West Lothian Question

Without giving it much thought, I had always thought the line that, given the degree of devolution the Scots have already, maybe it was not appropriate for their Westminster MPs to vote on English matters, this despite the fact such a change would make it much less likely that we English would get a Labour government and that we might be stuck with the boys from Bullingdon for a long time.

So interested to read a contrary view from one Vernon Bogdanor in last week's Guardian.

He points out that under any likely version of devolution, even with local tax raising powers for the Scots, the total amount of money available for them to spend on health, porridge or whatever else might take their fancy, will still, in some large part, be determined through the block grant mechanism, a mechanism which is plugged into all kinds of detailed decisions on spending in England. So not so clear that the Scots should not have a say in matters apparently English after all.

But then I get lost in the detail. Which of the taxes in the snip above from this year's budget report could sensibly be devolved?

One point survives, We spend a terrible lot of money organising & collecting tax - so it seems terrible wasteful to spend it all twice, once down here and once up there. Much worse than their running some sort of Bannockburn Airways out of national vanity.

PS: three cheers for the MS snipping tool. How ever did I ever manage without it for so long!