The Budget....how it will affect Scotland

A Glasgow University based think tank has calculated that the Scottish Budget will shrink by £6b in the coming years, a fall 0f 2%-3% a year.

Drastic cuts will have to be made, and cherished policies abandoned, the Council Tax freeze among them.

I've never been a great fan of the freeze on Council Tax anyway, or the whole phony "Concordat" nonsense. It has just seemed to me to be the epitome of big-brother at Holyrood dictating to local authorities how they should organise their finances. It also provides a handy tool for the SNP to lay off blame on local authorities for any failure to deliver.

Abandoning the freeze will be a sore blow to the SNP, given that it the only major policy that they have been able to implement, everything else having failed or been "deferred", but it is difficult to see how else the economic problems can be addressed.

No administration can cut spending at such a rate without inflicting pain, on the population and on itself.

There's an old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".

Here come the interesting times!

See report here;

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2504328.0.0.php