Edinburgh was once known as the Athens of the North. Today it is Scotland’s rubbish dump.

Nearly a million visitors from across the globe travel to Scotland’s capital every year to sample the cultural delights of the Edinburgh Festival and stroll through the streets of a city blessed with breathtaking architecture, historic monuments and, of course, a mighty fortress.

But this year they have been greeted by the ugly sight of overflowing bins and rotting garbage on every corner, the pungent stench of decay, and — should they be bold enough to order a coffee at a pavement cafe — the sight of rats scurrying among the chairs and tables.

How on earth did it come to this? The answer, of course, lies in Scotland’s politics. If you’re a Scot Nat, you’ll blame the Labour-led Edinburgh City Council for not offering the bin workers a big enough pay rise.

If you’re a Labour supporter, you’ll argue that Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP administration at Holyrood is not funding local authorities generously enough to allow them to settle outstanding pay demands.

If you’re a Conservative, you’ll just breathe a sigh of relief that — for once —your party isn’t in the frame.

Unfortunately for the SNP, this row has blown up just as new economic data showed that every Scot received a record ‘Union dividend’, an average of nearly £2,000 more from the taxpayer than people in the rest of the UK.

Official Scottish government figures released on Wednesday showed that Scots benefited from an average of £1,963 more public spending in 2021/22 than the UK norm, with the gap surging from the previous year’s £1,530.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters