Slapping the Uppity Nats down.

When the SNP came into power in "devolved" Scotland in May after the elections and the humiliation of Labour it was really only a matter of time before the London based Labour Government of the UK decided it needed to slap those uppity Nats down. Now they have a ready-made excuse after Alex Salmond revealed details of a draft copy of a statement by Hilary Benn which pledged £8.1 million to Scottish Farmers.

Apparently a senior Whitehall source is quoted as saying

"A line will be going out from the Scotland Office soon telling all departments to conduct a very careful audit of anything that is to be shared with the Scottish Executive, looking for any information that could be used or manipulated for political purposes by the SNP."

This is mainly because they have been embarrassed by the revelations by Alex Salmond and what the real reasons were for the withdrawal of this pledge.

Similar arguments are also going on about what the permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, Sir John Elvidge, meant when he said

"The CSR ... announced by the UK Government today gives details of the level of funding the Scottish Government and UK Departments will receive over the next three years.

"As we expected, this is a tight settlement, with a lower rate of annual growth than we have experienced since devolution."

Both sides are saying it means different things, one that the government figures were correct and the other that they have been manipulated to get the lowest possible increases to Scotland and then to squeeze them even harder.

It remains to see how this tit-for-tat battle goes. Labour are playing a dangerous game here as any thing they do to upset the SNP government will be seen in a bad light by the majority of Scots at the moment.

It is unlikely anyone will be a real winner, but more than likely the loser will be the regular punter in Scotland.


Scotsman.com News - UK - Whitehall papers to be vetted before being seen by Scottish civil servants as row over payments escalates

Ex-Whitehall chief slams ‘Stalinist’ Brown

I've read all the pieces on this bit of news that say this was "gossip" or "off the record" or whatever, but it was all said by a man who should know pretty well how Mr Brown works. The fact the it was "off the record" or should I say, unguarded, makes it more likely to be the truth rather than carefully thought out story.

This man was at some point a highly respected Civil Servant and for him to speak out like this, is out of the normal for former Mandarins, who tend to be fairly close-mouthed about their opinions of current Political figures.

I would suspect that this is a message from Turnbull as payback for many years of the destruction of the Civil Service as he sees it. You might argue that this destruction is a good thing, but I would say that the bypassing of the controls of traditional government, with the use of Cabinet, Civil Servants and Ministers in concert, that we are destroying this country.

Mr Brown is at heart a Control Freak and believes that Knowledge is Power, this is a poor way to run a department far less a country.

FT.com / World / UK - Ex-Whitehall chief slams ‘Stalinist’ Brown