Ever think you’re surrounded, that there’s no way out?
Do you go to bed at night frightened for the future, wondering if the money coming in will be enough to pay the bills, whether your job will even be there when you wake up next morning?
What kind of future lies in store for your children?
Or whether it is safe enough to walk to the local store for your electricity power cards without being mugged, or worse.
If so do, do you cast a glance at the roads ripped open and fences erected then seemingly abandoned for an expensive tram line which never seems to move forward?
Or do you polish your Mercedes Benz on a Sunday and fret you can no longer afford the spiraling cost of petrol, let alone the tax and insurance your pride an joy commands?
Edinburgh is a city as diverse as any other, as are the villages in Fife and the Lothians. People of all shapes and sizes, ages, genders and prejudices.
But for now, most are united by a common bond – worry.
Fear that the next set of the cuts being implemented by the Con-Dem Government at Westminster, will make their lives worse.
Either from the knock on effect of someone losing out that is close to them, or directly.
When 300 financial jobs go in the city, that’s 300 less people taking money home, spending it in the shops, relying on the states to support them.
The Tories and Lib Dems in Scotland will make the case that these cuts are necessary. The SNP, Scottish Labour and others will tell an altogether different story.
But consider this.
When you see the any thousands of people who turned out on a rain swept Saturday to protest along Princes Street, you know these cuts needn’t be taken lying down.
And as you struggle to breathe through the anxiety of fiscal fear hanging over your lives or your workplace, draw strength knowing you are not alone.
Saturday’s march is unlikely to be the last.
As these cuts begin to bite, as council workers, teachers, police and firemen and others we all rely on are forced out of work, public anger will grow.
Our job as journalists at Deadline is to serve as witness to the political argument and protests.
Not to influence what happens.
But we can also encourage and help ordinary people articulate that debate.
We are a business in Edinburgh. Our staff live, work and play here too. What happens in the city affects us as much as the next person.
So feel free to comment here on the articles we write, photographs we take and videos we publish.
Let us know about your events, tells us when a decision is made that lets your colleagues down.
There is a long cold winter ahead.
By sharing each other’s news, perhaps at leas it can help our community understand the magnitude of what is happening around them and consider the best ways to cope together.
