I HAVE written before about how ‘spin’ or, let’s be honest, trying to fool people, gives politics a bad name.

Last week’s Scottish budget debate was a case in point.

The budget was criticised by independent commentators for a lack of clarity and double counting, with the same money appearing in more than one place.

Firstly, the Scottish Government told us they were giving £120m to schools and provided a helpful breakdown of how much each school would get. This is the Attainment Fund, which for two years has seen East Lothian schools receive nothing at all.

At last, our schools will share £1.5m between them. Unfortunately, at the same time the council – which has to provide all the other funding for schools – is losing several times that amount in cuts.

So, the Government may be giving with one hand, but it is taking with the other.

The real ‘spin’, though, was saved for the budget deal the SNP Government did with Green MSPs to get their budget through.

Both parties involved claimed they had agreed £160m “extra” for council services.

In fact, the budget they pushed through cuts resources for local services by millions more. Economic commentators also pointed out that the “extra” money appeared to have come from some creative accounting.

The bottom line is that in East Lothian our local budget for local services still faces a cut of £4.5m. What is more, it comes on top of similar cuts every year in recent years.

Someone described this budget deal like this: “A man steals £100 from you. He is caught red-handed, and hands you £40 back. Then he expects you to congratulate him for his generosity.”

I am afraid I will not be congratulating the Scottish Government, nor the Greens, for this sleight of hand.

I promised in last week’s Courier that I could not support a budget which cuts funding for schools and hospitals, and I voted against.