Actually I can. I remember a scam that many councils used to pull, it was to do with the erection of various statues and landmarks etc, they would apply for the grant to build or commission the thing from the treasury, and overcharge by an order of magnitude, now of course the treasury used to balk at that and only give part of the cash out, telling councils that that was all they were going to get. The councils, rather then invest the extra money they recieved, pocketed it, against a "rainy day"....
Then you have the Council tax rises over the past few years, they now look set to explode again over the next two to three years, especially if ID cards go through - the infrastructure to support them is going to cost tens of billions, all funded through local councils rather then the treasury. I don't know about you folks, but paying for all of that doesn't look that great, especially when you consider that new labour are now slicing up the welfare system.
