Swinney's budget - 'There is a feeling that things could have been worse'

There were few if any surprises for Edinburgh in John Swinney's long-dreaded budget speech yesterday.

The headline-grabbing plan to freeze all public sector wages above 21,000, including those of policemen and firemen, for 2011/12 will be felt in households across the city. But the move was not unexpected and will elicit little sympathy from the many private company employees who have already endured similar measures.

The council tax freeze which Mr Swinney has left councils with no choice but to accept - due to the huge financial penalty he has created for any local authority that increases it - will provide some relief for household budgets, but just what that will cost in terms of service cuts remains to be seen.

There is a feeling at the City Chambers, however, that things could have been worse and a guarded optimism that cuts now can be kept to 90 million over three years rather than rising to 130m. The Government will also point to its commitment to press ahead with replacing the Forth Road bridge, improving Edinburgh-Glasgow rail links and the Borders line as signs of support for the Capital.

There is sure to be, as there always is on these occasions, an unpleasant surprise or two buried in the details which Mr Swinney chose not to highlight in his 25-minute summing up to MSPs.

It only remains to be hoped that in the horse-trading which follows Margo MacDonald succeeds in her bid to win some extra cash for the city's sports infrastructure.

A welcome U-turn

Still on the subject of cuts in public services, the city council's abrupt U-turn on BlindCraft is to be welcomed.

Councillors were due to discuss the future of the factory today, with the administration looking to close it so that it could save 700,000 in subsidies which currently help employ 70 staff, many of them blind or disabled.

But yesterday, within hours of the News hitting the streets with a last-minute plea to save the factory, politicians on all sides were scrambling to halt the closure - and to take the credit for it.

We at the News don't particularly care who blinked first and moved to back a union plan to keep BlindCraft open on a three-day week. We're just glad the right thing has been done, and that this valuable facility will stay open in its 217th year.