A HUGE gulf emerged yesterday between the aspirations of Westminster and Holyrood for the role of joint ministerial committees (JMCs) as Alex Salmond met with ministers to discuss the body.
The First Minister and Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy have begun to work out the ground rules of the committee involving the UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments.
Earlier Mr Salmond's spokesman had boldly proclaimed that it would be t
he means to deal with rows between the parliaments such as control of Scotland's seas, the £120 million of prison money not passed on to Scotland or the fate of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
But even before the two sat down a senior Westminster source had dismissed the JMC and said it would not be a partnership of equals. "This is not a relationship of equals," he said. "John Swinney (the finance minister] is dealing with the Treasury of the United Kingdom.
"The JMC is part of the devolution settlement – it does not exist to undermine it. What it will expose is the narrowness of the claims and pomposity of the posturing of Executive ministers."
A source told The Scotsman that Mr Murphy had been embarrassed by the comments and had provided assurances the JMC's would provide a proper forum for disagreement.
However, the Scottish Government was unable to say how disputes would be resolved, who would arbitrate and how the UK government, which holds the purse strings, could be over-ruled by one or even all three of the devolved administrations.
A Scottish Government spokesman said that details would emerge after Mr Murphy had met with Northern Ireland's First Minister, Ian Paisley. The first JMC meeting is expected some time in the summer.
After their meeting yesterday, Mr Salmond and Mr Murphy insisted it had been useful and constructive.
And Mr Murphy denied he was worried that Mr Salmond would use the joint ministerial committee system as an opportunity to grandstand.
"I think the committee is a legitimate way for all First Ministers and appropriate ministers to get together to deal with issues of common concern.
"There will be issues which we can sit around the table and talk about."
He also denied the new body would be restricted by not being a "relationship of equals".
"It's a relationship where we don't start talking about equals and unequal, but a relationship in which people come together and talk about differences on different issues," he said.
Rows so far between Edinburgh and Westminster have involved spending on the London Olympics, and whether Scotland should continue to get council tax benefit if the tax is replaced by local income tax.
Mr Murphy said: "There is a mechanism that deals with finance – a joint meeting of the finance ministers from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the UK government."
A joint ministerial committee, chaired by the Prime Minister and bringing together ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, was set up in 1999 but has not met since 2002, except for a sub-committee on European matters.
Reviving the ministerial committee system was one of the early goals of Mr Salmond, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked Mr Murphy to take up the issue earlier this year.
Mr Murphy met Rhodri Morgan, First Minister of Wales, earlier this week, and will shortly meet senior Northern Ireland ministers.
Mr Salmond said: "I have long advocated the re-invigoration of the JMC and I was delighted to welcome Paul Murphy to Edinburgh today to discuss the detailed arrangements around getting the vital JMC process up and running again by this summer. I made clear that I want to do all I can to ensure the success of the JMC meetings in supporting structured relationships between the UK government and the devolved administrations."
Alexander blasts SNP's £2.7bn of 'broken promises'WENDY Alexander yesterday attacked SNP "broken promises" and cuts ahead of the party's spring conference this weekend.
The Scottish Labour leader claimed the first year of an SNP Scottish Government had resulted in £2.7 billion of ditched and under-funded promises and cuts.
The comments from the embattled Labour leader, who has just emerged from a tough first year dominated by investigations into her leadership campaign donations, were dismissed as a "moanifesto" by the SNP.
However, Ms Alexander produced details of £686 million of ditched election promises, including reducing P1 to P3 class sizes to 18 and paying off student debt; £933 million of funding promises including expanding nursery provision and drug rehabilitation, had been cut; and the £1.114 billion efficiency savings announced by the Scottish Government yesterday were, she said, cuts.
She also sneered at the SNP's biggest achievement, the council tax freeze, which she said was worth 71p a week to the average household, "less than a naan bread".
The only thing she could find to praise the SNP was the attempts by the justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, to tackle binge drinking.
The minister for parliamentary business, Bruce Crawford, said: "Labour lost their first election in Scotland for 50 years because of their negativity, total lack of ideas and silly attacks on the SNP – one year on and they have clearly learned nothing."
The full article contains 872 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
