Where's the Beef?
COSLA's intervention in the election campaign - see post dated 12 April 2011:'Junk Food v Gobbledegook' - prompted me to stop and think for a bit.
What leadership has COSLA provided over the past ten years or so - what big issues has the Convention championed - which the rest of us can stand back and admire?
Not a lot - as Paul Daniels might say.
The fact is that council budgets in Scotland doubled over the ten years from 1997 to 2007 - yet the quality and quantity of front line services have clearly not kept pace during this period.
COSLA of course doesn't actually deliver a thing - that's the job of individual councils - but it can show leadership on the big strategic issues of the day - potentially at least.
But yet again the killer question is - 'Where's the beef?'
COSLA wasn't leading the charge for a council tax freeze - under the lifetime of the present government - quite the opposite in fact
And during the previous Liberal/Labour administration council tax increased significantly - by around 60% over 4 years if I remember correctly.
Neither is COSLA a champion when it comes to Freedom of Information (FOI) - in fact the Convention is not required to follow Scotland's FOI regime as it's not on the designated list.
But why would an organisation that is funded with public money - not do so voluntarily?
Which brings me to equal pay - another debacle.
COSLA and its member Scottish councils signed up to what they called an historic 'single status' agreement in 1999 - which promised new, non-discriminatory pay arrangements and the prospect of a better deal for thousands of low paid women workers.
Yet the employers were forced to act when Action 4 Equality Scotland arrived on the scene in 2005 - and began taking equal pay claims to the employment tribunals - not through COSLA's leadership.
COSLA President - Pat Watters - was a key figure on the employers' side throughout that period - but in his own council (Labour led South Lanarkshire) - thousands of low paid workers are still fighting for equal pay.
What leadership has COSLA provided over the past ten years or so - what big issues has the Convention championed - which the rest of us can stand back and admire?
Not a lot - as Paul Daniels might say.
The fact is that council budgets in Scotland doubled over the ten years from 1997 to 2007 - yet the quality and quantity of front line services have clearly not kept pace during this period.
COSLA of course doesn't actually deliver a thing - that's the job of individual councils - but it can show leadership on the big strategic issues of the day - potentially at least.
But yet again the killer question is - 'Where's the beef?'
COSLA wasn't leading the charge for a council tax freeze - under the lifetime of the present government - quite the opposite in fact
And during the previous Liberal/Labour administration council tax increased significantly - by around 60% over 4 years if I remember correctly.
Neither is COSLA a champion when it comes to Freedom of Information (FOI) - in fact the Convention is not required to follow Scotland's FOI regime as it's not on the designated list.
But why would an organisation that is funded with public money - not do so voluntarily?
Which brings me to equal pay - another debacle.
COSLA and its member Scottish councils signed up to what they called an historic 'single status' agreement in 1999 - which promised new, non-discriminatory pay arrangements and the prospect of a better deal for thousands of low paid women workers.
Yet the employers were forced to act when Action 4 Equality Scotland arrived on the scene in 2005 - and began taking equal pay claims to the employment tribunals - not through COSLA's leadership.
COSLA President - Pat Watters - was a key figure on the employers' side throughout that period - but in his own council (Labour led South Lanarkshire) - thousands of low paid workers are still fighting for equal pay.
