analysis

Angus Council last week agreed a budget that will see 170 jobs go this year alone.

Dundee will set out its stall tonight but finance spokesman Willie Sawers has already said 200 jobs will go also as part of a deal to save £25 million by 2017/18, although none of these are compulsory.

Thankfully, Perth and Kinross managed to avoid major job losses when it set its budget.

But as many as 2,000 jobs could go over the next three years at Fife Council, the administration has said, as it slashes £91m. That is on top of the 2,000 posts axed since 2013.

Now, there’s a bit of dispute about the new round of redundancies in the kingdom, with the SNP screaming “scaremongering” ahead of a crunch budget-setting meeting.

But it’s hard not to have a bitter taste lingering in the mouth as we look at public sector job cuts which have been approved.

Nicola Sturgeon set up a Scottish Steel Task Force when Tata confirmed the closure of its two plants in Scotland, with the loss of 270 jobs.

Yet problems of a similar scale in two SNP-controlled authorities north of the Tay are dismissed, as if those individuals left out of work worry less about paying their rent, their mortgage or supporting their families.

In fact, the devastation is “utterly exaggerated”.

We live in an age of austerity. Cuts or tax rises are the options and neither are appealing.

Our politicians are faced with extremely difficult choices but a bit of humanity about their repercussions would be very welcome.