The Wardman Wire

I wish this was a story about Alex Salmond restarting cross-border raids into Northumberland in response to the damage and depredations made on Scotland by Hengist and Horsa in around 480 AD (*).

Unfortunately it is far more routine. It is about the Scottish Nationalists and the Scottish Government Executive’s financial mickles making a much smaller muckle than turns out to be required.

The wheels are coming off Mr Salmond’s wagon of goodies promised at the Election, and the promise to freeze council tax looks like having a cruel collision with reality.

From the Herald via the BBC:

The Scotsman carries the results of a survey of local authorities which found a freeze on council taxes will cost the Scottish Government more than £100m - nearly 50% more than the original estimate.

In more detail:

A FREEZE on council taxes will cost the Scottish Government more than £100 million, nearly 50 per cent more than the original estimate, a survey of local authorities has revealed.

Council officials and politicians estimate ministers will have to find much more than the £70 million set aside to deliver what was a key SNP manifesto commitment.

The survey result, based on information from nearly three-quarters of Scotland’s 32 councils, is major setback for John Swinney, the finance secretary, who has been charged with delivering the council-tax freeze as part of the Nationalists’ first budget next week.

Mr Swinney has held a series of meetings with the leaders of the councils’ umbrella body, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), in the past few weeks to try to thrash out a deal.

Until now, both sides had been working on the assumption that it would cost about £70 million to freeze council taxes across the country in the next financial year.

However, the survey suggests that figure is a significant underestimate of the true position.

This is what “Alex Salmond’s Scottish Nationalists” said in their “First Steps” document:

In our first Budget for Scotland we will freeze the Council Tax as part of our preparations to replace it with a new system based solely on ability to pay.

One thing I will say: I bet I know whose fault this will be claimed to be when Mr Salmond gets round to admitting to the problem.

(*) Yes, I know Hengist was King of Kent, and may have been legendary. And that he probably never went to Scotland. And that Scotland probably didn’t exist then.

I can see no reason why something being mythical, legendary, 2000 years old or purely invented would stop the Great Pretender using them in his campaign to exploit any English-Scottish animosity that he can find.

I’m expecting a podcast from Nessie complaining about English divers disturbing her sleep real soon now.

Tags: alex salmond, scottish nationalists, great pretender, england, scotland

[tags]alex salmond, scottish nationalists, great pretender, england, scotland[/tags]