Emasculated

Emasculated - "to deprive of strength or vigor; weaken" - that's what I feel has potentially happened to Scottish Local Government today.

The COLSA President and Vice-Presidents may well have signed a 'concordat' this morning ... but as I mentioned earlier, the COSLA Leaders don't meet until Friday ...

... and I wonder what they'll make of the fact that despite all the warm words on "greater flexibility" and "greater responsibility" in the concordat, the truth is that every Local Authority will be bound by a Single Outcome Agreement (SOA), the sole purpose of which will be to ensure delivery of 'national' priorities.

Now it's fair enough for a National Government to seek to ensure its priorities are delivered at a local level - but this concordat, if agreed on Friday, will mean less autonomy for Scottish Local Government - plain and simple.

I'd have more respect for the Scottish Government if they just openly admitted this truth ... and called a spade, a spade.