Willing Buyers, Willing Sellers

"Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap"

So said George Bernard Shaw. Apparently the four words used above, in the title, though they did come from the SNP's Cllr. Rob Merson's mouth this Tuesday during the Formartine Area Committee were not unwrapped correctly by a fellow Councillor. His email to Debra Storr posted here does seem to admit he did use those words:

"Debra, I did not use those words in the context in which you presented them."

Yet he objects to Debra using his own words said in a committee meeting on her blog without seemingly clarifying what he did mean when he said those words. Considering the meeting voted 9-2 for Donald Trump to be allowed to expand his golf course development at the Menie Estate unto the land of unwilling sellers makes his lack of clarification and objection to the words being made public all the more intriguing.

He says that the words were not in relation to Compulsory Purchase Orders being used to acquire the land in question. Yet with unwilling sellers, some of these home owners apparently having verbal agreements* that they would be good neighbours from Trump himself and 500 people signing a petition opposed to such powers being used. So just what did Cllr. Merson mean on Tuesday? Why now is he worried that 4 words which seem to an outsider clear in content, in light of the meeting reasonably clear in what context many would take them to mean?

If he has been misrepresented why has he refused an offer to represent himself more clearly? One does have to ask, has he been leaned on from above? We must not forget that it was Alex Salmond and John Swinney that led to calling in of the project for review at Holyrood when the initial planning meeting turned down the initial application. Having promised to enhance Scotland's economy they bent over when the tycoon threatened to take his ball elsewhere when the Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley came a-courting. Environmental concerns raised in the local community were overlooked, and now seemingly the community itself is to be overlooked.

So if Cllr. Merson said 'willing buyers, willing sellers' in the heat of the debate on Tuesday, just what did he mean by it? If it is not to do with the elephant in the corner of Aberdeenshire's Council Chamber (i.e. CPOs) just what is it in relation to?

*Trump may want to know that verbal contracts are legally binding in Scots Law.