Plan full of holes

Timing is everything (part one). Yesterday turned out to be another good day for the SNP government to bury bad news; the second consecutively, in fact. Hours after Sir James Crosby had resigned as deputy chairman of the Financial services authority, and as bankers faced a second day of grilling before the Treasury Select Committee, John Swinney, the Finance Secretary, told the Scottish Parliament the Holyrood administration was shelving proposals to replace council tax with a local income tax (LIT). Even flagship policies can be beached in stormy seas.