I didn’t vote for the SNP, but some of the things they’ve done are hard to argue against – free prescriptions for everyone for example.

However, the game they’re playing with the local authorities in order to push their agenda is an interesting one – and it seems like a high stakes one at that. Perhaps to clear the decks prior to the proposed ‘bonfire of the quangos’ the SNP have removed the conditions covering lots of the funding that the Scottish Executive gives the Local Authorities. In theory, this means that Local government has much more freedom to direct where money goes, and it also means that the SNP can do away with the pen pushers at the executive who checked that the local authorities were spending the ring fenced money correctly.

However, Ewan Aitken in his blog, points out that the SNP will only make money available to local authorities to freeze council tax if the councils agree to a concordat now, even though the SNP have not told local authorities how much they will receive in total yet, so this is a big  ask. What local authority, especially one not controlled by the SNP, would shackle itself to a no rise in council tax pledge, only to discover that the block grant from the Scottish government falls short? I wouldn’t, and it looks like Jenny Dawe won’t either.

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Well, Edinburgh Labour Councillor Andrew Burns thinks so. Now that the Scottish Greens have changed their policy after their recent conference – he thinks the numbers stack up. Shame that control over the voting system used to elect folk to Holyrood is devolved to Westminster.

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