Irvine Welsh accuses city council leaders of 'lunacy' and working-class betrayal over 7-month museum closure

The best-selling author has accused the city's Labour administration of a betrayal of working-class people and being more interested in creating "more wealth for the super-rich".

He suggested the council wanted to "airbrush" the city's history with the seven-month shutdown of the People's Story Museum, which focuses on the stories of working-class people from the 18th century to the present day.

The city council has faced an angry backlash from activists, campaigners and union leaders after it emerged the People's Story Museum was facing closure until April in a bid to save more than £250,000.

The council has insisted that a temporary closure, which was put in place without any warning or consultation, had to be introduced due to staff shortages and a recruitment freeze within the local authority's museums’ service.

The council has also blamed low visitor numbers for the decision to target the People's Story Museum and move the Queensferry Museum to an appointment-based attraction.

The authority’s own website states the attraction provides a "unique insight" into the lives of Edinburgh's working-class people.

The statement adds: "What makes the museum stand out is that all of the displays are based around the words of Edinburgh’s people, taken from oral history reminiscences and written sources to tell real stories."

Welsh worked for the city council in its housing department before finding fame with debut novel Trainspotting.

Posting on social media, he said: "I worked for Edinburgh Council when this museum opened. The feeling amongst councillors from working-class areas of the city was that we represented monarchs, aristocrats and the warlords of slavery and imperialism enough in our civic culture, it might be an idea to represent local people too.

"Back then, the Labour administration was proud to represent working-class people in Edinburgh. This is obviously no longer the case.

"Forty years of neoliberalism means all references to social class have to be airbrushed out of popular discourse. Officials see their role as representing global capital in a race to the bottom, involving more wealth for the already super-rich and precarious low-paid McJobs for everyone else.

"The lunacy of this is that nobody with any semblance of intelligence knows that this is going to end well. Yet we persist with it.

"If you want to build luxury hotels in city centre properties, start with Holyrood Palace."

Addressing councillors last week, tour guide and community activist Jim Slaven described the closure of the People's Story Museum as "an act of social vandalism".

He said: "For working-class people in this city, life is pretty difficult.

“People are pushed to the margins in every sense and the symbolism of having a working class history museum telling their story right in the centre of town is absolutely crucial."

Gary Smith, the Edinburgh-born and raised general secretary of the GMB, has separately sought talks with council leader Cammy Day in a bid to avert the extended closure. The union chief has said it “does not seem too much to ask” to have one museum telling the story of the people of Edinburgh.