ANOTHER SNP budget, another fortnight in the spotlight for Scotland's town halls. But as our national politics and its cheerleaders go through the motions of caring about local government, wider considerations again are nowhere near the debate.
For starters, is the ideologically-created councils map of Scotland and the fundamental role and purpose of local authorities still fit for purpose within our contemporary political context? And given the financial challenges, our ambitions for 'something better' and the impending EU upheaval, isn't it time to discuss just what it is councils do and how good they do it?
The Scottish Government's political stamp may well be its centralising tendencies but the mantra that 'SNP cuts and power grabs are killing local democracy' neglects something deeper. Devolution injected the fatal dose almost two decades ago.
Remembered for the untimely death of Donald Dewar, cost of the Parliament itself and socially progressive policies such as repeal of Section 28, the instant dilution of local councils rarely gets a mention. Holyrood, not the 32 council chambers, became the place where Scottish politics was conducted.
As Labour in particular attempted to establish a parliament when before there hadn't been one, it often fell back on what it knew, the functions of local government. Its early A-team, Jack McConnell, Tom McCabe and Andy Kerr, had all cut their teeth in senior council positions and, to quote one senior local government figure, Holyrood's early days were "actually more a Scotland regional council than a proper parliament".
Even then, the local landscape they inherited had passed its sell-by date.
Created just a few years earlier, the redrawn local government map in Scotland was designed by the Tories to retain their majorities and instil an ethos of competition amongst authorities. Labour under Blair had killed the vision but the structures remain intact.
Since its first two terms and as devolution has embedded, practically every aspect of Holyrood reaches into council remits, national commitments become intertwined with locally delivered services and crude measurements such as teacher numbers becoming tribal battering rams.
Vague notions and noises have been made about 'reform' (a process acquiescing SNP-dominated town halls will make easier), particularly around education, but no-one expects flesh on this for years maybe.
But within our overheated political environment, ongoing austerity cuts seem more an opportunity to retreat into tribal comfort zones rather than a catalyst for a proper look at a local government model in place since 1996. Reform would make the creation of the single police force look seamless. Geographic, class and political tensions would dominate the process but is this an excuse to retain anachronistic local structures, boundaries and remits?
Councils get it tight. Of course they do. But they have been warned since the global economic crash of the need to be leaner. Only now are some heeding. It's maybe too late.
This isn't a pitch for less councils with diminished responsibilities. Nor a call for local democratic revolution where Brexit, the fruits of the Smith Commission or City Deals see newly empowered councils.
But as we exhaust discussions over every other constitutional arrangement, isn't the longer term future of cherished local services worth more than a seasonal ding dong?
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