Fudge, grudge, and more muddle. Mr Harry McGuigan has done the decent thing and announced his decision to stand down as leader of North Lanarkshire Council. The political buck stops with him for the DLO fiasco which threatens to be so costly for the organisation's many workers and the authority's council tax payers. Yet he remains adamant that his decision does not amount to any acceptance of culpability for the gross DLO overspend. Something went badly wrong in North Lanarkshire. There were official, detailed warnings from within the organisation of a looming financial crisis in the DLO. These warnings went unheeded and Mr McGuigan, the authority's political master, must take some responsibility for administrative chains of command and communication that plainly did not work.

The Scottish Labour Party has finally got its way, but it, too, is a guilty party for the way it sought to organise an undemocratic putsch against Mr McGuigan which had more than a touch of the Pat Lallys about it.

Judging by his comments yesterday, Mr McGuigan will not go quietly. The embarrassment could continue for Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar. But there might be a reward for the man who has reluctantly fallen on the DLO sword. There were mutterings last night about Mr McGuigan still having a contribution to make to the Labour movement. Not in North Lanarkshire, presumably. In the Scottish Parliament, possibly. A Devil's contract, indeed.