The problem with Iain MacWhirter is that he views all reports on the Scottish Constitution as the road to his Shangri-La of a federal UK. The Calman Commission is not a road to a Federal UK nor is it even a road to the much touted financial accountability.

It does nothing to improve the Scottish Parliament's economic powers and if the home rule project is about creating a Scottish Parliament which exists on a fixed amount of money which is calculated from English expenditure then Calman has simply reinforced that aim. If the Calman Commission is radical then Iain MacWhirter is a nationalist.

The Scottish National Party didn't disown the Calman Report it disenfranchised them. The wording of its remit was specifically written to exclude the SNP, "...and continue to secure the position of Scotland within the United Kingdom." 

 
Iain MacWhirter just doesn't understand the report. It is important only as a demonstration that you can't create a federal tax system on top of a provincial system of government while at the same time keeping a wary eye out to ensure no change gives extra power which could be used to give the nationalists an advantage or a leverage to use to gain independence. 

Iain should read that recommendation again. Barnett is not toast, it is the basis of funding level for the Scottish Parliament under the Calman Report.

What has changed is that the method of collecting the money has become much more complicated. Instead of a block grant it has been changed to a block grant plus assigned taxes which equal the old-style block grant in value.

For every tax or proportion of a tax assigned to Scotland a corresponding cut is made in the Barnett derived block grant. In order to maintain what the Barnett Formula says Scotland needs in funding and to maintain the current level of funding the overall income tax and other minor tax levels will have to be set at exactly the same rates as the rest of the UK because that is how the block grant portion is worked out to give Scotland the funding defined by the Barnett Formula.

 
Another point to note in the Calman Report is that the block grant is determined by the level of tax receipts collected in Scotland the previous year, or perhaps averaged across several years. This ignores any rate changes by the Scottish Parliament up or down. If Scotland's standard tax take goes down in a recession the block grant goes up and vice versa. The block grant proportion of the funding will always ensure that Scotland receives no less and also no more than the Barnett funding level on average. There is no incentive to improve the economy of Scotland to enable an increase in Government spending because the block grant always pulls Scotland back to the Barnett level.

How misguided can a pompous statement be? All that has changed is that The Scottish Parliament already has the power to vary tax by 3p in the pound but now has the power to vary it by 10p in the pound under Calman. Since the Parliament never used the orginal power why was it felt that the limits of the variable rate should be raised? Perhaps someone can tell why the limit was raised from 3p to 10p even though it's never been used and there has been no demand to use it. I can also see no extra accountability in this new system which simply increases the limits on the the unused 3p in the pound Scottish Variable Rate which is already part of the Scotland Act. Aye, us Scots have to be protected from our oil wealth. Again a failure to understand the report. Variations in tax take will only be felt across a single year because every year the reduced block grant will be varied up or down to fund Scotland at the Barnett level to take into account of the year on year variation in tax receipts in Scotland. All the complicated new method means is that the budget cannot be guaranteed to be at a certain level every year but it can be guaranteed to fluctuate fairly closely around the Barnett Funding level. Have a look at the worked examples on page 113 of the report.Full tax autonomy in Scotland. You mean we get the oil? not in a million years inside the Union.

The Calman Commission can be summarised as follows:

Part 3

1.Scotland will continue to be funded at the level set by the Barnett Formula

 
2.The Scottish Parliament can now vary income tax by 10p in the pound rather than 3p in the pound 

3.The Scottish Parliament can now borrow money just like any other local authority.

Part 5.

There will be an exchange of minor powers, going both ways. None of the powers that Scotland gains result in any real transfer of power to the Scottish Parliament.

Iain's gone starry-eyed again. It's a pity the Herald has discarded its comments section or I could tell him directly the way I used to.

"Is Cameron ensuring the English card remains in play despite his professed unionism?"

I don't think that's it.  This is about the blame game.  No one wants to go down in history as the party or politician who broke up the Union (apart from the separatists).  At the moment the honour will be going to Donald Dewar and Gordon Brown, and for Cameron it is easiest to just go with the tide.

The Calman Commission report is as much about England as it is about Scotland.  Partial fiscal federalism helps dispel the impression that England is subsidising Scotland and the differences in social spending can now possibly be attributed to different levels of taxation.  However, if the SNP keep taxation at English levels then they can't complain too much about the Barnett straight-jacket (financial accountability became a pressing urgency when the SNP took power in Scotland and began looking to accentuate policy divergence).

And because the Barnett Formula is left standing Scottish MPs still have financial accountability over funding the devolved portfolio (and therefore have 'the right' to vote on English domestic affairs - which have a knock-on effect on Scotland's budget).  It would be rather difficult for Cameron to argue the case for Ken Clarke's version of English votes if Scottish MPs were not financially accountable for the (English tax) money that they were spending.