Tag: NHS Tayside

See if you can guess which caused the biggest political row: GDP statistics showed economic growth less than half the UK rate, the third consecutive year Scotland has lagged. Labour councillors voted to increase the allocation of Tory seats on Falkirk Council’s executive committee. If you guessed the finer points of Falkirk Council committee composition, you obviously have some experience of this devolution business. The bellwether local authority is run by an SNP minority administration which has nonetheless gobbled up a majority of key posts, something the opposition parties were trying to correct. Yet this low-level dispute has seized the political class. In Scotland, silence reigns.’ ‘Most of “civic Scotland” has shown a resolute lack of interest in being awoken. Organisations which once existed to stand up for Scottish workers and public services now operate as if wholly owned subsidiaries of the Scottish Government, acutely aware – and regularly reminded – of where their funding comes from. Wee Scotland is a satisfactory set-up for the on-message and the mediocre and they don’t take well to its flaws being pointed out. It is why this week brought such dismal news and the governing class obsessed about a bun fight at a bin-collecting body. Scotland is a small country and there’s no shame in that but it is the sheer weeness of the place that holds us back.