What have cliffs, knives and U2 got in common? The answer is, of course, an edge. My focus here is on cliffs and knives, which are regularly used to describe what will happen to local government as austerity continues to bite.

But I am not sure that falling over or off an edge is the right metaphor for what we might see if the current funding trajectory continues. They summon up the image of toppling past a critical point beyond which there is nothing but failure.