The growing clamour for change seemed to be acknowledged for the first time by the government this week, when one of Gordon Brown's Cabinet ministers told peers that ministers would not block attempts by the House of Lords to set up the special select committee in the autumn.
Amid rising dissatisfaction at Westminster about the so-called "Scots' subsidy" whereby those north of the Border have £1,500 more per head spent on them, the Leader in the House of Lords has agreed to consider setting up a special select committee. Lord Barnett told peers that the House of Lords now had a "unique opportunity" to review the formula through an ad hoc select committee.
Baroness Ashtal, the leader in the Lords, said she would "consider it carefully". She added: "We believe that the Barnett Formula has served us well, but it is reasonable and understandable that from time to time representations are made about whether it should be reviewed."
It would probably be helpful to remind certain commentators that the Barnett formula is a mechanism for reducing Scotland's share of comparable public spending. Given the slowness with which it is achieving its objective, there may be a case for review, although it is hard to see how any change to the formula could be other than relatively arbitrary.
If it is accepted that Scotland 'needs' higher spending per head - for example because it is less densely populated, thus requiring more roads expenditure per head of population, or because it is less healthy, thus requiring more medical treatment per head of population - the difficulty arises in quantifying how much extra spending is 'needed'. Unless and until that quantification is undertaken, it is difficult to say how far and how fast any replacement for the Barnett formula should aim to reduce Scotland's advantage in terms of comparable spending.
But, if their lordships want to dip their toes into this extremely muddy water, then hell mend them ...
1 comment:
The Scottish Parliament should raise its own taxes and decide how they are spent. It should - like its Catalonian counterpart - have complete control over taxation. That would make Holyrood a grown up and responsible parliament.
There is has been too much self righteous socialist rhetoric coming out of Scotland in the last few decades about how Scotland is morally superior to England because it never voted for Thatcherism etc. Of course Thatcher wouldn’t tolerate collectivist failure which is what really grated on the failure loving delusional socialists.
Now if Scotland wants to return to a pre 1979 world where knuckle trailing Trade Union leaders dictate government policy, if they want to elect morons like Tommy Sheridan and Rosie Kane to be their governors, if they want socialist taxes, then I for one would be more than happy to see genuine democracy give it to them.
Until the Scottish Parliament becomes a real grown up parliament the Scottish people will continue to elect governments as lacking in ambition as they are, see current bunch of SNP numpties for the most recent example.
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