Dundee and other Scottish cities need freedom from the financial shackles of Holyrood and real power to decide which services are important for the folk who live there and how they’re to be funded.
Last week’s panicked announcement by Humza Yousaf, that council tax would be frozen was an example of the arrogance of centralised power towards Dundee and other communities.
Shockingly, deputy First Minister and Dundee MSP Shona Robison admitted the decision hadn’t even been signed off by the Scottish Government cabinet, being decided only 24/48 hours before the SNP conference.
If any sums were done on the implications of the freeze it seems they were worked out on the back of a fag packet.
Dundee City Council and others weren’t even consulted.
Whether council tax should be raised or not, and in fact whether we should replace it completely with a more progressive system of taxation, should be decisions for those who know best what local requirements are.
Major commitments like this shouldn’t be declared by dictat on the whim of a struggling First Minister, desperately ducking and diving for applause in the popularity stakes.
When a Dundee MSP as his deputy professes such blithe disregard for a monumental decision being made on the hoof and with clear caprice as to its impact on this city, then the lack of democratic accountability shown to Dundee and other areas is redolent of a banana republic.
Our local councils are becoming mere husks of decision making in Holyrood’s attack on the democratic process, with the ability of local people to decide what’s in their own best interests completely dismissed.
This centralisation of power and finance by our devolved parliament is crippling local councils who know far better what their needs are than a government in Edinburgh.
Cuts to leisure facilities and other crucial local services are being forced down the throat of councils by a Scottish Government which is proving to be as ruthless in maintaining its grip on centralised power than any London parliament ever was.
When Scotland won devolution the cry was to live as though in the early days of a better nation.
What a hollow joke that hope has become.
Westminster is blamed for everything while the many powers within in our control aren’t utilised for the benefits of those whom our parliament exists to serve.
The lack of real devolved power to Dundee and elsewhere indicates an outdated system – elections every four or five years are no longer adequate representation in a modern democracy.
Councils should have real powers to decide what matters to their area
We need a reinvigorated system of local decision making with regular assemblies, and citizen’s gatherings, which actually have real power, both financial and legal, to decide issues crucial to their own areas.
Within our local authorities there is expertise existing which is often superior to that possessed at Holyrood and central government.
That knowledge and competence should determine how to address local needs.
Many within the independence movement blithely haver about role models like the Scandinavian countries and their systems of local accountability and fiscal powers.
Yet the same people hypocritically ignore the realities of a Scottish Government which accuses Westminster of shackling Scotland, while at the same time imprisoning city councils in Dundee and elsewhere in a financial strait jacket.
As long as Holyrood continues hogging power it can emasculate cities like Dundee, leaving us howling at the moon in our attempts to provide better services and facilities.
We need complete devolution of all local taxes and to allow local authorities the power to raise more of their own money, and that’s just for starters.
Amid the capricious nature of the terrible fates dispensed by Storm Babet, you have to take solace where you can find it.
Among the lost lives and ruined properties it’s hard to find any light amid dark despair and gloom, but it’s there nevertheless in the sense of community we witness, as folk rally round to help each other and offer assistance, both physical and spiritual.
Both of those elements will be needed for sustenance by folk now facing the grim aftermath of the dreadful deluge visited upon them and their communities.
The grief and misery unleashed on Brechin and other areas has been heart rending, but in the depths of the despair the common decency and generosity of humankind can be seen as folk gather to help each other.
Some have lost everything; the most precious thing being life itself in some dreadful cases, while others have seen a lifetime’s toil and graft destroyed as their houses and possessions were assailed by the raging torrent.
From emergency services working 16 hour shifts to save those in peril, to those who have brought sustenance and support to the stricken, the best of community spirit has shone through a darkness few of us can imagine.
Conversation