Opinion: public ownership, staffing levels and pay awards

The need to reduce the timetable in Scotland by more than 25% is a salutary lesson that public ownership does not always offer the panacea to resolve service delivery issues that many have been led to believe.

What has been largely overlooked is that once any activity is placed in public ownership, it is competing for funding with other spending priorities such as the National Health Service and social care, as well as education and defence budgets.

This is not only in terms of investment, but also day-to-day spending.