Council propaganda - 'Cut this rubbish, not bin collections'

AN unhappy theme runs through much that is happening in business and the public sector at the moment - the need to cope with tough economic times.

The News revealed yesterday that a quarter of Edinburgh Zoo's staff face the chop. Earlier, we warned things were so bad in local government that council tax rises were on the cards.

Most attention is on the public sector, where pressure is growing to squeeze more value out of tax-payers' money and bridge massive funding gaps.

That's why every firefighter in the Lothians was this week asked to consider taking redundancy, why a 600,000 collaboration between the Capital and Glasgow was dumped, and why talks began on a merger of Midlothian and East Lothian's education departments.

At the heart of all such plans there are job losses and the threat of worse public services.

This is why 5,000 protesters are expected to march through the city on October 23 as part of STUC opposition to public sector cuts.

The main object of their anger will be the Tory-Lib Dem coalition which has adopted its "age of austerity" with what has sometimes seemed like relish.

But, whether David Cameron and George Osborne are right or wrong about the scale and timing of the cuts, there is no doubt that savings do need to be made.

That's why it is not enough to offer knee-jerk opposition to every pound taken out of every budget.

Progress can only be made when realistic alternative savings are suggested... so let the News start the ball rolling.

The city council must save 90m by 2013 but persists in spending 155,000 a year producing Outlook, a "newsletter" whose only purpose appears to be to flatter councillors and officials - or line cat trays.

And that's just the production costs; it doesn't take into account how much of the council's expensive spin operation is spent on what has been labelled "Pravda".

Granted, it would be a small start. But better to have one more bin emptied than have this rubbish keep going through our doors.