I might be entirely wrong about it, although I don’t think I am, given the council’s insistence that opportunities for cuts “should be pursued as vigorously as possible.”

And Liberal Democrat councillor Ros Kayes has been saying on Twitter that “DCC [is] in even more debt than 2009. Nearing £40m I hear. Massive cuts inevitable despite settlement.”

Remember that council tax has now been frozen so the county council can’t seek to raise money through that – and that’s significant.

Because, there’s a clue as to why the council thinks it will still need to make cuts in the story above: “Our relatively low dependence on grant means that most of the current funding shortfall arises from factors other than potential cuts in grant.”

In other words, in layman’s terms, because – under the old Labour government – Dorset used to come fairly often near the bottom of funding league tables, over the years the county council has had to rely more and more on the money raised from council tax. So, a higher percentage of the council’s overall income comes from council tax than is the case in most other local authorities. Dorset may be getting an increase of 0.25%, but the amount that nowadays comes from the government via grant settlement is less important than it used to be, and has less of an impact on the overall situation.

That’s one interpretation, anyway.

And I’d imagine – to put it very crudely – that it’s one that will be cited by the Tories now in charge of DCC. They will probably try to blame the current situation on the legacy of Labour’s years in charge of the country.

How might that go down in Dorset? I don’t know. Labour has very little party machinery left across the county, certainly the more rural parts.

The Lib Dems? They keep saying that ‘there is no coalition in Dorset’. They are terrified of being wiped out locally because of their party’s unpopularity nationally.

That’s why – surely? – the scene should be set for an almighty battle.

PS – Does anyone know exactly whatever did happen to all the money that Dorset County Council invested in Iceland?