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Reluctant Hero

Brown "backs" devloution review

Quote:
"There is an issue about the financial responsibility of an executive or an administration that has £30bn to spend but doesn't have any responsibility for raising [that].


Funny how it hasn't been an issue in the previous 8 years  Rolling Eyes

Quote:
"In any other devolved administration in the world, there is usually a financial responsibility that requires not only the spending of money by the administration but also its responsibility to take seriously how it raises money."


Well it is Brown and his former side kick that set up the situation so I don't know why he is bleeting about it now.

Quote:
Mr Brown continued: "Now the question is, just as local government has to raise some of its money through council tax, just as many other areas in the world where there are devolved administrations have to raise money through assigned taxation, is there a case for doing so?"



If we get fiscal autonomy, it will be with strings attached to make raising £30bn virtually impossible.

Quote:
Mr Brown also backed Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, who is under pressure over an illegal donation to her leadership election campaign.

"She has had my support, has my support, will continue to have my support," he said. "She's a talented individual full of ideas about the future."

Mr Brown said she was "doing a very good job in difficult circumstances... after the Scottish parliament elections" last May, when Labour lost to the Scottish National Party.



Laughing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7249002.stm
RadgeJougal

Quote:
Mr Brown said she was "doing a very good job in difficult circumstances... after the Scottish parliament elections" last May, when Labour lost to the Scottish National Party.


Her main problems are self-inflicted and nothing to do with the SNP.
Aventinian

Re: Brown "backs" devloution review

Reluctant Hero wrote:
Funny how it hasn't been an issue in the previous 8 years  Rolling Eyes


To be fair, Gordon Brown hasn't been Prime Minister for eight years.

Quote:
If we get fiscal autonomy, it will be with strings attached to make raising £30bn virtually impossible.


Well, that's not altogether too bad. So long as the majority of it is made up from devolved taxes, it will go a great way towards the matter. In almost every federal country etc, some costs of devolved matters will come from the central government - indeed, it's the only way the US Government ever gets anything done.
Economist

Aventinian wrote:
Well, that's not altogether too bad. So long as the majority of it is made up from devolved taxes, it will go a great way towards the matter. In almost every federal country etc, some costs of devolved matters will come from the central government - indeed, it's the only way the US Government ever gets anything done.


I think much of that is done as a visible transfer from the poorer US states from the richer ones. Indeed this is the case in Canada and Australia (proper federations, which it would be impossible for the UK to become). Fiscal Transfer payments throw into sharp contrast the states that are subsidising other states, much more than what happens in the UK, It also leads to considerable tensions - Western Alienation and Quebec separatism in Canada, for example. However, that is the least of our worries.

But then we have the issue, of what taxes are reserved to the UK? Would Income Tax be reserved to the UK? VAT? Would the Scottish shares of these revenues cover Scottish shares of expenditure on these policy areas? If it didn't, who would we expect to pay our shares? Would taxes in Scotland have to rise higher than England to cover the difference? Would Scotland have to borrow more? What if the "federal" UK legislature was composed in the same way as it was in the 1980s? A government Scotland didn't elect? We would be in the same situation that led to devolution. What would the effect of that be?

That leads to the idea that Scotland should be responsible for raising all of its revenue and providing a subvention to Westminster to cover defence, foreign affairs etc. I think that would work, for about 5 minutes. Despite the fact it is a taciturn form of independence - it would increase the power of Holyrood at the expense of Westminster, and that would be thrown into sharp contrast when both legislatures are controlled by different parties.

However to the point of Brown's conversion to more power for Holyrood, if he means it, then it is welcome. It is a bizarre parody of history repeating itself on spin cycle. Ten years ago devolution would stop the SNP and independence. It increased support for both. The more powers Scotland has, the more Scots will want - and that can continue.
Holebender

Re: Brown "backs" devloution review

Aventinian wrote:
[To be fair, Gordon Brown hasn't been Prime Minister for eight years.

However I think he had some connection to the finance ministry and so would have had a great deal of influence over such matters.

Not to mention the fact that Scotland is often described as Brown's "fiefdom" in Labour Party terms so, again, he probably had more influence over how devolution was implemented than any other individual alive today.

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