, and given the affection and regard wiith which many on this forum hold Cllr Cook, I thought a dedicated thread might be required for his all-too-frequent media outbursts of rage (whether synthetically manufactured, or genuine howls from whatever passes for his soul).
This is the place for stories about Cllr Cook and his obsessions: 20mph limits, nesting gulls, vandals, parking, etc. Peer fearlessly into the mind of a suburban Edinburgh Conservative.
First up, this story in today's EEN. Juicy quote from Nick here:
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Morningside councillor Nick Cook has said the perpetrators should be held to the full force of the law. He added: “This type of vandalism is completely unacceptable and will have come as a particular shock given the peaceful residential character of Morningside and the surrounding areas."
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He helpfully puts us right as to the character of his local area, so unlike other areas of the city where, presumably, such acts of vandalism ought to find their true home. This is against the natural order of things it would seem. These scoundrels are clearly not from Morningside or "surrounding areas" (i.e. the Grange, Newington), possibly hailing from the badlands of Oxgangs or - as the article subtly infers - Polwarth, Gorgie and Dalry where legend has it such acts are apparently commonplace.
Do you think he tested this on on a focus group first>
"“Many hardworking residents have no alternative but to pay a premium for on street parking."
Yeah, subtle dig at the modest rise in residential parking permits, defending the rights of motorists across the board, including against unjust "taxes" on their right to park. Whilst of course bolstering the image of the Conservatives as the party of Law And Order. Only Cllr Cook and the police quoted, no vox pops from local residents, quotes from other councillors.
amongst other issues with that statement, surely it's the people who have parking attached to their houses who are paying a premium for it?
An implication that some people (incl. his constituents) engaging with him are on the "fringe", have "mantras" and go around accusing car owners of being "evil"
https://twitter.com/CllrNickCook/status/980817790197223424
Don't disagree Gavin; while sometimes the means, it's often the tone and vilification I disagree with, including frm the 'all car bad' 'we are right and your evil' mantra of the fringe of active travel lobby
“the fringe of active travel lobby”
Not Spokes then.
(Not CCE either - bet CCEeers, on average, have more bikes AND cars than the general populace.)
Not Spokes then.
Bear in mind that our perspective of the active travel lobby will be different from Cllr Cook's. I think you're probably still right, though.
“I think you're probably still right, though.”
Most kind!
I wonder if Cllr C would be willing to identify ‘the fringe’ he refers to?
Actually I expect he means random individuals he has come across on Twitter. They are only in any lobby because that definition is the one he chooses to use.
Fringe implies minority and detatched, though of course in Edinburgh, Fringe is mainstream!
'we are right and your evil' mantra of the fringe of active travel lobby
I'm sometimes accused of being anti-car despite the fact that I own one on the basis that I would like to see more livable cities.
People with power get very tetchy if that power is threatened in any way.
Says it all really. Only missing some gulls nesting above.
I'll keep saying this until somebody cares: I spent three hours in Nick Cook's mum's garage in the autumn of 2013. Nice enough fellow, maybe not Nobel prize material though. He got his mum to make me a cup of tea.
@iwrats what did you do with him in the garage for three hours? Fix his stabilisers on his bike?
@crowriver seagulls could be photoshopped in?
@Iwrats how do you know nobody cares? Failure to ask abot the quality of the cuppa?
@gembo surreptitiously loosened the bolts on his stabilisers?
the boy cook might be right
i've enough evil fringe mantras to fill his mum's garage
Did no one keep a copy of his old twitter banner image, featuring him reclining coquettishly across the bonnet of a Lamborghini?
Yes. But saved to specialist folders.
I am driving a Lamborghini in a couple of weeks when i get around to booking it I was given a token for a drive in one, will need to try and copy the elected officals Lamborghini look -)
@gembo
We were talking. Just talking. No harm in that.
@Iwrats how do you know nobody cares?
Usual. By osmosis.
Talking for three hours to a Tory puppy? What possible topics could last do long?
And why in a garage?
I'd broken into the garage looking for the Lamborghini. Fell into the bear pit he'd dug to catch thieves. Interrogated. Flipped. The tea sealed the deal. On release I became a sleeper agent for the IAM.
Questions?
If it makes you feel less ignored I'll confess that my first thought on seeing the topic was to work Der if you had posted the cuppa in cook's mum's garage story yet.
Is the conversation a matter of record. Can we request it through FoI?
Was the milk frothing?
if you had posted the cuppa in cook's mum's garage story yet
I'm pretty sure I did. I wanted to speak to the No camp in 2013 to make sure I understood their arguments. What I thought from their website was a public meeting turned out to be volunteers envelope stuffing in.....Nick Cook's mum's garage. I'd made the effort anyway so I engaged them in conversation as they loaded their leaflets.
Nick famously didn't realise that the Irish republic had been an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland so I was able to bring some historical context to their brochure.
I preferred the first explanation, but I also welcome closure.
Is Nick starting to understand evaporating traffic/induced demand?
https://mobile.twitter.com/cllrnickcook/status/989052859525292033
Further evidence of those huge congestion problems in central Edinburgh. The Bridges. 9.03am weekday morning.
Exactly what point is he trying to make? That we have too many cars/not enough? That the city transformation project is required/not required?
I suspect he doesn't know himself.
“
Cllr Nick Cook, Conservative transport and environment spokesman, said: “The Barnton junction is a well-known pinch point for traffic entering and exiting the city. It therefore seems sensible for the council to look at how traffic flow of such a key thoroughfare could be improved.
“
The A8 should be a dual carriageway on stilts. Pass it on.
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