'THERE is certainly plenty happening in politics at the moment! We cannot allow ourselves, however, to lose sight of a very important event taking place in just a few weeks’ time with the local council elections being held on Thursday May 4.

Local authorities are massively important, particularly in terms of delivering local services and a hard working, diligent councillor can be a real boon to their community.

On Fife Council, the SNP Group opposed Labour’s plans for a £3million cut to the education budget which could mean one hundred teaching posts being removed from schools across Fife from August this year which would inevitably result in bigger class sizes and increased workload for existing staff.

There is a real concern, which was raised at First Minister’s Questions this week, that some Labour Councils are suggesting that headteachers return a considerable proportion of the pupil equity fund to the General Education fund.

The pupil equity fund is intended to go direct to headteachers for the benefit of the most deprived children in Scotland, to help to address the attainment gap and it is important to be very clear that the Scottish Government will release that funding only if the council agrees that it goes to the schools, as intended, and that it is not used by it to pay for existing resources. Anything else would, quite frankly, be a betrayal of the disadvantaged children that the Scottish Government is determined to help.

It is impossible to ignore the comings and goings on Brexit and Westminster’s refusal to listen to Scotland and as I noted at the start of this column, there has been plenty going on.

I was absolutely astounded to hear from David Davis, the UK Cabinet Minister for Brexit, admitting that the Government has done no economic assessment of the possible effects of crashing out of the EU with "no deal". Just one example of why it was absolutely right for the First Minister to put the wheels in motion for holding a Referendum which would allow us to have a say on our own future.

The First Minister set out, clearly and concisely, the path that has taken us to this point and the plan that takes our country forward. The Prime Minister’s stated intention to block that path is sheer arrogance and will fail.

She says “not now” but no one was talking about holding a Referendum right now. If Theresa May thinks that Scots will be "without the necessary information" on Brexit by Autumn 2018-Spring 2019, then that tells us all we need to know about the ongoing shambles at the heart of the UK Government's handling of these negotiations.'