Driven Snow
I enjoyed Private Eye's take on local politics in Scotland which some folks would have you believe - is as pure as the driven snow.
The reality, of course, is rather different as the Eye explains in its 'Rotten Boroughs' column - essential reading for all good citizens whose heads don't button up the back.
"TAKING THE SLARC"
"Great news! Local politics in Scotland is so unsullied by greed and corruption that a watchdog set up to counter such vices has been wound up because it has "no work'"to do.
The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee, Slarc (not to be confused with the former Burmese military junta, Slorc), has outlived its usefulness, according to SNP local government minister Derek Mackay.
Slarc was set up in 2005 to keep an eye on councillors' pay and expenses. One of its triumphs was ending a system which allowed councillors to receive extra payments for sitting on "arms-length" external companies in exchange for little if any effort. It found that 40 members of Glasgow city council were trousering such payments.
in February, in answer to a question from Labour MSP Sarah Boyack, who wanted to know why a number of Slarc members who had resigned had not been replaced, Mackay told the Scottish parliament: "There is no work for Slarc to do. I have to ask...what is the point of appointing people to a committee with no work to do? That does not seem to be an appropriate use of public funds."
The three remaining members of the committee were so miffed they quit, too. One called for Mackay to be "held to account" for hi "inappropriate" action in unilaterally axing a statutory body set up by the parliament - and which only met on average once a month.
With Slarc out of the way, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) will have the opportunity to press its case for every councillor to receive a minimum salary of £25,000 and for senior members to get the same as MSPs - £56,671 - which Slarc had consistently vetoed.
Trebles all round!"
