A little too much of a hurry..?

As the row over the front-loading of grant cuts rumbles on to the 11th hour of the postponed financial settlement – any bets on publication, Christmas Eve at 11pm? – is this the time to feel a tad sorry for Eric Pickles?
The self-confessed ‘fat man in a hurry’ may have been perhaps a little too hasty when presenting himself before the Star Chamber, back in the autumn. When dealing with the Treasury, it is always wise to a) read the small print on any deal before signing, and b) check your pockets before leaving. These people are past masters at relieving Cabinet ministers of large amounts of cash without them even noticing.
The fact is, Eric has done a sterling job for his coalition and deserves a warming brandy at Chequers from the boss on Christmas Day for the way he volunteered local government for the lion’s share of the cuts in the Spending Review. His Cabinet colleagues, particularly health, the Department for International Development and education, will doubtless have slapped him on the back, relieved that his sacrifice has spared their own.
And to be fair to Eric, he will have returned from his Star Chamber encounter feeling that, while the local government settlement was tough, it was no more than expected by the sector itself – and, indeed, there was the benefit of an extra £1bn for councils to tackle adult care on top.
The problem is the front-loading element of the cuts which Eric and his colleagues now realise is rapidly becoming a large elephant trap, opening out before them. Unfortunately, unlike shoppers buying their Christmas gifts, there is no cooling-off period with the Treasury. The deal has been made and Eric is stuck with it.
He may thrash about, asking councils to look down the backs of their sofas for cash reserves, but as things stand, the front-loading is set to be a massive headache. And just when the bad press starts about library closures, old folk in unheated homes, streetlights turned off and roads pockmarked with holes, Eric will find his Cabinet colleagues are suddenly nowhere to be seen. It’s a brutal world, politics.