Job losses predicted for East Midland councils
The political battlelines for months to come are now pretty clear. After George Osborne's emergency budget, the 25% cut in spending for most government departments will have a very significant impact on jobs and services...especially for local government in the East Midlands.
The public workers union Unison has calculated the budget proposals will cost up to 14,500 jobs among some of the biggest local authorities in the East Midlands alone.
It estimates 5,000 job losses at both Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council.
It predicts a total of 2,800 job losses from both Leicester city and Leicestershire county councils.
In Derbyshire, the combined county and city councils total is 4,200 lost jobs.
Ravi Subramanian, Unison's head of campaigning in the East Midlands, has warned that budget spending cuts will see some of the biggest job losses locally since the pit closure programme 20 years ago.
"These spending cuts are savage.They'll also hit the businesses that supply the local councils. Up to 1,500 private sector jobs are also at risk," he told me.
In Parliament, the Nottingham East Labour MP Chris Leslie has warned of a "tidal wave of spending cuts" later this year.
"In Nottingham, we know that £2.7m is being taken out of the education spending. We know that £1.2m is being taken from programmes that help people back to work. The services that people rely on most will be severely hit."But a senior East Midlands conservative leader says the measures are tough but fair.
Councillor David Parsons is the leader of Leicestershire County Council, an authority that has lobbied for more government funding to boost its spending on schools and the police.
"Labour got us into this financial mess. It's taken some hard decisions by George Osborne and the coalition to get our spending back under control, otherwise even more jobs will disappear."If this Con-Lib Dem coalition ever had a honeymoon, it's now truly over.
Hello. My name is John Hess. I'm the BBC's Political Editor for the East Midlands and this blog will offer my musings on the political scene from Westminster to closer to home. 
