Why not mimic Tories with cuts u-turn? (Brian Smith)
Jonathan and Gary have done some very good imitations of David Cameron and George Osborne recently, right down to Jonathan’s jeremiads about Trotskyism.
So why not, boys, mimic the Tories in their new u-turn phase? Instead of the cuts-and-more-cuts rhetoric of last week’s Shetland Times, why can’t we have a local pasty-tax turnaround, now?
Brian Smith
53 Kalliness,
Weisdale.
Jonathan wills
Brian Smith’s increasingly unoriginal jibes ignore the fact that, unlike national governments, councils cannot print money (which postpones the financial crisis) nor tax the rich (which would solve it). We are obliged by law to balance the books.
Last financial year Shetland Islands Council spent around £100,000 a day from its reserves when the amount that could be spent without reducing their value was zero. Clearly this cannot continue. It does not make one a Tory to recognise this fact. I will be interested to hear Brian’s practical suggestions for solving the problem, rather than his continued insults about our imagined delight in making cuts.
Brian Smith
Jonathan has spent his life in local government advocating deep cuts in public expenditure. Anyone who doubts that should consult the Shetland Times of 11 March 1994. There they will find the tale of his secret letter to Convener Lewis Smith, and his plans to halve staff here, sack others there, privatise services and cut staff pay. His proposals led those well-known radicals Edward Thomason and Malcolm Green to chide him for “random thoughtlessness” and “ill-considered off-the-cuff comments”. Nothing changes, boy.