What do you expect? He's from Dundee.

Do you think Brian understands what he's talking about? Here he is:

Has the Barnett formula been applied strictly? Yes, to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Is that a good thing? It used to be when Barnett felt generous. The formula’s been tightened over the years. Now tends to squeeze, esp in NI.

Was the formula fiddled? No

What’s this about the new baseline? The Treasury decided to recalibrate certain existing budgets for England, principally the NHS: essentially, assuming they’d got less this year than the actual out-turn figure.

Why did they do that? Version One, it was a standard statistical exercise. Version Two, it made the percentage increase for health look bigger.

Why does that affect Scotland? Barnett. Scotland experiences changes consequential upon all comparable English departments, eg health.

Or is he desperately scrabbling for some kind of gloss to put on the arguments? Or maybe just blethering? Never mind - better minds than his and mine will fail to interpret the delphic intricacies. But, remember, when in doubt, blame Barnett ...