For those with an interest in Scotland and its economy, I think what I had to say in The National yesterday was quite significant:
There must be real stresses with Kate Forbes's department, argues @RichardJMurphyhttps://t.co/97vSC6qUZ2
— The National (@ScotNational) July 5, 2022
Without adjustment to the devolution settlement the devolved nations could suffer very badly because of inflation, and that matters.
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I was listening to some BBC show in Scotland a number of weeks ago (I forget which – sorry) to hear a discussion on the high levels of drug related deaths started by a question from the public. I think the SNP health minister was there and she was very polite but the BBC tosser who was running the show made sure the audience knew that the SNP was running the health service in Scotland even when the health minister pointed out that the funding from Westminster had been cut year on year for sometime. It was outrageous really – the war of ‘facts’ about devolution and funding can only get nastier as the Tories know what they are doing – it is frontline local/regional provision that will cop the disgruntlement of service users – not them.
The Tories are a bunch cynical bastards.
I frequently despair at how poor the SNP are at explaining the nature of the Barnett Formula funding model for devolved services in Scotland. This is particularly the case when SNP representatives are challenged on TV about the performance of Health and Education, which viewers could be forgiven for believing are completely under the control of the SNP Government. The reality is that the SNP control only the day to day running of these services and can only tinker at the margins regarding finance, as what Scotland gets from the Treasury for these services is simply a pro-rata amount of that for England and Wales. So any cuts in the budget for E&W are passed on to Scotland.
The political fight over Johnson’s future merely illustrates that in UK politics Scotland simply doesn’t count.