Deal or No Deal?

I attended a rather heated meeting of Council Leaders at COSLA today where the Local Government Finance Settlement was high on the agenda.

With the other political groups congratulating themselves on how good a deal they had secured from the SNP Government it was left to Labour Council Leaders to point out that what was on offer was nowhere near as good as they were making out.

The fundamental point that the other groups chose to ignore however was that the threat by the Government to slash funding to Councils who do not sign up to do their bidding is an affront to local democracy.

Let us have no more talk of mutual trust and partnership from this Government. They have made it quite clear that if Councils don't agree to do as they are told they will be severely punished like disobedient children.

Unfortunately they have been encouraged to act in this way by SNP, Lib Dem, Independent and Tory Council Leaders, who would be only too happy to see Labour Councils get their comeuppance.

These Council Leaders should enjoy their time of preeminence while it lasts, as I suspect come May 2012 a number of them will be looking for new jobs.