OurKingdom: Labour shifting on fiscal devolution

Comments

3 responses to “OurKingdom: Labour shifting on fiscal devolution”

1. 

   Gus Abraham

   September 7, 2007

   I wish you were right Tom but as you can see from recent exchanges from David Cairns, the British state will never surrender control over North Sea Oil unless they are forced to.
   See this: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article331945.ece

   Reply
2. 

   Tom Griffin

   September 7, 2007

   I’m not suggesting that Labour are ready to hand over North Sea oil revenue, just that they’re prepared to consider some limited fiscal powers.
   Perhaps that is why the oil issue has come up now, they’re setting out the limits of what they’re prepared to concede. One advantage of the Alexander/Ashcroft model of fiscal federalism is that it allows them to pick and choose what to devolve.
   Incidentally, I have some documents from the mid-1970s. here:
   http://www.tomgriffin.org/the_green_ribbon/2007/01/state_papers_on.html

   Reply
3. 

   Alex Buchan

   September 9, 2007

   On Labour’s changing policy towards Scotland I came upon this article by Ruaridh Nicoll in the Observer today.
   http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2165514,00.html
   In it he says that Wendy Alexander, has let slip that Labour are going to agree to a referendum on Scottish independence in 2010.
   The question is does she have Brown’s backing. The chances are she wouldn’t dare say this kind of thing without clearing it first.
   There seems to be two possibilities.
   1) That this is just designed to sow confusion in the SNP and that she has no intention of following through on this.
   2) That Labour has decided to go down this path.
   There are massive dangers for Labour if the second is the case. The lack of publicity around this dramatic change of policy suggest that, if they do intend to try to call the SNP’s bluff, they don’t want it widely known, at least not yet.
   This may be Wendy’s first gaff. And it’s difficult to credit that the BBC and others haven’t picked up on this.
   Agreeing to a referendum on such an important issue would blast a massive hole in Brown’s attempts to stop pressure building for a referendum on the EU treaty. Also this lays Brown open to the charge that he will let the Scots decide their constitutional future, but the English are denied any say in theirs. You can see how all this could be exploited against Brown in an election campaign.

   Reply