Public sector spending - 'The cuts will impact on everyday life'

As many as 500,000 public sector workers losing their jobs in four years, benefit cuts, a tax credit squeeze and at least 900 million slashed from next year's Scottish budget - that is the harsh reality. Or at least the beginning of it.

The debate over whether Scotland fared better or worse than the rest of the UK in George Osborne's 81 billion package of cuts will rage for some time.

But what is already clear is the very real impact the cuts are about to have on the everyday life of millions of Scots. There are already warnings that 100,000 could lose their jobs north of the border.

And Scotland, with our heavy reliance on the public sector, appears particularly vulnerable to the "double dip" recession that many economists fear such hard and fast cuts could create.

It will be months or years before that becomes clear. In the meantime, focus will now turn to how Holyrood and the City Chambers puts the decline in public spending into action. The focus must be on reform so that budgets can be cut without too many vital services being sacrificed in the process.

This is a huge task but it should be manageable when you consider that public spending is to fall only to the level it was at just a few years ago - a time when money did not seem in short supply.

After years of never-ending increases in spending, it will not be easy to swallow the Chancellor's medicine. But even if it tastes nasty, we have little choice other than to pray it works.

Walking tall

leith Walk was once put forward as a potential Edinburgh rival to Las Ramblas, the bustling boulevard linking the centre of Barcelona to the sea.

You may not bump into mime artists en route to the Foot o' the Walk yet, but the street has got a bit of its buzz back since the tram works cleared out.

And with new food stores offering delicacies from everywhere from the Baltic to the Philippines the area has something to shout about.

Who knows, with former Scotland hero Colin Calderwood now in the Hibs hotseat, maybe, just maybe, things are starting to look up for Leith.