Brian Taylor

Dave Coull · Brian Taylor

From the blog of Brian Taylor, BBC Scotland's political editor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/therep...r/2008/04/innocent_merriment.html

INNOCENT MERRIMENT

Here's an amusing little conundrum. Who has just begun a review of devolved powers?

Answer: the commission chaired by Sir Kenneth Calman and set up by the three opposition parties at Holyrood.

Who has already looked with an expert eye and in detail at options for the possible devolution of further powers?

Answer: the civil servants in the Scottish Government who drew up the document, "Choosing Scotland's Future", which forms the basis of Alex Salmond's national conversation.

Is it possible the two could coincide? Not directly, no. The commission is served by a combination of UK Government officials and Holyrood Parliamentary clerking expertise.

Officials in the Scottish Government work to the first minister, who has declared his preference is plain: independence.

It is up to the other parties to examine options within devolution. It is not a task for his government.

However, there are, already extant, around a dozen possible candidates for further devolution of powers.

The Calman commission doesn't need to scratch around for these. They can read the text for themselves.

Remember the national conversation, quite deliberately, extends beyond the SNP preference of independence.

As one insider observed to me, the document isn't written in woad with a foreword by Mel Gibson.

Again deliberately, it canvasses specific options for extensions to devolution. Just cast an eye at chapter two of the document.

Options include further tax powers; financial regulation; action on the environment; firearms law; health and safety at work; some aspects of social security; enhanced relations with the EU; broadcasting; and governance of the civil service.

Another favourite I hear mentioned is a direct power for the Scottish Government to borrow for capital spending.

Wouldn't it be a source of innocent merriment if the list which eventually emerges from the Calman commission runs pretty close to the contents of that chapter in the SNP Government's paper?