Financial maelstrom

Scottish Budget Day - I mentioned it was coming up last week - and the mainstream press do appear to be in a bit of a lather over the whole event ... it's even made the front-page of the Guardian today!

In several earlier posts (all can be accessed from here) I've made it clear that I do seriously fear for the long-term future of Local Government in Scotland ... the irony of the Scottish Government, which currently wants more fiscal autonomy for itself, removing fiscal autonomy from Scottish Local Government, is surely apparent to others than just me?

... and I find no reassurance from the fact that the SNP are going to pontificate on all of this in today's budget statement as if a deal has been finalised with COSLA already - when the truth is that COSLA Leaders don't even meet to discuss it in full plenary until this coming Friday (16th November).

I do sense an absolute furore of political activity over the next week on all of this ... I just hope that full and fair funding of Local Government services isn't lost in the maelstrom :-(