Recently the Guardian did a big feature on the horrific financial position of Northamptonshire County Council, which has essentially declared itself bankrupt. The coverage points partly to political incompetence in kicking the can down the road and partly to the sizeable cuts that local government in general is suffering from.
This is what would have happened to Brent if it had taken Green Party advice and simply not managed its budget. Instead we were able to manage a number of political choices.
Northamptonshire by contrast are being to force through slash and burn tactics just to make their budget add up. Any delays, from a successful legal action for example, will have to be made up by cuts elsewhere in the budget. The introduction of Commissioners and abolition of the Council in two years further underlines how refusing to take political decisions would simply have led to a propaganda victory for the Tories.
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