Eddie Barnes - Swinney needs to up the pace

John Swinney was perfectly within his rights yesterday to complain to Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper about the extent of public sector spending cuts which are heading our way soon. The extent of those cutbacks will continue to be disputed by the two sides but there is little doubt that belts are going have to be tightened drastically in public sector Scotland at a time when costs (see pensions, equal pay settlements, you name it) are going to keep rising. If Swinney can wring some extra cash out of the Treasury by making life politically uncomfortable for them, all well and good.

But the quid quo pro has to be that Swinney starts focussing more on getting a bigger bang for his buck in the money he already controls. I am getting worrying reports from contacts within the public finance field who fear that whilst the Finance Secretary is talking a good game, he hasn't yet grasped the nettle about the scale of the task ahead of him. There is no doubt that Swinney has to tighten the purse strings and has about a year in which to do it before the cuts kick in. But where is the methodology and the timescale? Has he brought in some advisers to run the rule through his balance sheet? Does he have some drastic solutions up his sleeve - which will undoubtedly be required - and, if so, isn't it time he started preparing the ground for them? Or is he happy simply to see services go to the wall and blame Westminster?

Lots of questions, and people are beginning to wonder whether Swinney's got the answers.