#scandal — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #scandal, aggregated by home.social.
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/1098125/ Bill Maher defends inviting Louis CK to his Mark Twain Prize event #BillMaher #Comedy #Entertainment #LouisCK #Media #scandal #TV #UK #UnitedKingdom
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Oh, look! 🤖 Someone let an AI write a biography, and now we're pretending it's a #scandal. Meanwhile, the New York Times is busy telling us to enable #JavaScript and disable ad blockers. 🙄 #Priorities, people!
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/technology/ai-slop-books-biography-amazon.html #AIwriting #NewYorkTimes #technews #HackerNews #ngated -
Oh, look! 🤖 Someone let an AI write a biography, and now we're pretending it's a #scandal. Meanwhile, the New York Times is busy telling us to enable #JavaScript and disable ad blockers. 🙄 #Priorities, people!
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/technology/ai-slop-books-biography-amazon.html #AIwriting #NewYorkTimes #technews #HackerNews #ngated -
The #eBay #Scandal Gets a Thriller-Like #Documentary
A newly available documentary, ‘Whatever It Takes,’ examines eBay workers’ plot to #cyberstalk #journalists and critics.
#securityhttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/technology/ebay-documentary-scandal-whatever-it-takes.html
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The #eBay #Scandal Gets a Thriller-Like #Documentary
A newly available documentary, ‘Whatever It Takes,’ examines eBay workers’ plot to #cyberstalk #journalists and critics.
#securityhttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/technology/ebay-documentary-scandal-whatever-it-takes.html
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Rolling Stones biography claims Bill Wyman slept with 1,800 women
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! It’s only rock ‘n’ roll… until someone starts counting. From…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Entertainment #Books #couples #mature #Music #Rock #scandal
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/758741/ -
Aaron Parnas
Brown University may have largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history.
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Aaron Parnas
Brown University may have largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history.
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Aaron Parnas
Brown University may have largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history.
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Aaron Parnas
Brown University may have largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history.
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Aaron Parnas
Brown University may have largest AI cheating scandal in Ivy League history.
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“Farage ‘routinely’ introduced criminal donor Cottrell as ‘chief of staff’”
by Skwawkbox with The Canary
“Cottrell is one of two donors at the centre of the scandal of Farage’s massive undeclared donations, which he was legally obliged to report on becoming an MP. Farage is now trying to staunch the bleeding by resigning his Clacton parliamentary seat and standing for re-election. However, his claim that the donations have been a purely personal matter among friends is shattered by the latest exposure.”
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/07/09/farage-routinely-introduced/
#Press #SocialMedia #UK #Farage #Cottrell #Reform #Clacton #ByElection #BinFace #Donations #Scandal #FarRight
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“Farage ‘routinely’ introduced criminal donor Cottrell as ‘chief of staff’”
by Skwawkbox with The Canary
“Cottrell is one of two donors at the centre of the scandal of Farage’s massive undeclared donations, which he was legally obliged to report on becoming an MP. Farage is now trying to staunch the bleeding by resigning his Clacton parliamentary seat and standing for re-election. However, his claim that the donations have been a purely personal matter among friends is shattered by the latest exposure.”
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/07/09/farage-routinely-introduced/
#Press #SocialMedia #UK #Farage #Cottrell #Reform #Clacton #ByElection #BinFace #Donations #Scandal #FarRight
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Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent America’s 250th birthday in London with the woman he left his wife for. This is how he celebrated the 4th of July.
#paxton #kenpaxton #ussenate #senate #talarico #jamestalarico #tx #texas #scandal #maga #fuckmaga #hypocrisy #trumpsteinclass #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #news #usnews #history #ushistory #2026 #midterms #midtermelection -
Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent America’s 250th birthday in London with the woman he left his wife for. This is how he celebrated the 4th of July.
#paxton #kenpaxton #ussenate #senate #talarico #jamestalarico #tx #texas #scandal #maga #fuckmaga #hypocrisy #trumpsteinclass #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #news #usnews #history #ushistory #2026 #midterms #midtermelection -
Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent America’s 250th birthday in London with the woman he left his wife for. This is how he celebrated the 4th of July.
#paxton #kenpaxton #ussenate #senate #talarico #jamestalarico #tx #texas #scandal #maga #fuckmaga #hypocrisy #trumpsteinclass #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #news #usnews #history #ushistory #2026 #midterms #midtermelection -
Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent America’s 250th birthday in London with the woman he left his wife for. This is how he celebrated the 4th of July.
#paxton #kenpaxton #ussenate #senate #talarico #jamestalarico #tx #texas #scandal #maga #fuckmaga #hypocrisy #trumpsteinclass #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #news #usnews #history #ushistory #2026 #midterms #midtermelection -
Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton spent America’s 250th birthday in London with the woman he left his wife for. This is how he celebrated the 4th of July.
#paxton #kenpaxton #ussenate #senate #talarico #jamestalarico #tx #texas #scandal #maga #fuckmaga #hypocrisy #trumpsteinclass #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #news #usnews #history #ushistory #2026 #midterms #midtermelection -
Jen Psaki Criticizes Graham Platner's Controversial Political Career
📰 Original title: MS NOW's Jen Psaki calls Platner's political career 'enraging for all of us'
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/jen-psaki-criticizes-graham-platner-s-controversial-political-career.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world
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Maine Senate Candidate Withdraws Amid Allegations of Past Misconduct
📰 Original title: Graham Platner proves candidates can’t outrun secrets and scandal
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/maine-senate-candidate-withdraws-amid-allegations-of-past-misconduct.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world
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I love #PrivateEye
Coming out fortnightly the reporting within has had the time to prove it's relevance.
The front page is always a treat when the delivery arrives.#farage #reformuk #scandal #Curruption
#FrogFacedFascistFucker -
I love #PrivateEye
Coming out fortnightly the reporting within has had the time to prove it's relevance.
The front page is always a treat when the delivery arrives.#farage #reformuk #scandal #Curruption
#FrogFacedFascistFucker -
Republican Congressman Faces Backlash for Comments on Democratic Candidate's Scandal
📰 Original title: MAGA lawmaker slammed after attempt to capitalize on political scandal backfires
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️ -
https://www.europesays.com/ro/224994/ Portugalia e în alertă din cauza incendiilor, dar premierul a mers să vadă meciul cu Spania #alerta #amploare #atacat #BreakingNews #BreakingNews #CeleMaiPopulareSubiecte #FeaturedNews #FeaturedNews #Headlines #incendiu #Internațional #LatestNews #LatestNews #News #PortugaliaSpania #premier #RO #Română #Romania #Romanian #scandal #Știri #Titluri #TopStories #TopStories #World #WorldNews #WorldNews
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🚨🔍 Oh, the irony! The European Parliament's #spyware investigation gets hacked with—you guessed it—spyware! 🕵️♂️🔑 Perhaps they should've consulted their own "Expert Insights" before becoming the latest episode of Spy-vs-Spy. 📉🤦♂️
https://citizenlab.ca/research/member-of-committee-investigating-spyware-hacked-with-pegasus/ #Scandal #EuropeanParliament #Cybersecurity #Irony #SpyVsSpy #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨🔍 Oh, the irony! The European Parliament's #spyware investigation gets hacked with—you guessed it—spyware! 🕵️♂️🔑 Perhaps they should've consulted their own "Expert Insights" before becoming the latest episode of Spy-vs-Spy. 📉🤦♂️
https://citizenlab.ca/research/member-of-committee-investigating-spyware-hacked-with-pegasus/ #Scandal #EuropeanParliament #Cybersecurity #Irony #SpyVsSpy #HackerNews #ngated -
Mike Vrabel and wife Jen head to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s MSG wedding https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/935834/ #CelebrityCouples #CelebrityMarriages #CelebrityNews #DiannaRussini #exclusive #Football #MikeVrabel #NewYorkCity #Photos #scandal #scandals #Sports
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#Europe #EUROPOL #Media #Drugs
#Investigation #teams from 7 🇪🇺 #European 🇪🇺 countries are investigating an #online #network for sexual #abuse.
#Epstein #Scandal strikes again!
🇪🇺 🇩🇪 #wirsindmehr 🇩🇪 🇪🇺
www.tagesschau.de/ausland/euro...
Frauen betäubt und missbraucht... -
UNC basketball champion arrested after illegal sports betting scheme https://www.rawchili.com/nba/774527/ #arrest #Arrested #Basketball #bball #Beasley #Betting #Bucks #charge #charged #davis #Ed #edward #fix #fixed #fixing #game #games #gatekeeper #happen #happened #Heels #how #Illegal #indicted #indictment #latest #Malik #Milwaukee #NBA #News #NorthCarolina #play #played #player #scandal #scheme #Sports #Tar #Tarheels #team #UNC #University #update #updates #what #when #who #why
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🔍🚨 Breaking news! Turns out, Mullvad's #CEO is bankrolling a far-right Swedish party! But hey, who needs #privacy when you can have political scandals instead? 🤦♂️ Guess using #Mastodon is the least of our worries now. 😂
https://det.social/@lostgen/116820546568940358 #Mullvad #Scandal #Politics #FarRight #HackerNews #ngated -
🔍🚨 Breaking news! Turns out, Mullvad's #CEO is bankrolling a far-right Swedish party! But hey, who needs #privacy when you can have political scandals instead? 🤦♂️ Guess using #Mastodon is the least of our worries now. 😂
https://det.social/@lostgen/116820546568940358 #Mullvad #Scandal #Politics #FarRight #HackerNews #ngated -
On 26 Jun 1957: #PattySmyth, American rock vocalist ( #Scandal - "Warrior"), born in New York City.
#HappyBirthday #69 ˚.🎀༘⋆ -
On 26 Jun 1957: #PattySmyth, American rock vocalist ( #Scandal - "Warrior"), born in New York City.
#HappyBirthday #69 ˚.🎀༘⋆ -
Polymarket's viral videos showed people winning big, but the bets were fake
#HackerNews #Polymarket #Viral #Bets #Fake #News #Scandal #Online #Gambling
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Polymarket's viral videos showed people winning big, but the bets were fake
#HackerNews #Polymarket #Viral #Bets #Fake #News #Scandal #Online #Gambling
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🚨 Oh no, an article unveiling a scandalous misuse of police power, and all we get is a 403 ERROR. Guess even the internet can't handle how broken things are. Maybe the server is busy writing its own warrant 🕵️♂️🔍 because nobody else seems to be doing it!
https://ipvm.com/reports/police-chiefs-track #policepower #scandal #403ERROR #internetissues #serverwarrant #brokenjustice #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 Oh no, an article unveiling a scandalous misuse of police power, and all we get is a 403 ERROR. Guess even the internet can't handle how broken things are. Maybe the server is busy writing its own warrant 🕵️♂️🔍 because nobody else seems to be doing it!
https://ipvm.com/reports/police-chiefs-track #policepower #scandal #403ERROR #internetissues #serverwarrant #brokenjustice #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Women using Linux is a scandal! 🚨 In a shocking twist, it's revealed that using Linux magically transforms you into a man. 🤯 Forget decades of gender studies, the real test is your OS. Next up: Mac users are secretly aliens. 👽
https://danielle.bearblog.dev/apparently-im-not-a-woman-because-i-use-linux/ #LinuxWomen #Scandal #GenderStudies #TechHumor #OSdebate #AlienMacUsers #HackerNews #ngated -
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Women using Linux is a scandal! 🚨 In a shocking twist, it's revealed that using Linux magically transforms you into a man. 🤯 Forget decades of gender studies, the real test is your OS. Next up: Mac users are secretly aliens. 👽
https://danielle.bearblog.dev/apparently-im-not-a-woman-because-i-use-linux/ #LinuxWomen #Scandal #GenderStudies #TechHumor #OSdebate #AlienMacUsers #HackerNews #ngated -
https://www.europesays.com/people/124265/ The White Eagle Order Scandal – Budanov and Kislitsa Sought to Resolve the Disputes | Ukrainian News #down #KarolNavrotsky #OrderOfTheWhiteEagle #Poland #scandal #VolodymyrZelenskyy
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WHAT GOES AAAAAA…AAAAAARGH SPLASH? The thread about the Commonwealth Pool’s troublesome flumes
Like being hurled at breakneck speed down a narrow sewage pipe
Edinburgh Evening News description of the TwisterRiver Rapids. Vortex. Twister. Stingray. If you know, you know. And if you don’t, you weren’t fortunate enough to be growing up in Edinburgh for a blessed decade beginning in the late 1980s. I am referring of course to the legendary flumes at the city’s Royal Commonwealth Pool. When they opened, it was proudly boasted that the Commie (to give it its proper name) had the longest, largest and most expensive in Europe. They have been gone now for more than twice as long as they were with us, but for those of who were there they remain a fond memory, tainted by feelings of loss. Ask any of us about them and you will certainly hear either of two anecdotes: going head-first down the Stingray or the hidden razor blades. One of these is most likely apocryphal, the other definitely is. These are the reminiscences that abound on Facebook, but rarely do you hear the tale of the endless problems and the huge financial scandal they caused. This was a scandal that brought the Commie itself to the verge of financial ruin and possible privatisation. In well established Threadinburgh style, this is that tale, from its optimistic beginning to its ignominious end.
Royal Commonwealth Pool, cover of the 1970 promotional programme for its opening. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesThe flumes scheme was the brainchild of Bernard (Ben) Connolly, newly-appointed director of Edinburgh District Council’s Recreation Department. Connolly was nicknamed “Rambo” by the Evening News on account of his uncompromising management style. He found himself in charge of swimming facilities that were under-patronised and lacked a commercial mindset. Ever since the city had lost its open-air leisure bathing pool at Portobello in 1979, the unrivalled jewel in its crown was the Commie. But it was a swimmer’s swimming pool, a very staid, traditional vision of what a pool should be. Connolly was determined to change that. He would drag the place right into the Eighties and turn it into a money-spinner along the way. And he knew just how to do it.
In 1985 Scotland’s first flumes were installed at their Magnum Leisure Centre in Irvine at a cost of £375,000. They were so successful that they paid for themselves in just 8 months. Could not Edinburgh do bigger and better? The Council were persuaded it could, and set aside £650,000 in August 1986 for the creation of “a water chute” at the Commie.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmcmurtrie/31697709464
Things progressed quickly and tenders were sought in September for a complete design and build package. It was optimistically hoped work would be completed within a year, but the dotted line was not signed upon until October 1987. By this time the costs had almost doubled to £1,250,000, which was for a ten year public-private partnership with Whitewater Leisure of York. This deal saw the private partner finance and construct the flumes. The public provided the land, access to the pool and took on all running costs and maintenance liabilities. Whitewater remained the owner of the facility and would be paid over £250,000 per annum for five years until the construction debt was cleared, plus an annual £10,000 “licensing fee” for ten years. At this point the flumes would have reached the end of their designed lifespan and would transfer to the Council’s ownership.
This was the early days of such public-private contracts but even then the terms in them were punitive: the city was legally bound to maintain the flumes and keep them in operation, a failure to do so could trigger an exit clause that would force them to pay off the outstanding debt and demolish them at their own expense! But with a designed capacity of 2,500 riders per day, Connolly personally predicted that 250,000 a year would flock to the flumes (more than half the population of Edinburgh at that time!) This would result in 2.25 million tickets sold per year and return an income of £450,000. With financials like that, they couldn’t lose. Could they?
A rather unscientific layout of the flumes, from a promotional leaflet and map of the pool issued by Edinburgh District Council. Access to the flume tower stairway behind the diving pool, the four separate slides and the separate splash pool on the right are all accurate. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesThe proposal was not without its detractors. The serious swimmers felt it was lowering the tone of an institution like the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Others felt it was a misplaced investment; the mid-1980s were a difficult time for the city’s pools and there was a rolling programme of daily closures to cope with staff shortages. The proponents carried the day however; they were determined that pools had to move with the times, to appeal to a wider audience and to pay their way. Unfortunately, nobody chose to scrutinise those financial projections closely, something which would come back to haunt the whole scheme.
As is typical for any Edinburgh Grand Projet, not only were the financial projections iffy and not only had the costs vastly inflated, so too had the timeline slipped. Work did not begin until November 1987, some months after the hoped-for opening. The Evening News was excited at the prospect however and printed a rather breathless and confused description of the coming rides:
…a 130-metre corkscrew; a 60-metre high velocity speed aqua mania slide; the vortex, a 95-metre corkscrew ride which plunges into darkness and the “Whitewater Rapids”, a raft ride.
Edinburgh Evening News, November 4th 1987In April 1988 the Dundee Courier provided a rather more coherent description which named the individual flumes:
- The River Rapids, a 120-metre rubber ring slide “simulating the experience of a white water canoe descent down a mountain river“
- The Twister, a 54-inch diameter spiral tube
- The Vortex, a 100-metre ride that took “the courageous through a sequence of dips and turns from light into darkness and through a waterfall“
- And the Stingray: the “ultimate challenge“. A high-velocity tube with a freefall gradient and a 50 metre hairpin bend, with a ride time of just four seconds and an estimated top speed of 40mph.
As the 40-foot high flume tower rose out of the ground at the rear of the pool, Connolly boasted the facility would be the safest in Europe (“if not in the world“). Councillor Paulo Vestri (Chairman of the Recreation Committee) proudly claimed they were “the largest water slide complex in Europe” and would “become one of the major tourist attractions in the city“.
The flumes from the outside of the building. Promotional photo for Edinburgh District Council. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesOpening was due to take place in June 1988, in time for the school holidays. However when the royal inspection tour of them was made by HRH the Princess Royal on the 28th of that month they were embarrassingly incomplete. Councillor Vestri put construction delays down to unexpectedly hard bedrock but he was “confident that the flume [would] be a tremendous success“. Minor cracks and leaks were discovered during testing, but opening was finally set for Friday September 16th. Julie White, aged ten, from Linlithgow won a competition to be the first to ride them.
Three of the four flumes: the River Rapids, Vortex and Twister. Stingray was out of shot to the right, and had its own splash pool. Edinburgh District Council promotional photo. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesThis was the era of the branded municipal leisure pool and so the Commie’s flumes were given a marketing name: Nautilus (I sincerely doubt anyone in the city ever called them so). They would be open whenever the pool was, so long as you were over for the age of eight, four and a half feet tall or more and could swim. There was no upper age restriction. Rides were charged at 20p a shot, bought in lots of five or ten tickets (“thrills don’t come much cheaper“). They were an instant hit. Over 88 thousand brave souls hurled themselves down them in the first three months. If these numbers could be maintained then expectations would be more than exceeded. After just seven months, on April 21st 1989, the millionth ticket was sold. Lucky Lee McKendry, 11, of Loanhead was presented with a teddy bear to mark the occasion. It was also found that patronage of the pool tripled when the flumes were running.
Lee McKendry and the teddy bear she was presented with on 21st April 1989 for being the 1,000,000th rider of the Commie Flumes.On the face of it, everything seemed to be looking rosy. But inevitably, trouble was not far away. In fact it took less than a week to appear. It transpired that insufficient staff had been hired and it had taken seven-day-a-week overtime from the existing workforce to keep the flumes open. This was unsustainable and after just five days the opening hours had to be cut back; 230PM to 8PM on weekdays and 10AM to 4PM on weekends. The Council put the blame on postal strikes having delayed the recruitment process, but staffing issues would be a problem that would never go away. After a week’s closure to repair a faulty pump, when they re-opened for business on October 10th enough staff had been found to return to full-time running.
Vortex, Twister and the legendary free-fall terror that was Stingray. Edinburgh District Council promotional photo from “Edinburgh: The Official Guide”. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesA further day was lost in October after loose bolts were found in the structure, the Recreation Department assured users through the medium of the Evening News that the flumes were “absolutely safe“. Some patrons had complained that they had felt “dizzy” or “sick” after their experience, prompting Conservative Councillor Ian Berry to table a series of questions about flume safety to the District Council (if he had taken the trouble to try the flumes for himself then I can assure you he too would have felt dizzy or sick afterwards. It was an intrinsic part of the experience!) . Berry admitted that he did not know of anyone being injured, Councillor Vestri replied that a couple of torn swimming costumes were the only reported problems.
16th March 1989, advert for the Commie’s flumes in the Sunday Post, note the “Nautilus” branding in use.The flumes closed again for a week in June 1989 to allow for the ventilation system to be upgraded: it had been found that staff working on them had been exposed to excessive amounts of chlorine. Further bad news would come in August; after less than a year of business the forecast profit had materialised as a large operating loss. of £244,651 had been run up,. This was a quarter of the entire budget deficit of the city’s Recreation Department. It might now take five, rather than four years, to pay off the private contractor as the initial forecast cost had increased by almost half to £1.49 million.
The problems continued to pile up like a bunch of teenagers on the River Rapids. They were shut down again for a week in October so that experts could “probe a technical fault” with the water temperature. The District Council was forced to admit to the ‘News that their show-piece attraction had been out of action for 20 days that year because of technical problems and staffing issues. Councillor Steve Cardownie, Vice Chairman of the Recreation Committee, promised that any operating losses due to technical problems with the flumes themselves would be pursued with Whitewater.
Edinburgh Evening News headline, 7th October 1989Closure came again in June 1990 and once more it was the persistent staffing problems. This time the root cause was industrial action on the part of five members of the NUPE union who worked in the flumes’ plant room. Their Branch Convenor claimed that various issues around staffing levels and grading had been unresolved for 21 months. They staged a two day strike within a month of the approaching summer holidays as a warning shot. When the District did not come to terms, they walked out again at the beginning of August. They returned after three weeks, only for work-to-rule action to be taken by NALGO members. This kept the flumes were out of action until September 5th, resulting in £25,000 in lost revenue. A tumultuous spell was brought to a close at the end of that month with a further day’s closure as a result of Chlorine fumes.
The disruption of that summer capped a disappointing year for the flumes. Patronage was down by 50,000 on the previous year; from 138 thousand in the first half of 1989 to just 87 thousand – 30% below expectations. General custom at the pool itself was also down 10% over the same period. Councillor Berry placed the blame in the hands of pool management and on a lack of car parking. Such was the scale of the financial problems that when the District Council came in October 1990 to set its budget for the next financial year, they gave serious consideration to shutting the two-year old attraction.
Ultimately such drastic action was not taken, but anyone hoping the flumes would now catch a break would be proved sorely wrong. Come March they were closed again for a day due to a “chemical imbalance” in their water. A new scandal hit in May when it emerged that a number of Recreation Department files, including documents relating to the flumes, had “gone missing“. Liberal Democrat councillor Donald Gorrie wrote to the authority’s chief executive saying he was “most concerned” that there were “significant gaps” in the paperwork. This ultimately led Strathclyde Police to open a fraud investigation into Glasgow District Council‘s Recreation Department, now headed up by Bernard Connolly and his deputy in Edinburgh, Robert Hulbert. This would result in Hulbert being removed from his job for gross misconduct: he was the undeclared majority shareholder of a leisure company that was bidding for local government contracts.
Four more days were lost in June and October, blamed on staff illness and holidays, followed by an entire week when “parasitic” bacteria was detected in the water. This latter closure alone cost £11,000 in lost revenue. Councillor Moira Knox, the Conservative recreation spokesperson, was reported by the Evening News to be “furious“:
One of these days [the flumes] will close and be reopened as a monument to the Labour Party’s mismanagement of the city’s affairs.
Councillor Moira Knox, quoted in the Evening News, 30th October 1991Come the end of 1991 and the flumes’ finances had reached a crisis point: it was predicted losses that financial year would widen to at least £456,000. The fact of the matter was that the initial ridership projections had been “grossly over-estimated“. It was implied by Councillor Vestri that they had been fundamentally made up by Connolly and Hulbert. Patronage was less than half of what had been hoped for and the income didn’t even cover half the running costs. This alarmed the Eeninoo to such an extent that it created a special flume-themed graph to illustrate the scale of the issue. With the Council’s own Leith Waterworld leisure pool forecast to open the following year in direct competition (and already projected to operate at a £1m annual loss from the get go), Councillor Knox demanded that the council sell the facility at the Commie, or even the entire pool, to a private operator. She tabled a motion to this effect at a meeting of the Council but it was not supported.
“Money down the drain”. Edinburgh Evening News, 7th November 1991The District Council decided to try and sort things out once and for all and at the start of 1992 brought in a troubleshooting new manager at the Commie, Ken Harvey. By this time the flumes had sunk deeper into the red, with losses projected to break £1 million that year. When interviewed on the subject, Harvey replied:
No-one has said the flumes are a duff product. All they have said is they are not making money. Hopefully, we will be able to change that.
Edinburgh Evening News, 2nd January 1992Harvey hoped that proper marketing and dynamic pricing, to encourage use in otherwise quiet periods, would help to turn things around. But he was hardly in the job for a few months though when in March the NUPE union sued the District. They claimed three of its members were suffering from the occupational illness of “flume flu“. Symptoms were said to include breathing difficulties, sore eyes and runny noses and it was alleged that the Council had been made aware of the risk but had ignored it.
Marketing of the flumes from an Edinburgh District Council promotional leaflet. Credit: Edinburgh & Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City LibrariesAnd then in May 1992 Leith Waterworld opened, boasting two flumes, a river rapid, a wave pool, a whirl pool, and a whole host of other fun features. This scheme had actually been mooted since before the Commie got its flumes, but had a long and troubled gestation period. The fact of the matter was that there were only so many children to go around in Edinburgh and the new attraction drew them away from the Commie in their tens of thousands. Not only was the Council in direct competition with itself, this was the golden era of the municipal fun pool. Central Scotland was awash with exciting destinations: the Magnum in Irvine; Perth Leisure Pool; Aquatec in Motherwell; the Mariner in Falkirk; the Time Capsule Monklands in Coatbridge; Bubbles in Livingston. What a time it was to be a certain age.
Leith Waterworld: 1992-2012. Photo credit, Splashback / Save Leith Waterworld.The bad press kept on coming. In 1993 the Commie was one of ten pools in the UK that failed in a flume safety survey published by the Consumer Association. This claimed there were inadequate safety guidelines, that rules were not being enforced (e.g. the legendary head-first descents), that there was a lack of supervision, poor lighting in exit pools that meant someone stuck at the bottom might not be seen and that poor design meant that users had to cross eachother’s paths at the exit pool.
On April 1st 1996, Edinburgh District Council was replaced by the new unitary authority, the City of Edinburgh Council. CEC found that it had inherited a poisoned chalice when it came to flumes. Not only was Leith Waterworld leaking (both money and water!), at the Commie they found the operating account was £1m in the red and the flumes at the end of their operational life. One was permanently out of action, two were being kept going intermittently on a wing and a prayer. To compound matters, they were legally obliged to keep them running and still did not actually own them! Despite their predecessor body having paid Whitewater over £2 million, they had failed to fully clear off the financial liabilities. An emergency report was tabled to the Council outlining options for their future. In bold print this stated “The status quo is not an option aavilable to the Council“. The options presented ranged from closure and removal of the flumes at a cost of £363,000 through to buying out Whitewater and refurbishing, and modernising them at £460,000.
A private meeting was held to discuss the future of the flumes at which it was agreed to buy out Whitewater for £100,000 and patch the flumes up sufficiently for a further report to be written on their future. More problems came in 1998 when the British Medical Association published a report into flume safety, claiming they posed a danger for people who were not “fit and resilient“. Professor David Bell of Middlesex University claimed that the level of risk from using flumes was higher than that for contact sports. The Commonwealth Pool strongly refuted that there was any risk from their facility. But the end was nigh and after it was found that the bill to modernise the flumes and restore them to full operation would exceed £750,000 the plug was finally pulled.
March 13th 2000, the Evening News announces the closure under a headline “Plug set to be pulled on swimming pool flumes”On Monday March 13th 2000, the Council’s Recreation Committee unanimously voted to close and remove the flumes at a cost of £150,000. And that was that. The Committee’s convenor, Councillor Steve Cardownie, told the Evening News:
We have to cut our losses. We have to shut it down as it is out-dated. It’s not dangerous at the moment but it does need a substantial amount of money spent on it which we can’t justify.
Evening News, 13th March 2000Ironically, at the same meeting the Committee was made aware that Leith Waterworld would have to close for a year due to the failure of the adhesive used in attaching its tiles and rust in the flume structure (it ended up being closed for twice as long). The flumes at the Commie were removed in 2001, although the tower at the rear lasted – disconnected from the main building – until it was removed in 2008. The architecture critics approved. It was a bitter final irony for fans of flumes in Edinburgh that when Waterworld too closed in 2012, it was to help pay for the renovation of the Commie’s diving pool ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth games. Tradition had triumphed over fun.
Google Streetview image of the flume tower, minus flumes, in 2008. It was demolished shortly after this picture was taken.Thank you to the staff at the Edinburgh & Scottish Collection of Edinburgh Central Library for their help in finding pamphlets and reports on the subject of the flumes in the depths of their stores. Curiously, the official box file of archive material submitted there by Edinburgh Leisure contained not one single mention of the flumes. Perhaps it was a saga they’d rather forget all about…
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