We need to fight brutal cash cuts

It's been dubbed awful April and for struggling families in Paisley and across Renfrewshire it's not hard to see why.

- BY WEST SCOTLAND MSP RUSSELL FINDLAY

This month has seen rising bills for households and businesses as the SNP and Labour continue to clobber them from every direction.

One of those which will be most keenly felt landed on residents' doormats last week and that’s the inflation-busting 9.5 per cent rise in council tax imposed by SNP-run Renfrewshire Council.

And for all that sleekit nationalist politicians try to try to blame everyone else for these brutal tax hikes, the reality is they are fully responsible.

Years of brutal cuts from SNP ministers in Edinburgh have put councils in an impossible position to try and fund and protect vital day-to-day services that communities rely on.

It is almost 18 years since the SNP came to power at Holyrood promising to scrap the unfair council tax.