We, the undersigned, demand The City of Edinburgh Council end all contracts with Underbelly, its subsidiaries, and partners. We further demand a judicial inquiry to establish the full extent of the council's associations with Underbelly, the extent of any uncovered criminality - and the removal of those involved, or otherwise assisting in legal circumvention of legislation and bylaws.
In 2014 I began seeing commercialism pushing Edinburgh beyond capacity. That was the last year I enjoyed the Festival and Fringe. Since then the imperatives of capitalism – and the corporate vehicles it employs in ‘polluting the fabric of society’ - have done precisely what you’d expect.
It’s “Bigger than Ever”. It’s “More successful”. It’s, if you hadn’t guessed, “More profitable”.
Let’s make one thing clear, Edinburgh isn’t bigger.
What I saw back during the 2014 Festival and Fringe was evidence the city was being pushed beyond capacity. Evidence running down the street from overflowing sewers, past dozens of bags filled with discarded Stella Artois cans awaiting uplift from outside the backpackers’ hostel in Niddry Street. It was evidence the same colour as the original contents of those cans. And when it comes to ‘taking the piss’ in Edinburgh? One company’s name keeps coming up again, and again, and again.
Underbelly.
They’re supposed to be “Events Specialists”, but all people in Edinburgh see is a company the normal rules don’t apply to. They can ‘forget’ to apply for planning permission. They can decide when inconvenient traditions get in their way. They can decide who can come and go in the city centre. They can even charge people to jump in the sea on a public beach.
So they’re no more welcome than the urine I saw running down the street from overflowing sewers.
It’s understandable someone angry might start a petition calling for the council leader to resign. Events over the Festive season, and leading up to it, certainly look like the council is working for Underbelly. Not the other way round. However, Adam McVey became council leader back in 2017. Underbelly’s ‘bacterial blossoming’ was already well rooted in the city by then.
Face it, we don’t need to let our elected officials be used as ‘fleshy armour’ for corporate interests. It is Underbelly who have to go. So too do those in the council’s employ who buy into their corporate hellscape of a ‘vision’. It’s an infection, it’s beyond antibiotics. Surgery is required.
Edinburgh is a World Heritage Site. It isn’t a set for a bad reality TV spin-off of “They Live”; festooned with corporate advertising, desperate pleas to spend and spend, all topped off with a sprinkling of frothy public relations excrement.
Yes, what’s demanded herein is making an example of Underbelly. Given what they so clearly stand for, they have no place in Edinburgh’s discussion over a sustainable city economy. Regardless of their ability to command an opportunity to pooh-pooh people like me on Radio 4.
That’s why I’m starting this petition. That’s why what’s being demanded – not just politely asked for – is so precise. Get rid of them. Appoint an inquiry panel that is beyond reproach. Get rid of the people with too-close ties to Underbelly; do so with a commitment to ensure there are prosecutions where such is appropriate.
Please, reclaim the dignity of our city from the corporation currently treating it like a urinal.