The Labour Council apparently only hold a referendum on issues they think they will win - e.g. congestion charging and the housing stock transfer issues. They obviously know they would come unstuck again if they put the tram issue to a vote! The worrying thing is that the majority of councillors seem to be for this waste of money scheme so how can we use the May elections as a vote on the issue? A typical politician's offer.

I have voted Labour all my life and never missed the opportunity to use my vote. I will have to consider abstaining in May unless the Coucillors change their stance.

The councillors will be unaffected by the upheaval that will be casued by the creation of the tram network (if you can call it that) as they will continue to use our money to get taxis everywhere. They, and the MSPs, will all be scrambling to buy properties on the tram route so they will benefit from the increased house prices it is claimed the trams will bring.

Why not have an actual referendum,obviuosly scared that they would lose. To say that the local elections will be the same is complete and utter nonsense.
#1 To abstain is taking the easy way out, if you disagree with their policies vot e for a party whose policies you agree with, otherwise they will get elected regardless

Everybody is scunnered with the Labour council even lifelong voters like #1
Roll on the election!

Spineless Labour again , why should folk be given a say in this - they elected the council already .
Same as the road tolls thing , they should just have gone ahead and said stuff the voters .

Election ... and eviction!!!

Sounds to me like a man tempting fate - come on then voters of Edinburgh get out there and tell them what you really think !

Peter 100 - if they all support the trams how can I vote for any of them?

well it's okay to abstain if you don't like anyone's politics but #1's reasons idiotic

personallly, I abstain because of indifference and malaise but that's another matter

With the £1bn price tag, it would be cheaper to pay people to use free buses!

WAKE UP & VOTE whichever way you think is best. Let the people decide.

The fact is that Labour has not actioned what they said they would do, nor did the Tories. SNP at present don’t have their manifest etc in order, FibDems?

Where can we get a decent & honest party who is just common sense and answers questions rather than skirting the issue?

May elections will see a massive shift of seats and evictions of idle politicians and councillors. I can’t wait to see all those chucked out of office but disagree with a fat £ hand out to the losers.

Edinburgh Council didn't choose to have the Congestion Charging referendum. It was a requirement from the Executive.

If they'd had their way they'd have rammed it through without caring that around 80% of their population disagreed.

Now with the trams, they're not required to ask us so of course they won't.

This is disgraceful as the "network", being basicallyy a single line, will cost everyone but only benefit a tiny proportion of the poulation.

Filthy Ned - Itake your comment as a compliment from someone with mcuh more sound ideas on abstaining.

Absention in voting shows nothing but disinterest.
Alas that we do not have "none of the above" as an option, a choice that politicians have always refused as it would likely bring into sharp relief the lack of the "mandate" they usually brag on about based on what is in truth a minority (and often reluctant) support.
The better option is to intentionally spoil your ballot. The Austrailian system for example requires everyone to vote as a matter of public duty, and as a result they have a healthy attitude to spoiling ballots when they dislike all the options presented.

I agree with #13, and spoiled papers are counted so politicians know how many people went to the bother of going to the polling station to do so. Abstentions are not counted and give politicians the opportunity of saying "well, they would have voted for us if they had cast a vote".

Now if just prior to next years elections this council come up with a sweetener, actually a bribe, for the public, purely to get their vote you understand, such as a promise to cut council tax or a free this or that then Ricky Henderson would not then be so stupid. At the moment what he says looks like sheer folly.
But if they can fool the public, then he can bang on about how he said on 29/11/06 that the public were to use their vote as a referendum and they have voted. Total nonsense of course.
This tram system will burden us for many many years so it would be cheaper actually having a referendum on just that. Then there would be no argument on what the public want but it is what the council wants regardless of the publics desire so therefore no referendum.
Without the bribe this council are out on their ear so wait and see the trojan horse that comes our way.

What will be the excuses when this tram nonsense fails?
A pint for the best one.

That's why so many of the senior Labour council members are getting out they know they would have great difficulty getting re-elected particularly because of the congestion charging debacle, the road 'improvements' and the tram fiasco.

Can't wait for more statements from councillors stating that they want to spend more time with their families etc.

Why don't they just speak the truth - It's all gone to rat, so I best step aside and let someone else try to do better - but thanks for my fat pay off.

I hope that for once the people of Edinburgh will see sense, as they did in the road tax referendum and turn out in their droves to vote the ruling party out.

Can't find the enthusiasm to find exact figures, but if we assume that 250,000 households in Edinburgh pay council tax averaging £1500 per year this billion pound scheme will take up 2 and a 1/2 years worth of their council tax. Obviously this is just an equivalent because the Executive and their free money are going to fund the white elephant to some extent. What a shameful waste of public money so far, vote these clowns out before they waste any more!

he may regret ever saying that.

This Labour council are desperate to try and set the agenda for the local elections next May, making it a referendum on ANYTHING but their proformance record. That is what the elections in May will be about and nothing else. Unfortynately for all of us they have failed miserably. Way too much waste, too many inflated consultancy fees on poorly thought out unrealistic proposals. The Trams proposals are unraveling in the light of day just like the failed 'congestion charge' proposals.

Labour are going down next year - they have made a mess of transport like they have of almost everything else.

It's time for a change.

When I was young and idealistic, I used to vote SNP. Next year, I will vote for whichever candidate in my ward will get Labour out of both the council and the Scottish Parliament. This is likely to be SNP.
However, should Scotland get independence as a result of SNP gains, we will end up with a totalitarian state, because all the numpties who vote Labour and have kept them in power in the UK since 1997 because they, or their parents, always voted Labour, will carry on voting Labour regardless of the country's good.
There will never be an effective opposition because no other party will get experience of government so the country will go to the dogs.
Just because you, or your parents, always did something doesn't mean you should carry on. Use your brains and look at their record and policies.
Unless, of course, you work in the public sector, and can hold the rest of us to ransom by imposing taxes on us to fund your lifestyles. In Scotland, the majority of workers are in the public sector, so I suppose we have no hope.
I'm emigrating as soon as I can.

Unfortunately I believe who ever gets in power in May it will be too late to stop the tram. No doubt by then there will be binding contracts in place that will cost too much to get out of. The panel were a bit shy last night to confirm or deny this so I guess that is political speak for the deal will be signed and sealed.
We most all insist that our councillors do at least read this forthcoming business report ( out on the 15/12/06) in every minute detail before they vote on the 22/12/06 for the go ahead. I can assure you hardly, if any, read the background papers before they voted three years ago to proceeding with the tram. If they had they would have noticed THEN it was going to cost well over £700million.

As for our elected leaders using taxis paid for by us, of course they will. Even last night the councillors and TIE officials came by taxi or private car and I didn't see many of them car sharing. Our new transport leader Ricky Henderson also had the cheek to park in a disable bay.

I hate being told what to do by hypocritical people who can't lead by example.

Hi all
This controversy about trams?
trams do work ,a shame Edinburgh did lose them but I think that one thing that is not being said that is in Europe trams/transport in general are getting a lot of public support and public money, a lot more than in this country and treated as a public need rather than as in this country with a profit motive in mind also stopping halts are 2 and 3 times further apart than stopping halts are here IE: near or close to road junctions and underground stations and very little duplication of routes as most routes cross over other routes and this does serve the public well and very frequent, just recently in united states of America I heard of a new tram network they were talking about and building , recovering costs over a 150 year time scale not decades as like in UK
And the disruption to life on the street while this work is being will be horrendous but has to be looked at being done over a very long time many years so maybe our children and grand children will benefit from the improvements as we wont
So you can see I am for the trams as for what I have seen around the major cities of Europe and some in the U S A

Will treat election as a chance to remove them from office due to the total shambles of a transport policy for Edinburgh. Labour = More Tax...

But as usual Scotland will blindly vote them back in again and then spend several more years moaning about their council/government...

"We won't just press on regardless of public opinion, but there is a consensus within the council in favour of trams," he said.........

And I thought they were voted in to serve the public who put them there! Too scared to put it to a vote after the last disaster over the road tolls, scared of public opinion but cannot hide in May!

Whatever you do, VOTE, vote for the independents, vote for anyone but not labour or anyone else who wants to spend all the money to do what, cause chaos for years on a transportation system that is only going for short distances and then you have to change and get a bus again - why? If you don't vote, you can't complain.

Im voting SNP ,because ive seen the front line of the NHS at first hand ,and it scared the pants of me ,Time for a change ,