Civil service cuts - 'We all know that jobs will have to go'

IT was clear even before this year's general election that the public sector would have to take a good deal of the pain involved in dealing with the economic crisis.

The arguments about whether that pain should be deferred and public spending preserved to protect the recovery ended when the new coalition at Westminster decided that a quick, sharp era of austerity was the best answer for long-term prosperity.

Only Scotland was to be spared, with the SNP Government winning a deal to delay the biggest cuts for a year - handily, delaying most until after the Holyrood election.

But, as we report today, even that gamble cannot stop the inevitable process of streamlining across the public sector, even at the Scottish Government itself.

The call for early retirements and voluntary redundancies there follows similar schemes in local authorities. Earlier this week, the News revealed that Edinburgh council was to axe 300 senior posts as part of wider cuts.

Unlike the city council, the government refuses to say how many posts it is targeting or how much money it hopes to save - or why it is rushing ahead with the redundancy process now. By coincidence, those who take a deal will not be affected by London's plans to reduce future payouts.

So the SNP has many questions to answer. But one thing we all know is that jobs have to go - and the Independent Budget Review warned last month 60,000 civil servants might be affected.

The detail, and the answers, won't wait until after May - so ministers must be up front with their employees - and the electorate - about the scale of the cuts.

Badly steered

There are countless reasons a bike sharing scheme might run into trouble in Edinburgh.

Thieves might pinch half of them - like they did in Paris. Then there's vandalism, miserable weather and all those hills.

But who would have thought the Capital's attempt would be unstuck by a bungled advertising contract?

The council blundered when it signed away its right to sell on-street advertising as part of a deal on bus shelters.

Some 10,000 people have signed up to London mayor Boris Johnson's bike scheme. It is a shame we'll never know if an Edinburgh version would have been a hit too.