Budget Blues
Budgets are all about making hard choices.
Whether it's the government of the day, a local council or the NHS - budgets involve a process by which an organisation considers spending priorities for the future and then allocates the resources needed to meet those priorities.
Simple, really.
The budget for the Scottish Parliament has doubled in the past 10 years - and so government spending allocated to the NHS and local councils has roughly doubled as well - with councils able to raise even more money locally via the council tax, which has increased by 68% since 1999.
In 2006, Scotland's councils were publicly criticised for building up massive reserves of £1.4 billion - money which could have been spent on services or to reduce council tax bills.
In 2007, the latest government budget has also allocated the Scottish Parliament an extra £1.8 billion over the next three years - over and above the spending which is already in the pipeline.
How this enormous sum will be spent is anybody's guess at this stage, but what it does explode is the myth that councils and the NHS don't have the money they need for for equal pay!
Council and NHS budgets have rocketed since 1997 - there problem isn't a shortage of cash - the powers that be have simply decided that equal pay is not a big enough issue and they have decided to spend their money (public money) in other ways.
Now some groups have done very well out of these increased budgets - consultants and GP's in the NHS are much better paid. So are Scotland's teachers, who benefited from a landmark pay deal in 2001 which increased their pay by almost 25%.
Needless to say, these deals have been struck at great cost to the public purse - but without breaking either the NHS or our local councils' piggy banks!
The real problem is not a lack of cash - just a lack of political will to deal with an issue that's been staring them in the face for a generation.
By the way, Gordon Brown's latest budget has removed the 10p tax threshold that he introduced himself only a few years ago - to help the lower paid, he said, at the time.
The result is that everyone earning less than £17,500 a year will be worse off - which, sadly, means most people with an equal pay claim.
Funny old world.
Whether it's the government of the day, a local council or the NHS - budgets involve a process by which an organisation considers spending priorities for the future and then allocates the resources needed to meet those priorities.
Simple, really.
The budget for the Scottish Parliament has doubled in the past 10 years - and so government spending allocated to the NHS and local councils has roughly doubled as well - with councils able to raise even more money locally via the council tax, which has increased by 68% since 1999.
In 2006, Scotland's councils were publicly criticised for building up massive reserves of £1.4 billion - money which could have been spent on services or to reduce council tax bills.
In 2007, the latest government budget has also allocated the Scottish Parliament an extra £1.8 billion over the next three years - over and above the spending which is already in the pipeline.
How this enormous sum will be spent is anybody's guess at this stage, but what it does explode is the myth that councils and the NHS don't have the money they need for for equal pay!
Council and NHS budgets have rocketed since 1997 - there problem isn't a shortage of cash - the powers that be have simply decided that equal pay is not a big enough issue and they have decided to spend their money (public money) in other ways.
Now some groups have done very well out of these increased budgets - consultants and GP's in the NHS are much better paid. So are Scotland's teachers, who benefited from a landmark pay deal in 2001 which increased their pay by almost 25%.
Needless to say, these deals have been struck at great cost to the public purse - but without breaking either the NHS or our local councils' piggy banks!
The real problem is not a lack of cash - just a lack of political will to deal with an issue that's been staring them in the face for a generation.
By the way, Gordon Brown's latest budget has removed the 10p tax threshold that he introduced himself only a few years ago - to help the lower paid, he said, at the time.
The result is that everyone earning less than £17,500 a year will be worse off - which, sadly, means most people with an equal pay claim.
Funny old world.
