"WHAT the SNP have achieved is an argument for more powers for us and less for them."
This off-the-cuff quip from a senior councillor was about the dispute between local authorities and the Scottish Government over free school meals, but it adds to a growing doubt over what the SNP's strategy in government is actually achieving.
C
ould it be that the actions of Alex Salmond & Co have somehow undermined the case for more powers for Holyrood?
The issue that brought this whole business to a crunch is as follows: councils promised to provide free school meals as part of the "historic" concordat signed last year, pointing out the concordat gave them the freedom to spend money as they wanted.
So the concordat's unintended consequence was to rob the Scottish Government of its ability to enforce key policies, leaving ministers to grudgingly admit that if councils do not provide free school meals, there is nothing they can do. This has made the Scottish Government look like a mere middleman – a conduit passing on cash from Westminster to councils.
The concordat did deliver a council tax with a hefty bribe which, it seems, may have cost more in authority than the sum proffered from the Scottish Government's coffers.
It has not helped the SNP that as councils made the administration look irrelevant, a global crisis has posed the question over whether an independent Scotland could save its banks. Most analysts believe it could not, and when it came to bailing out Scottish councils for losses incurred in Iceland (local government finance is devolved) the SNP turned to Westminster for aid.
There are things the SNP administration could do to tackle the consequences of the global crisis when it hits the real economy – when many businesses may fold and a lot of people could lose their jobs – but the Scottish Government is yet to initiate an action plan.
One thing said about Mr Salmond is that he stands up for Scotland on many issues – Olympic Games money, prisons money and so on. But if getting a fair deal from Westminster is all Scotland needs, then wouldn't Scottish MPs suffice?
Opposition parties claim the SNP ignores Holyrood's powers and concentrates on reserved issues to manufacture a case for independence.
However, this skirmish with councils has shifted the ground to an uncomfortable place by making the Scottish Government's will an irrelevance, leaving a question over whether it needs any more powers at all.
Now there is something for the National Conversation to muse on.
The full article contains 429 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
