West Dunbartonshire SNP councillors
On Wednesday, the Labour administration in West Dunbartonshire voted through over 40 cuts to frontline services and jobs, totalling to more than £3 million 
These devastating measures include:
Reducing the School Clothing Grant for primary pupils Ending the £10 EMA uplift for our Young Carers Cutting Music Instructors in schools Halving Working4U services, which help with adult learning, additional needs support, and financial advice Axing CCTV monitoring after midnight, putting safety at risk Slashing the Council’s contact centre, which deals with enquiries and housing repairs, by two staff members Reducing School Crossing patrollers near schools Scrapping the Care of Garden Scheme for elderly residents Further reductions to grass cutting and open space maintenanceAnd to make matters worse, they’re hiking Council Tax by 11.5% – one of the highest increases in Scotland!
The SNP opposed every single one of these proposals, instead presenting a no-cuts budget that would have protected the essential services our communities rely on.
However, Labour bulldozed ahead, choosing cuts over communities and placing further burdens on the people of West Dunbartonshire 
Ah well, only the start.now
Rachel Reeve’s suite of tax rises are now set to bite.
Employers National Insurance contribution now up to 15% will be a real burden on businesses, the NHS and councils. Already businesses are folding with job losses.
And with more money being diverted to the war in Ukraine and supporting Israel, public funding will continue to reduce with more job losses.
And personal tax?
Well Labour has put that up too. So again less money left from folks wages to spend.
Not what Labour promised only some six months ago!
And if you think the cuts are bad thus far, then read this as we move into war mode.
On the issue of the UK’s declining economic well being and being able to afford a war the Telegraph recently said:
“British public opinion to the ongoing peace talks, as well as the wider conflict is divided.
“Thus, according to the Telegraph, it’s time to face the fact that Britain can’t afford to support Ukraine any more. Perhaps the most dangerous economic consequence of the war in Ukraine for the UK was cutting supplies of Russian gas.
In 2023 almost 47.5 million Europeans could not afford to heat their homes compared to 30.8 million people in 2019. European Trade Union Confederation secretary Ludovic Voet said that 363,000 people in Europe die of cold each year. The direct costs to the British Government of this cut can be easily summed up. Between the various schemes targeted at relieving the pressure of energy bills on households and businesses, the Treasury paid out £44bn between 2022 and 2024.
Prior to the pandemic, the UK burned roughly £10-16bn worth of natural gas, the equivalent of somewhere between 73m and 75m tons of oil. In 2022, it spent around £47bn for 67m tons equivalent, and in 2023, £46bn for 60m tons equivalent. Some of this spend accrued to domestic producers and exporters, but around £44bn appears to have ended up in net imports. Had prices stayed where they were in the three years before the pandemic, Britain would have spent £36bn less in 2022, and saved around the same in 2023.
And this is with a drop in the quantity of gas burned, likely a reduction in cost of around £22bn. This reduction does show up in real GDP in consumption of heating services and in industrial use. A back-of-the-envelope approach suggests that £22bn in lost output in the first year of the war, £44bn in imports, and £13bn in aid might be a useful first-order approximation of the UK’s contribution to the defence of Ukraine over 2022-2023. Or London has spent £79bn in total on an armed conflict. According to the Telegraph, that’s a lot to have lost on a conflict a long way from these shores.
AYE its a lot to have lost. War costs money, big money and oil, gas and power is at the very heart of an economy. Looks like Donald Trump has woken up to that and more.
Just think however if the UK didn’t have Scotland’s Gas and Oil and the bounty of renewable wind. Toilet time perchance? And with defence spending now being ramped up by £13.7 bn this year alone, we haven’t seen the half of the cuts in living standards
Looks like the Sun is setting on the great British Empire if not already, because it all looks pretty dark to me.
O Me Miserum. There must surely be some respite on the way, Billie?