Contact an amigo in the armed wing of NLC who advised that he was "99% certain" that Water and Sewerage charges would go up in the next Council Tax bill you receive.
Not like you actually give a crap, but don't come crying to me when you complain no-one told you.
Houston, we have a problem...
No, no, no: yes the SNP administration managed to get a freeze on the level of Council Tax in the Scottish Parliament. The Local Authorities wanted it, the workers wanted it, you: Joe or Josephine McPublic wanted it... We were all in a groovy state of symbiosis and loveliness that no-one should tramp on. Yet there was something that me and my colleagues started wondering about...
You see, I'm a Council Tax worker. No, I haven't a problem with that and yes, you probably shouldn't whine so much, but the problem with the "freeze" is that there may well be no freeze. What we started thinking about, was the 'hidden' portions of your Council Tax bill.
Let me walk you through it. The "budget" froze the Council Tax. But your bill is made up of three elements: Council Tax Charge and Water and Sewerage Charges. The latter two are governed by Scottish Water who are, allegedly, desperate to make rises and what with the Councils not making a rise, may well use the opportunity to make a bigger rise since the press only focusses on the Council Tax portion of your bill.
I checked the online documents, and may well have missed something, but from what I can tell you may well STILL be paying more on your Council Tax bill because Water and Sewerage Charges MAY rise. I'll know more by monday, because on Friday the system is down for rebilling. By Monday / Tuesday I'll know for sure.
Stay tuned.
You ever wake up one morning and ask yourself, what's the point? Not in a comedy Rob Newman 1990s 'In Pieces with Newman and Baddiel' "I'm going to kill myself" kind of way, but more of a "I want to give up Scottish Independence" kind of way? I'm sort of getting there.
I don't drive, so when I'm busy, there's a whole lot of sitting listening to Radio 1 on buses and trains (Radio One because you get it everywhere and I hate Scottish Local Radio apart from XFM and One DJ on Radio Clyde).
Here's a list of groovy things I witnessed which will help the pro-independence cause:
* A concerted effort in Angus by Determination members to get signatures on the Scottish Independence Convention
* A live-action sketch (two ronnies style) on the Wee Unionists Handbook
* A decent turnout to be expected at the Glencoe Rally on Feb 17
* Radio Free Scotland being even more groovy than it already is (vague, yes, but there are definite things happening and they should be GOOOOOD).
* And a few things I can't talk about.
But when I'm sitting on buses for 12 - 14 hours this weekend, I wasn't thinking: Wow, this is going to be SO cool. I was thinking, I'm not getting any fecking cards this valentines, this year, am I? Yes I know: pathetic. But there you go. Too much time on buses and you go stir crazy.
That, combined with the fact that I got home, knackered, at about nineish and found that my copy of "Star Wars: Swedging the Jedi" wasn't bloody working and I finally flipped.
You may have noticed that this blog hasn't been, shall we say: updated much. This was cos it started appearing on "Scottish Blogging" roundups. I don't dislike them, i just don't think this is one of those sites. I don't know what this blog is... So I suspended it for a while to go back to being less corporate and more guerrilla bloggingy (which will remain undefined cos even I don't know what it means).
So... I came up with a rule. If you LIKE the Firefox Chronicles, and think: man, I think so and so should read it... Don't tell them. Enjoy it yourself. It's the kind of place you stumble upon by accident.
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