Too busy to post ? Poor excuse !

A week since my last post ! I'm so ashamed ! It has been extremely hectic ; still dealing with the effects of the weather, trying to get accurate information out to constituents, preparing for Council meeting on Thursday, enduring Council meeting on Thursday which ran to 11 hours and on top of that caught some bug that kept me off food and drink for 48 hours (probably won't do me any harm if I'm honest).

The Council meeting may turn out to be one of the most significant in recent years, 12 deputations covering a range of subjects from Advocacy Services to the Assembly Rooms and Winter Weather to Equal Pay. Two further issues addressed were that the Council has had to agree to the Scottish Government's funding settlement which means 4.5% funding reduction as long as the Council implements SNP Government policy priorities, but a much greater reduction if we decline (£34m). A sort of blackmail really and strange behaviour from a party that believes in independence for Scotland but wants to remove independent decision making from Scotland's Councils.

The Council also agreed to take a further step towards privatising three strands of Council services through a process called Alternative Business Models (ABMs) which could see 3,500 Council jobs transferred to the private sector under contracts that will last between 7 and 12 years. The LibDem/SNP Administration don't seem to recognise that they are almost beyond the point of no return and with support from the Tories (no great surprise) they agreed the report and our amendment to suspend the process was defeated.

After a couple of days off colour I was almost back to normal yesterday and got along to the Juniper Green Christmas Farmers Market and then down to Tynecastle to watch a keen fought and entertaining draw with Inverness. Managed to persuade a few pals to head to the German Market after the game where we enjoyed a hot Belgian Cherry Beer before going to the pub.