Funds needed
Many of our schools are in a terrible state due to classroom violence and general disrespect for teachers and authority. The teaching unions are calling for more support in the form of increased staffing, moreclassroomassistantsand more facilities to rehabilitate disruptive pupils. However, First Minister John Swinney says he does not have the funds for such measures. So teacher numbers will continue to fall and bad behaviour by pupils will continue to rise.
Part of the reason we are short of funds is that the SNP Government has squandered so much. As a typical example, we have the team of civil servants seconded from their work at a cost of £1 million per year to produce speculative papers on an imaginary independent Scotland.
But that is peanuts compared to the forest of quangos that has sprung up during the years of SNP maladministration. The recent survey conducted by The Scotsman (“Inside Scotland's Quangos”) has shown us how lavish salaries and expensive offices drain millions from the public purse every year. The survey only investigated the top 117 quangos, there are many more organisations, some with only one or two people in an office, but they too rely on funding from the Government. It all adds up.
And let's not forget our overseas offices, some installed inside UK embassies, which cost millions too – the Brussels office, for example, costs £2.5 million per year to run.
Public funds are being squandered on all fronts, so that we end up with no money to pay for the essential services so many people depend on. It was against this background that the SNP Government declared a council tax freeze. Very nice for the middle-class voters who own their homes and pay fair amounts of council tax. In fact, it is so nice it could be seen as a bribe intended to buy votes. But it is not so nice for the less welloff who find the council cannot afford the facilities and services, such as care homes, home helps, schools, teaching assistants and waste disposal, without which people's lives are limited and restricted. This council tax freeze was a cheap stunt to win votes.
We must get rid of this spendthrift SNP government. The Barnett formula ensures Scotland receives more money per capita than England does, but bad spending decisions by the SNP have ensured that we do not enjoy the better services that we should receive.
Thecounciltaxfreezeshould be scrapped at once. Councils should be free to raise the funds they need to maintain a good standard of services. The SNP Government has centralised power for themselves and weakened local councils. Given its track record of incompetence, their power grab and their indifference to the consequences are outrageous.
Les Reid Edinburgh