The other institutions that enjoyed seeing counties suffering

The visceral and vicious reaction by Senators, many of whom we generally consider sound and informed on matters devolution, against the COG notification that counties would shut down certain services in view of the lack of exchequer releases is unfortunate.

The reaction missed the point that this crisis revealed a fundamental threat to devolution and simplistically assumed that Governors were just playing to the gallery in their political contest with Senators. Fortunately, it appears that it catalysed the Senate to deal with the matter with the urgency it had demanded all along since the CRA proposal was sent to the Senate well over a year ago.