John Swinney, is this a cruel joke?

Or an attempt to frighten us by threatening: “If you think the local councils set-up in Scotland is bad now…”

I’ve been saying since before it was fashionable that Dundee – and all of Scotland – is badly served by the make-up of current council areas.

But I’d like improvements, not a bigger and more confused mess.

The first minister’s plans appear to include adding an extra layer of regional councils on top of up to 160 (yes, 160!) smaller councils, and fiddling about with who has which powers.

Why would we need two levels of area councils?

That would give every one of us (wait while I tot it up) at least 15 representatives at various levels.

A community councillor, three/four Dundee councillors in each ward (maybe more in Mr Swinney’s cockamamie 160-council set-up), a Tayside councillor, a directly........

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