Your starter for ten...
"WHICH policy was favoured by both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats before the general election – yet mysteriously dumped when they formed their coalition?", asks Rob Merrick in the Liverpool Daily Post.
Kindly Rob puts us out of our misery:
In their manifesto, the Lib Dems vowed to replace Barnett with a “needs-based formula”. Three months earlier, Chancellor George Osborne pledged “a needs- based assessment across the UK”.
Nevertheless, come the Coalition Agreement, we were told that reform had to await “stabilisation of the public finances” – which means not before 2015. Or, to put it another way, never.
Now, my purpose is not to inquire why that happened. Heaven forbid it might be linked to those 11 nervous Lib Dem MPs in Scotland, eyeing small majorities?
No, I raise the matter to explore an alarming suggestion that the ditching of the Barnett pledge will mean these rigged spending rules will survive for ever and a day.
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