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“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive,” said Scotland’s Walter Scott. His hour has come. Frantic to stop Scotland leaving the union last month, Westminster leaders rushed north to promise the moon. Scotland could have more devolved powers. Scotland would lose no Barnett subsidy. Scotland would stay represented in the London parliament.
Like practised seducers, they probably meant it at the time. They do not mean it now. Today, the minister assigned to honour the pledge, William Hague, repeated David Cameron’s tricky trailer, that “the English question” had to be addressed “in tandem”. It could not be evaded. Anyway, he told the BBC’s Today programme this morning, it was a matter for parliament. If so, why did Cameron not say that during the referendum? The answer was that giving Scotland powers and a blank cheque with no corresponding “devolution to England” enraged English Tory MPs. Cameron was offering what he could not deliver.
Meanwhile, Labour insists that the English question should indeed be evaded for the simple reason that its answer would certainly diminish Labour’s power within England. Ed Miliband can justly point out that his pledge with Cameron was without strings. But his additional promise was almost as indefensible, that whatever extra powers went north to Edinburgh should mean no cut in the extravagant Barnett subsidy.
A glance down the menu of what the various parties are actually offering the Scots – such as more power over income tax, corporate tax and VAT, and over welfare, energy and transport – shows a wide divergence of opinion. What seemed a simple pledge is devilish in its detail. There are templates for devolution packages across Europe, in Germany, Spain, Italy and elsewhere. There are also templates for answers to the English question. These are clearly matters for detailed research and negotiation.
On Monday, the government published its initial “command paper” on further devolution by the Scottish secretary, Alistair Carmichael. It was all waffle and piety. Meanwhile, Lord Smith of Kelvin is beavering away to honour the original pledge and has been given until the end of next month. For once the Liberal Democrats are right. There really is no alternative to a grand convention on this, one that must include Wales and Northern Ireland as well. But for goodness sake keep politicians out of it.
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