Meeting of the Parliament 01 March 2023 [Draft]
I apologise to members for my late arrival. I was caught up in a broadcast interview that overran.
The tone of Tom Arthur’s remarks is striking. It is completely at odds with what I am hearing from Liberal Democrat councillors who are at the sharp end of the situation. Members on the Government benches must hear it, too, so I am surprised that Green and SNP members are happy to go along with it.
I am relieved that, in Edinburgh—thanks to the Liberal Democrats—more than £5 million-worth of school cuts have been prevented. We promised to stop the assault on education and we have delivered on that. However, that is not to say that putting Edinburgh’s budget together was not incredibly difficult, because the Scottish Government is still cutting that budget by a staggering £76 million. It is figures of that sort that mean that, elsewhere, there are cuts in the numbers of school librarians, community wardens and early years staff and to the provision of music tuition and outreach in some of the most deprived communities in the country.
I have listened to members on the Government benches during the past few weeks, and it is clear that they have disengaged with the fact that local government is in crisis. Local government budgets have been eroded—squeezed until the pips squeak—year after year by SNP and Green ministers. The consequences of that can be seen from the failure to close the poverty-related attainment gap to the pot-holes in our road.