Little Man in a Toque » Blog Archive » What is the point of the Calman Commission?

What is the point of the Calman Commission?

Members of the Calman Commission must be feeling like a right bunch of irrelevant lame-ducks, if this story in the Scotsman is to be believed:

GORDON Brown will this week reject plans to boost the powers of the Scottish Parliament, Scotland on Sunday can reveal….

But in a 120-page document to be released tomorrow, Brown’s Government will pour cold water over every area, arguing the current division of powers is still the best for Scotland and the UK….

Yesterday a spokesman for Salmond said: “All those who engaged with the Calman Commission to achieve more responsibilities for the Scottish Parliament will be sorely disappointed by this negative response.

“The Labour Party has led them up the garden path. Iain Gray has to answer whether he stands with London Labour, or with his colleagues on the Calman Commission in developing the case for more powers. The Scottish Government’s National Conversation is the only genuine and inclusive process setting out how, by the Scottish Parliament securing additional responsibilities, Scotland can become a more successful country.”

The Calman Commission was paid for by the UK Government (at a cost of £500,000 to the UK taxpayer), who now submit evidence to the Commission they financed. Those that argued that it was simply a diversion to deflect energy from the National Conversation must now feel justified.

But whilst the Scotsman informs us that Gordon Brown does not back plans to give Holyrood more taxation powers, the Telegraph suggests otherwise:

Gordon Brown is expected to confirm today that he is prepared to concede some new tax powers to the Scottish Parliament.

Note the wording: “prepared to concede”. I think that phrase tells us as much about the guiding principles of Gordon Brown and the Calman Commission as it does about the writers at the Telegraph.

Personally I don’t think Brown will ‘concede’ tax-rasing powers, not least because it undermines his own legitimacy, as I wrote in my submission.

UPDATE: HM Government’s submission is online. It’s a long read. Probably no reform of the Barnett Formula.

30. The Scottish Parliament and the wide range of devolved public services described above are financed primarily by grant from the United Kingdom Government and Parliament. In this way the people of Scotland share in the taxable resources of the whole UK. Sharing the revenue from taxable resources across the different parts of the Union according to where they are needed is a very tangible sign of the solidarity that binds the different nations of the UK together. Both resources and risks are pooled, safeguarding the interests of people throughout the UK.

31. The full detail of how this in done is set out in the evidence from HM Treasury. This explains how the grant is calculated, using the so called Barnett formula, and the wide freedom Scottish Ministers have to decide upon spending priorities within the total. This freedom matches the wide legislative and executive discretion on policy matters devolved to Scotland. Since its foundation the public spending under the control of the Scottish Parliament has risen very substantially, in line with public spending on comparable services elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish Parliament has power to spend more or less than the budget determined by this process, by using the Scottish Variable Rate of income tax (SVR) but has not chosen to exercise this power.

32. The devolved funding arrangements provide the Scottish Parliament with not only a rising budget but also continuity and a stable, transparent and predictable way of funding public services in Scotland. The Government are keen to consider with the Commission, in accordance with its terms of reference, how the financial accountability of the Parliament may be improved. As the Prime Minister said at CBI Scotland on 4th September:

“Devolution has worked, but I do see one problem: while there have been good reasons why this is so, the Scottish Parliament is wholly accountable for the budget it spends but not for the size of its budget. And that budget is not linked to the success of the Scottish economy. That is why we asked the Calman Commission to look carefully at the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament and this is a critical part of Calman’s remit.”

33. We do not seek here to provide detailed evidence on the options that might be available. The Government stands ready to engage with the Commission, on improving the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament.”

The key sentence above is: “Sharing the revenue from taxable resources across the different parts of the Union according to where they are needed is a very tangible sign of the solidarity that binds the different nations of the UK together.”

Yes, and it also provides the justification for Scottish MPs voting on English matters.

Tags: Calman Commission, Gordon Brown

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 7:59 am and is filed under politics, the english question. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “What is the point of the Calman Commission?”

DougtheDug Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
A disappointing result in Glenrothes but it may be a pointer not to the winner of the next elections but to the way politics is going in Scotland.

Certainly in the central belt the contest now looks like a straight fight between the SNP and Labour with the other parties as contenders for lost deposits. Labour won, but the SNP vote went up not down by 13% and though the Conservatives managed about 1,500 votes the Lib-Dems couldn’t even make a thousand. The fight apppears now to be on unionist/nationalist lines not on party boundaries.

It’s difficult to decide whether Gordon Brown had already made his mind up about the Calman Commission before Glenrothes but the result certainly would have helped him towards this decision.

Gordon now thinks Labour and his policies are invincible and as far as Scotland goes he can ditch any cross-party concessions to the Lib-Dems. The Conservatives are probably not at all unhappy that the Calman Commission is a busted flush though they probably wish they’d never had to take part in it from the start for appearances sake.

The one thing that I thought the Calman Commission was there for was to provide a spoiler third option on the independence referendum ballot but it now looks like Mr. Brown thinks that he can ditch that as well. In many ways it makes things easier for the SNP. It’s either the status quo or independence with no alternative option for the undecided. Gordon’s casual rejection of the Calman Commission is music to the SNP’s ears.

I suspect Gordon to be much surer of the Labour Party’s current position than he ought to be as the fallout from the credit crunch turns from stories about rich bankers losing money to issues such as bankruptcy and job losses which affect everyone but it is almost certain that the media hype and portrayal of Gordon and his, “Brown Plan”, as the saviour of the UK and Europe Financial Sector is a story he’s come to believe in himself.

One by-election hold in Scotland does not mean that he can hold England where the Elections are usually decided. The man is definitely away with the fairies.
Toque Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am
There’s no way that Labour can win a working majority in England, not unless Cameron is outed as a paedophile and Osbourne is exposed as a Russian spy. Stranger things have happened I suppose.

So with the Tories assured of a favourable result in England, I’m pleased to see Labour positioning itself as the “no change” unionist party in Scotland. This could turn Scotland into a straight Labour vs SNP fight at the general election, making the Tories chance of returning MPs from Scotland even more remote, thereby completing the balkanisation of England and Scotland along Conservative Party lines.

To counter this eventuality we might yet see a Scottish Conservative Party arguing against Labour, for more powers to Holyrood. They’ll have a hard time squaring that with their attitude towards England.

Interesting times. But difficult to call.
Little Man in a Toque » Then and now Says:
November 24th, 2008 at 4:55 am
[...] Gordon Brown neither wants Scotland to levy taxes, or Scottish MPs to be excluded from English domestic affairs. “English votes for English [...]

What is the point of the Calman Commission?

3 Responses to “What is the point of the Calman Commission?”

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