Anyone but Labour when it comes to finance.

Found this one in The Scotsman with regards Edinburgh's finances.

THE city council ended the last financial year with money in the bank for the first time in five years, new figures have revealed.

The Lib Dem/SNP administration managed to balance the books and underspent by £600,000 in 2007-8. This compares to an overspend of £5.6 million by the previous Labour administration in 2006-7.

But Labour councillors today said the turnaround was only achieved after the new administration introduced "more cuts than Thatcher". - Always blame Thatcher, never mind that the previous administration had by the time she came to power beggared this nation.

The £600,000 surplus was reached after a crackdown was launched on people falsely claiming single person council tax discount, which – along with more houses being built – helped bring in £5m more council tax than expected.

The administration also benefited from a reduction in loan charges, otherwise its general fund would have overspent by around £8m.

City finance leader Gordon Mackenzie said: "Had the administration not taken prompt action we would be facing a massive overspend with disastrous effects across council services."

New Labour group leader Andrew Burns said: "They slashed services left, right and centre – but after all that pain, they would still have gone over-budget."

So is the argument by Mr Burns that it is better to go over budget rather than to slash services? Often overstaffed bloated services than do not provide much in the way of service? Rather than to balance the books and have money in reserve, rather than upping the bills of taxpayers each year? Maybe he would rather people claim benefits they are not entitled too?

.