The first blast of hot air

Calton received his first party leaflet for the council elections through the door today - from the Scottish Labour Party. In it they promise, among other things, to put more money into school books and equipment, provide more free childcare, employ more dog wardens and street-sweepers, build more homes for rent and create new jobs and apprenticeships. Which is all well and good but Calton has just one question to ask - where is all the money going to come from? They don't say in their leaflet. That's because they are either going to have to make cuts somewhere else in the council's services or raise the council tax. And if they do the latter, guess who will end up paying. This is back to the bad old days of Labour - spend, spend, spend. The Scottish arm of the party is obviously not listening to the new tune coming from Westminster and has decided to stick with Gordon Brown's philosophy of buy now and hope that someone else will pick up the tab later. They are not convincing Calton, although their suggestion of a moratorium on further planning applications for land-based wind turbines pending a consultation is a good one.