Are the SNP even more deluded than Labour? Why, yes, they are!

Scottish public spending has essentially doubled (albeit in absolute terms) since Labour came to power. (To what end, you ask? To very little end, I reply.) Now the British government has run out of money and it is obvious that there are going to have to be spending cuts if the public finances are ever going to be restored to some semblance of stability. This is obvious, I should say, to everyone but the SNP for whom any suggestion that it might be possible to cut even a tiny sliver of cash from the Scottish Government’s £35bn kitty is the vilest sort of anti-Scottish treachery.

Then again, the Nationalists aren’t responsible for raising revenue, so it’s no great surprise they howl whenever any budget is threatened. And therein lies the great problem with the devolution “settlement”; power absent the requirement to raise revenue is all but bound to become power that is bloated, feckless and irresponsible.