Wednesday March 11th 2026
The term 'Clowncil' has been frequently used in the Eskbank and Newbattle Community Forum Facebook group when referring to Midlothian Council
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
A survey shared on a local Facebook community forum asked Midlothian residents their thoughts on the use of the term ‘Clowncil’ when referring to the local authority, after it was highlighted that the ‘denigrating’ comment was often used in the group.
The survey, started by forum admins Bill Kerr-Smith and Susan Goldwyre of the popular Midlothian community forum, Eskbank and Newbattle Community Forum, aimed to gather opinions on the term ‘Clowncil’ to understand if the word is appropriate to use.
Bill explained when initially sharing the survey on 27 February:
“Last week a number of comments included the derogatory term “Clowncil”. Now, everyone is entitled to think what they like, but does denigrating our Council in this way actually help our discussions?”
Collecting over 100 responses from the survey, the responses clearly agreed that the term negatively contributes to discussions in the community and it should be banned from the Facebook forum.
Despite being only able to share 100 responses out of 204 collected due to the restrictions of the free trial survey software used, the 100 responses that were shared a week later on the forum showed that 90% said that the term negatively contributes to community discussion and 86% agreed it should be banned from the group.
Survey responses
The responses to the survey question “Would you support a different approach to moderating language on the community Facebook page? If so, what would you suggest?”:
Asking them to be polite does not work. Never does. Just keep deleting.
Facebook don’t attempt to moderate language..so if one can’t take criticism then remove the forum. It’s dominated by one mans political agenda every week.
No, I think you do a grand job.
No. I agree you should reject any posts such as these that are derogatory to the Council.
We can express our frustration/ disappointment without being rude and disrespectful. We would be better to make contact directly and have dialogue with the relative department. We do not know what challenges the council are facing. We have to work together.
Possibly issuing a warning, but that could mean a lot of work for admin.
No censorship at all
ENCF is too nice and accommodating. Just delete comments. No explanation needed.
As long as there no personal offence remarks .about an individual or comments on race or religion .people should be allowed within reason to post there view.
Facebook forum community rules should make it clear that disrespectful language will not be tolerated and posts detected accordingly.
Simply ban swearing and any nasty personal vitriol. Keep dictatorial rules to a minimum.
Could it be noted somewhere than when a comment is received, referring to the ‘Clouncil’, it will revert to the ‘Council’?
Other reporting unacceptable language is fine. Perhaps encourage unacceptable language to be reported?
The responses to the survey question, What are your reasons for supporting or opposing the ban on the term “Clowncil”?:
I truly believe to a point that they try their best. Sometimes party politics gets in the way but they are honest, underpaid and work hard. People who use the word Clowncil are the same ones who talk about brown envelopes. Personally I think it would be better if we had 18 councillors and no parties. They want to be a councillor for the better of Midlothian.
My colleagues and friends at the council are doing their utmost to fulfill their duties under continuous cutbacks etc and derogatory comments such as this only adds to their despair.
It should be allowing as it shows a general disappointment with them .as long as no particular person is named .this is really an expression of lack of confidence with a number of issues they prioritise that people see as not important to the general needs of the public road works schools social care. Total apathy with ie 20 mph limits cost of the survey .an replacing signs .no thought or lack of oversight on multiple road works .waste of council funds on course s ie learn to speak gaelic etc as
It doesn’t help with positive discussions with our council. They won’t take us seriously when we need to make contact about our services. Regardless of our disappointment , be it bin collection or roads etc we do need mutual respect.
A term used by the feeble minded to insult an entire organisation rather than target the criticism at the decision makers.
They act like clowns at times.
It insults the work our council employees do day in day out. People think they’re being clever, but it’s the opposite.
They are making decisions on increases in charges across the board without consulting with stakeholders or the constituents in their wards. The Council need to meet their public in open meetings. But they never do.
Surely people can express their opinions about council actions – positive or negative – without using insulting or derogatory terms?
The council historically has not performed well as an entity, the current council are victims of past councils errors.
Immature comment that belittles all staff not just those responsible for poor decisions.
The senior leadership are appalling but unfair to tarnish all staff in this way.
It’s a way to show disgust/unhappiness in a friendly non abusive way. There’s too much of this ‘oh don’t say that you’ll upset someone’. Big enough to stand for a position of authority or happy to take their salary and over inflated final salary pension then big enough to take what comes with it.
I think it adequately describes our council without using profanity. Sometimes it is difficult to find the right words of despair at the actions of the council and I found this term to be useful in describing my own frustration.
Freedom of speech. I really cant understand why some get so excited about Clowncil being used. Ban any swearing, otherwise the less dictatorial the better. And there is surely a mass of issues and evidence to argue that Midlothian Council are a bunch of clowns. How in touch are they with the views of average voters, not much I would argue.
It’s how people feel. We are allowed to feel and express. It’s not offensive just a play on words it’s absolutely ridiculous you even have this survey.
Although it sometimes feels like the Council don’t have a clue about issues affecting Midlothian residents, they have massive responsibilities, some of which are statutory. They are responsible for so much, a lot of which the general public don’t know about. It’s easy to criticise and in some cases it’s deserved, especially when they do something that people don’t like.
It is not helpful and not amusing. There are times I have seen it used when it impacts people working hard for little pay and they are placed in the ‘Clowncil’ category when simply doing their jobs and not the decision makers.
Despite receiving support on the survey and in the Facebook comments, some residents did comment against the need to conduct a survey with one saying: “I think it expresses a negative opinion of a council without using swear words. If the council was seen as competent no one would use it.”
One comment also highlighted that being only able to share 100 responses did not fairly represent people’s thoughts on the matter, explaining: “With respect, you have collated less than half of the survey responses due to restrictions, this isn’t representative of those who took part. Not sure anyone can say this is overwhelming…genuinely with respect.”
Responding to the survey results, admin Bill Kerr-Smith commented:
“I would like to point out that the survey asks a question. It does not propose any particular approach and asks people why they might want to keep using the term, as well as if they find it objectionable.
“As has been pointed out above, there are many civil ways of pointing out any shortcomings in Midlothian Council’s activities and there is no intention to limit that criticism.
“As Admins our aim is to ensure that decent people can argue their case on this forum without being subject to casual disparagement or, in the worst cases, foul language. We are genuinely interested in whether our community cares about this kind of thing or not.”
One Facebook comment explained the term as ‘a lazy, hackneyed, cliche used largely by the ill-informed and, I suspect, poorly-educated’.
Another said:
“When the term is used it’s massively targeted at the hardworking employees who largely aren’t on huge salaries and are not making decisions about how Midlothian is ran. Censor Clowncil and allow ‘Clowncil’ if people feel so strongly about pointing out who the ‘clowns’ are.”
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