SNP pat themselves on the back while making councillors responsible for savings

LAST week, John Swinney stood up in Parliament and claimed that councils had asked him for £ 1 billion in additional funding.

He said he’d listened to that, and set out his plans to invest an additional £ 550 million.

In the Chamber of the Parliament, he then chided MSPs who had the temerity to ask about local government funding that they did not welcome such generosity.

But it was just a few hours later that Cosla had crunched the numbers and revealed that the actual figure – the actual increase compared to the need for an additional £ 1bn – was just £ 71m.

John Swinney claimed that he was listening. Yet he came up £ 929 MILLION short.

Perhaps the former education secretary needs to go back to school and brush up on his maths skills.

But this whole saga is emblematic of the smoke and mirrors that the SNP regularly utilise to cover up their lack of action. While SNP ministers and press officers were busy proclaiming that there was £ 550m of new money going to local government, they conveniently forgot to mention that more than £ 260m of that new money was to support the already agreed pay deal. It wasn’t new – councils were already counting on that money.

Most of the rest of it has to be used to deliver commitments that the Scottish Government has made, and bound local authorities to.

In other words, as often happens in Scotland, the SNP pat themselves on the back for a tale well and truly spun, while forcing councillors – of all parties – to shoulder the actual responsibility for savings.

The GMB in Glasgow has recently invited the First Minister to meet with council workers in her own constituency, and to see the work that they do on a daily basis. I hope that she listens to that request and meets with them.

But back in June this year, I presented a motion and secured agreement across the council chamber to invite the finance secretary to meet with a crossparty delegation of councillors and frontline workers. We’ve yet to even receive a response to that request.

I have offered to join those workers on the frontline, to see the challenges they face on a daily basis. Because the Labour Party and the labour movement is rooted in communities, and it is rooted in working with working people to better their lot in life. Including achieving things like time off work over the Christmas period.

As we head into 2023, we look back at a year of great difficulty and anxiety for many. The cost- of- living crisis continues to loom over us as many struggle to make ends meet. But I hope that, when crowded around cramped dining tables and meeting old friends in the city’s Christmas markets, that we can put these anxieties out of our minds for a few days.

To enjoy the gifts of family and friendship.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy New Year.