AT the council meeting on February 14 the SNP administration said there would be no cuts to budgets this year.

This is extremely misleading, of course, given that we face £2 million worth of “management adjustments” – management adjustments the leader of the council himself called “just budget cuts in disguise”.

Last Tuesday, the leader of the council, Jonathan McColl, was scheduled to attend a public meeting to discuss council budgets and any cuts.

However, Jonathan did not turn up for the long-standing arrangement but claiming, by email, “that as there are no cuts then there is no need to attend a meeting about cuts”.

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So, when Jonathan McColl said management adjustments are just “budget cuts in disguise” he did not mean when this administration embraces them.

Another strange thing happened at council on Thursday. Councillor Sally Page put forward a motion condemning the SNP government for cutting budgets to councils.

Now, as much as she has a point, it is a bit rich coming from a Conservative. The only growth industry we have under the Tory government is foodbanks and foodshares.

Hundreds of families use the foodshare, the majority of them working families on low incomes, and thanks to the remarkable work of the foodshare staff and the amazing generosity of the people of West Dunbartonshire, children are fed rather than going hungry, they are clothed and school uniforms provided to those in most need. Nobody is turned away.

Foodbanks are the product of disgusting Tory austerity. The only difference between children going hungry and being fed are the food-banks and West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare, which feeds thousands every year – thousands who otherwise go hungry.

The hard-working volunteers in the foodbanks and foodshares have more compassion in their pinkies than the Tories will ever have.

To solve Brexit, we should send council leader McColl to negotiate the deal. It took the Green Party weeks to negotiate an improved deal for councils across Scotland while Jonathan, apparently, went for a pint with his SNP colleagues and, hey presto, he gets West Dunbartonshire an extra £1.5million. Now, that’s the negotiator we need dealing with Brexit.