Policy Research Media Morhamburn

Who would be a politician? A couple of weeks ago John Swinney was being portrayed as the axe-man of the East as he single-handedly hobbled poor old Glasgow’s chances of hosting a successful Commonwealth Games by scrapping the airport rail link. Claims of anti-Glasgow bias were pouring from the Labour benches – and it seemed to be more than just politics – many of the Labour politicians appeared genuinely outraged.

Unfortunate I hear you say, but nothing that a Cabinet Secretary has not had to face before – attacks from the opposition are to be expected.

But alas, poor Mr Swinney is now getting gripes in his other ear from his own side. From his own Chief Whip, Brian Adam MSP no less.

The accusation? That Aberdeen City Council is being unfairly penalised by a government/COSLA formula that gives less money to the more affluent councils. Mr Swinney has abided by this formula, to the chagrin of Aberdeen City Council, who, despite being ‘affluent’, are embroiled in a financial crisis which has led to £50m in cuts.

In an ironic twist, Glasgow City Council it turns out, is the biggest beneficiary of this formula, which sees them receiving £800 per head of population more than Aberdeen or Edinburgh. The outrage from the Labour benches at the time seems a little more political all of a sudden – you could even be forgiven for thinking that there was a by-election campaign taking place in that city at the time.

All of this is further complicated by the fact that the North East of Scotland is electorally the SNP’s heartland, and yet Glasgow is an area of sporadic breakthroughs that the party have found difficult to consolidate. So, is it better to pander to your heartland, or risk their anger to try and make new friends elsewhere?

All of this goes to the very heart of one’s political ideology – is it fair that a Glaswegian, by virtue of nothing more than where they live, gets £800 more spent on them by their council than a resident of Aberdeen or Edinburgh? Are Glaswegian schoolchildren more worthy than Edinburgh or Aberdeen schoolchildren?

Loaded questions of course; but questions that are increasingly likely to be asked in times of shrinking council budgets. Given Aberdeen’s financial crisis and the hits that Edinburgh’s banking sector has taken, such spending disparities are likely to become increasingly controversial.

In the coming months, the Scottish Government will have to brace itself for re-negotiating the Concordat and its council tax freeze, as well as a Local Government Committee report into local authority finance and the recently published Arbuthnott Report into shared services that appeared to advocate council reform by the back door (or should that be back office?).

The SNP are increasingly looking like a government stuck in the mid-term doldrums. The key question is do they have enough puff left to get them out of it?