councils from holyrood? because just as westminster controls most of the strings fair english government, so holyrood in edinburgh controls the purse strings for scottish local government. the story of scotland though is of very, very large country with a very different identity. we talk about the north south divide an english context, there is a north south divide in wales and a north south divide in scotland. if you talk to people in carmarthen, they will often say things about people in the senate macro in cardiff, and in scotland, where after all some of the island communities are close to a country like norway than they are in england, they will also have pretty strong criticism of people in the central belt here in glasgow and in particular in edinburgh from where the scottish government operates. let s talk now.