Jon Bright (London, OK): So what was said on The Politics Show today? I don't know, to put it simply - apparently it was only on in Scotland and the BBC's website, where you will be able to see it eventually, is still only carrying the edition from last week (at the time of writing).
However the BBC has posted a further article on the subject. Apparently, Brown said:
Now the question is, just as local government has to raise some of its money through council tax, just as many other areas in the world where there are devolved administrations have to raise money through assigned taxation, is there a case for doing so?
I admit calling the previous thread "revenue raising powers to go to Holyrood" was misleading (unintentionally, I assure you!). Brown has guaranteed no such thing. However, to put something on the table is a big step - if the convention finds that devolution of fiscal power to Holyrood is appropriate, then to ignore that call would be to destroy it. Conversely, if the convention decides this is unnecessary, it will undermine Alexander's attempt to shoot the SNP fox. While, on the whole, Brown and the rest of the parties involved are not pro-independence, the fact that they have decided to talk about fiscal devolution shows, for me, the difficulty of keeping control of such a process once it starts.
A final note - Brown also said that the review was not a "one-way street" and could consider returning some powers to Westminster. If it tries to do so, on any genuinely meaningful points, I imagine there will be many people in Scotland who feel more than a little conned by it.
