Nick Clegg Signs Another Pledge
Yeah, again.
Do we even need to bother?
1. “The Scottish Parliament is permanent”
A meaningless platitude. As long as Westminster is sovereign, it can choose to close Holyrood down at a moment’s notice any time it likes. No government can bind its successors. Six years from now when Boris Johnson is Prime Minister, do you think he’ll give a toss what Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg said in 2014? Do you think he’ll even remember who they were?
2. “Extensive new powers”
No. Expensive new responsibilities.
3. “Sharing our resources equitably across all four nations”
Which as Scotland currently provides a disproportionate share of the resources, means we’ll have to put even more in and get even less back than we do now. Johann Lamont has already told us (well, she told someone else behind our back) that we’re not getting more money. So we know that any change will be for the worse, and the UK parties all tell us that “a No vote is a vote for change”. You do the maths.
4. “Continuation of the Barnett allocation”
You don’t have to change the Barnett Formula to reduce the amount of money it provides Scotland with. You just need to reduce the portion of Scotland’s block grant to which the Formula is applied. If you cut that in half by making Scotland raise the rest itself from taxation, you can keep the Formula exactly the same but slash billions from the actual amount of money it delivers.
5. “How much is spent on the NHS will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament”
Well, yes, in the same way that someone on the minimum wage gets to decide how much they spend on Ferraris. The Scottish Government can ultimately only slice the pie it gets from Westminster. It can’t control the size of that pie.
We already knew that the three UK party leaders thought Scots were idiots. Now, thanks to “The Vow”, we can state without fear of contradiction that the Daily Record thinks its readers are too. The hollow insults “pledged” above – which will actually make Scotland WORSE off – are what they think the people of Scotland can be bribed with. We’d like to have more faith in our countrymen and women than that.
