From BBC Scotland on 19 December 2024, the above and:
Labour has retained control of City of Edinburgh Council under a minority administration propped up by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Jane Meagher has been appointed as the council’s new leader.
Former leader Cammy Day resigned over claims he sent sexually explicit messages to Ukrainian refugees. SNP and Green councillors had launched an attempt to take over running the council but their bid was voted down by 32 votes to 28.
Labour only has 10 of the 63 councillors that make up the city’s administration. Councillor Meagher, who represents the Portobello and Craigmillar ward, appeared by video link from a family holiday in Tanzania.
She said she was “willing to take the type of decisions that will help the people of Edinburgh”.
Which party has the most councillors? The SNP with 19, nearly twice the Labour cohort but the other Unionists collaborate to keep Labour in power. There are 14 Lib Dems – what are they afraid of?
See that ‘take the type of decisions that will help the people of Edinburgh?’
Like this?
£60m Edinburgh council housing underspend ‘scandalous’ – Almost £60m for building and buying new housing is set to go unspent by the council this year, something an opposition councillor has called ‘scandalous’. The forecast figures include £14.3m for building new council housing left on the table – as well as £45m not used for buying existing housing, over half the year’s budget.
Is the above atypical of Labour in government?
Well, no. Remember these?
From Wales Online 28 March 2023:
Most Welsh Government funds are held with in the UK Government Banking Service and the Treasury has taken back £155.5m from the Cardiff Bay administration’s balance because it exceeded the amount the UK Government allows the devolved administration to carry forward at the end of the financial year.
The figure emerged as part of the scrutiny of the Welsh Government’s accounts by the Senedd’s Public Affairs and Public Accounts Committee and has caused controversy. Wales’ finance minister Rebecca Evans called the decision “completely arbitrary” and the Welsh Government said it was “wholly unacceptable” and exposed the fundamental flaws in the devolution settlement.
Read more:14 maps you need to see to understand Wales and the challenges we face
However the committee, which is made up of one member of each political party and is chaired by Conservative MS Mark Isherwood, blamed the Welsh Government for “poor record keeping and mismanagement of public accounts”.https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/uk-government-takes-back-150m-26554304
Some readers know just what is coming next.
From the Herald in 2006:
| Treasury could force Holyrood to conform | |
| DOUGLAS FRASER, Scottish Political Editor | April 24 2006 |
| The Treasury’s moves to whip Holyrood ministers into line in the spending of devolved money was last night condemned as thwarting the will of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish National Party reacted angrily to The Herald’s disclosure that ministers from the Scottish Executive are being forced to conform to Whitehall’s policies if they are to have access to £1.5bn. John Swinney, the party’s finance spokesman, said: “This is a scandalous indictment of the executive’s mismanagement of the public finances of Scotland. They have failed to draw down the money to which Scotland is entitled, and they risk falling into the trap of a London treasury cash grab.” | |
http://web.archive.org/web/20060602105152/http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/60640.html
And put more clearly by Wings back when it was good, in 2012:
Over its two Holyrood administrations from 1999, Labour had managed to under-spend the Scottish block grant to the collective tune of £1.5bn – money which was returned to the Treasury at Westminster because, incredibly, Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell just couldn’t think of anything to spend it on.https://wingsoverscotland.com/probably-a-robbery/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 