At last, First Minister John Swinney has recognised the iniquity and sheer stupidity of Scotland’s wasteful and overly bureaucratic local council set-up.

The strangulating city boundary is the single biggest thing holding Dundee back.

I point anyone interested to read Dundee Civic Trust’s eminently sensible opinion on the matter.

Close by, money-wasting, badly-run councils are a blight on Angus and Perth & Kinross.

We are paying far too much to be governed by overstaffed organisations.

There is ludicrous duplication of posts and services over a very small area.

If Mr Swinney, albeit in a wishy-washy way with phrases like “stronger locality dimensions”, says he will “embark on an open conversation” then let’s treat this as a start-point for genuine reform.

Challenges facing a single Tayside council

Now I will not hide from the........

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