Why is it the money that gets the English so cross?

The constitutional settlement created by New Labour is clearly iniquitous. But what is interesting about the current debate is that it is based around the higher public spending per head in Scotland, which existed before devolution, not the West Lothian question.

I always though that the devolution chickens would come home to roost when some controversial piece of legislation which did not apply to Scotland was pushed through using Scottish votes. But that’s already happened and it hardly kicked off a constitutional firestorm. The Barnett formula, though, seems to consistently spark off arguments. Admittedly this is partly because the Scottish Parliament keeps using the extra money in eye catching ways, but it is interesting that it is the fiscal not the democratic inequities that are getting the English riled up.

Anyway, this all struck me watching this video Iain Dale posted earlier about the raw deal England gets. It has a whole host of examples of how England is disadvantaged by the Barnett formula, but never mentions the West Lothian question.