By Martin Sime
We are near the end game for the Smith Commission proposals for new powers to the Scottish Parliament. Decisions have to be taken at Holyrood and Westminster about the merits and viability of the whole package but most members of the public went to sleep on the subject a long time ago.
For a start, the details are too arcane: only a handful of people really understand how the finances will work, which is hardly a recipe for good governance. Secondly, the posturing of politicians on both sides (these are substantial new powers or they don’t go far enough) are tiresomely predictable given that the proposals themselves represent the policy of neither side.
So compromise is a good thing, isn’t it? Well, not in this case since, in some very important aspects, the Scotland Bill offers us the worst of both worlds and a bit of each – neither fish nor fowl but some hybrid creature crafted without thought as to the long term consequences for the people of Scotland. There is a strong case to kill the bill and start again.
A parliament that can tax and spend sounds like a worthy objective. We want our politicians to be accountable for raising the money they invest in public services. But a government without levers over the economy or fiscal policy leaves us with some very narrow options. Sure, we can raise taxes for the better off to, perhaps, 50 per cent but that would only raise £20 million, or about 0.06 per cent of the present budget. I’m not looking forward to lots of sterile political debates around the margins of what little might be possible.
The last recession, as we know, drove a coach and horses through public finances and the next one when it comes will doubtless do the same. Unfortunately, under the proposed new powers, Scottish ministers will not be able to do much more about it without control over corporation tax, VAT, monetary policy and the rest. Cynics might argue that we’ve only been given the bits where it is not possible to make much of a difference.
The welfare problem is a bit like that, only worse. A few more welfare powers are proposed for transfer but the big stuff, particularly Universal Credit, remains reserved to Westminster. For people in need of support this creates the nightmare of having to navigate two systems with irreconcilable objectives and all the bureaucracy that is bound to come into play. But the Scotland Bill isn’t about such people and we should all be ashamed of that.
To add insult to these injuries, it has just been announced to great fanfare that the Scottish Parliament is going to be “allowed” the power to create new benefits or top-up existing UK benefits from its own resources. So we can abolish the bedroom tax but only by cutting something else. This nil-sum-game should tell us all we need to know.
Which brings us full circle to the limitations of the whole project; (income) tax and spend without the power to grow and tax the economy or borrow to invest in infrastructure is a very limited form of devolution. It doesn’t take us much further down the road and certainly conforms to type (the illusion of power but not control over the things that matter) that has characterised the story so far.
The problem is that neither party has a vested interest in making this work. Devo max with full tax and spending power save for defence and foreign affairs was and is a political orphan despite being the strongly preferred option of most people. The fundamentalists keep finding new ways to prevent this being put on the table.
There seems to be a widespread belief that both parliaments will sign up to the deal with the dubious claim that it was the best that could be achieved in the circumstances. It’s just hard luck if some of our most vulnerable citizens have to sustain collateral damage in the process. But this Scotland Bill, like the ill-fated Calman Commission stuff of a few years ago, was never about good governance or how best to improve the citizen experience of key public services. It is no more than a short-term political fix. There’s only scant consolation in the thought that it will never last.
Martin Sime is chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel