Nursery closures - 'Cuts have to come from somewhere'

The tough choices we face as our society meets its toughest economic challenges for generations become clearer almost every day.

Politicians are quick to bandy about figures which are so large as to be almost incomprehensible to the rest of us - whether it be the 90 million the city council must save in the next three years or the eye-watering UK national debt of 950 billion.

But the downturn, and the cuts it demands, really come home when they apply to everyday services like those in local education and our health service.

Today we reveal that NHS Lothian will have to look afresh at its savings plan because not enough volunteers have come forward to take redundancy.

Added to the soaring cost of GP prescriptions, the health board is short of 5 million more than it thought. That money will have to be found.

Meanwhile, we report the latest consequence of the children and families department proposals to save 10.5m from its budget.

When we revealed the main outline proposals last week we warned that more savings might have to be found, and sure enough we now know that two nurseries are expected to close too.

There will, of course, be a campaign to keep open the Princess Elizabeth and High School Yards nurseries, and the parents and staff there should be given all the facts and every opportunity to make their case.

The council believes it will save 200,000 by closing them - and that sort of sum is more comprehensible. Indeed, some will argue that it is small enough to be found elsewhere.

But as we have said repeatedly as public sector axes have been sharpened: if the cuts don't come there, they have to be found elsewhere.

Craig's courage

WHEN burly rugby player Craig Douglas felt a pain in his chest the last thing he expected to find out was that he had breast cancer.

The surprise that he felt, as a man being hit by a disease so clearly associated with women, partly explains the disbelief he met when he told his mates - and why he found parts of the NHS's response not well tailored to meet his needs.

More needs to be done to help male sufferers, and it says much for Craig that he is willing to stand up and say so.