Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this.
From Civil Service World yesterday:
The National Audit Office has refused to give an opinion on the latest Whole of Government Accounts for the first time ever because of major backlogs in local-authority audits.
Out of 426 local authorities across England, just 43 – around 10% – submitted reliable data to the WGA [Whole of government Accounts]. Just over half of those remaining submitted information that had not been audited, while 187 councils – 44% of the total – did not submit any data at all.
This is shocking. Imagine it had taken place in Scotland? Imagine the media and opposition responses.
Has any Scottish council failed in this way?
I searched and can find none. Indeed the Greenock Telegraph just has the report on English councils presented as if it was about the whole of the UK, including Inverclyde!
As Dottie insists:
Damning, damning report. But no blue tents, no government criticism, no government minister called to resign just a shrug of broad shoulders of colonialist government.
Next GERS day this should be released beforehand – Scottish government will not signoff GERS because the Westminster comparison data is guff!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Not signing off the worthless-anyway GERS sounds like a great idea.
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I’d noted stewartb’s comment on this earlier along similar lines, and Richard Murphy explains it rather nicely… https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/11/26/the-governments-accounting-systems-are-collapsing-all-due-to-privatisation/ and the BBC is studiously ignoring it….
Ah but ferries…
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Yes I read that online and that the NAO stated that “Just one in 10 local authorities submitted reliable formal accounts of their spending in 2022-23. Of the remaining 90%, half failed to submit any financial data at all and half submitted accounts that had not been audited“
Remember Labour’s big plan for Scotland is to bypass the Scottish government and allow Ian Murray, as Labour’s new SOS for Scotland ,to allocate funds directly to Scottish councils so hopefully they, the Scottish councils, are more diligent and careful with their accounting.
This BTW is a carbon copy of what the Tories were going to do via their so called ‘levelling up Secretary’ which I think was Michael Gove. As they too planned to pass money directly to Scottish councils and so bypass the Scottish government .
So no “Change” there then for Scotland in Labour continuing with that Tory plan, which the Tories had already intended to start doing themselves if they had retained power as the UK government in the last UK GE !
So much for Keir Starmer’s statement before the GE stating that his party , as the next UK government, would seek to strengthen the powers on devolution and yet how typical of Labour not to include Scotland in this Labour devolution exercise as the new UK government.
In 2020 it was reported that Two Scottish councils lent £15m for an English council to gamble with” as in these two Scottish councils lent £5m and £10m respectively to the risk-taking English local authority Thurrock council led by Labour’s John Kent.
Thurrock council was reported as being one which borrows far more than any other council in the UK, and this money lent by the two Scottish councils was for this English council to gamble most of it on speculative solar power investments.
Apparently Local councils across the UK regularly borrow from each other. Supporters of this practice say it helps councils manage money as some councils bring in revenue at different times of the year.
Well with Labour , via Ian Murray, giving money directly to Scottish councils instead of the Scottish government then I hope those Scottish councils, who often complain that they are cash-strapped because of #SNPBAD, now all begin to cease and desist from this UK practice of ‘lending’ money to Councils down South.
Or perhaps Labour should rethink this one, and give money directly to the devolved Scottish government for them to allocate to Scottish councils, as this is yet another plan by Labour as the new UK government that clearly has not been fully thought through and I suspect, that in bypassing the Scottish government on funding, that this was concocted as yet another way to try and get one over on the SNP.
Here’s hoping that the alternative media online monitor this as most of the MSM in Scotland will do what they always do , and that is to ignore this as they also ignore all other pro UK generated bad plans and wrong decisions and too any negative consequences that result from them.
As they prefer to invest all of their time as the MSM within Scotland upon all things that they state are very much #SNPBAD.
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O/T Has anyone else noted that you cant read or see comments on the National now unless you subscribe ?
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Check out the Richard Murphy piece on this today , on his website , 57 responses to this debacle , interestingly a number of the 57 responses turn their view to ” is it the same in Scotland ” i dont think they all do so in a nice way , some i think would quite like it if Scotland was in the same mess , after all a fair number of unionist beleivers will not like , nay , will not accept england being worse than Scotland or put another way , Scotland doing better than england.Watch out for the usual unionist trope as they search for something to shore up their failing propaganda that england controlling Scotlands money and government and well ….everything , is best.Best for who though ? NOT best for Scotland thats for sure and way beyond proven.
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