Eddie Barnes - Brown lives life to the 'devo max' in the McChattering classes

Published on Saturday 16 February 2008 18:58

Join Scotland on Sunday political editor Eddie Barnes from Noon GMT today for an online chat about the issues of the day. Add your questions or comments below – now – and visit here later today for the live discussion.

I'M NOT sure that Scottish Office Minister David Cairns had Gordon Brown in mind when he complained about the "McChattering classes" last week.

But after the Prime Minister appeared to back 'devo max', in an interview to be aired today, it seems Brown must now be classified among those ranks.

The change of tone is remarkable. In an interview with this newspaper last March, with the Scottish election looming, Brown was adamant that the status quo was adequate. "I think most people think the best way of advancing devolution is that the new arrangements are given time to settle in," he declared. End of story.

Today, he says: "There is an issue about the financial responsibility of an Executive or an administration that has 30bn to spend but doesn't have any responsibility for raising any pounds of that."

At the very least, Brown is now saying he is open to the idea of Holyrood gaining full tax powers. Taken further, it suggests he believes there is a democratic necessity for it.

It's easy to assess the reasons for the change. In the intervening period, the SNP has come to power and, in Wendy Alexander, his own party in Scotland now has a leader with unabashed support for more powers for Holyrood. Both Alexander and Alex Salmond will take credit for Brown's U-turn, though it is said that the Prime Minister has been coming round to the idea of change for some time.

Last autumn, he read with interest a pamphlet backing reform written by former first minister Henry McLeish and Scotland on Sunday columnist Tom Brown. His public comments today simply reflect a change of opinion that has been long time coming, say insiders. Aides point out that as far back as the 1970s, Brown was a committed devolutionist. It is no surprise therefore, they say, that he has now reached this view.

It may be no surprise to them, but it will certainly come as a shock to the rest of us. The prevailing wisdom last week was that it was Brown and his fellow MPs who were hell-bent on scuppering Alexander's plans for reform.

Labour was going through one of its regular turf wars over the Union that so delight the Nationalists. Now it appears the Prime Minister is not so much blocking reforms as leading a crusade for them. He even gives a hint as to the type of reform he favours, when he refers to how other devolved regions raise money through "assigned taxation".

Under such a system, a Scottish First Minister would set tax rates for Scotland. The Treasury would then calculate the amount of money such a rate would raise and then assign the money to Scotland. This would mean nothing less than the end of the Barnett Formula, the 30-year-old system under which Scotland is financed, which simply assigns a big fat cheque to Scottish ministers.

But powers may also go the other way, says Brown, talking of a "two-way street". Wouldn't issues such as climate change – devolved in the 1990s, but now a topic of global scope – be better dealt with at Westminster, some senior Labour figures ask. It would be wrong, therefore, to assume that Brown's comments signal a complete shift of power north.

Indeed, there are plenty of MPs opposed to further change, who believe that backing the new commission is a perfectly safe bet on the grounds that once the Scottish public realise that more powers for Holyrood could equate to more taxes for Scotland, all talk of fresh powers will be cast into the wilderness. Has Brown concluded that Scots will come round to this view and bet the odds? I would never be so cynical as to suggest it.

In the meantime, Labour will be hoping that his comments put an end to the corrosive claims of division between them, north and south. And it will probably, for a while. But those divisions have only been parked. Once the commission reports, the party will then have to reach a collective view on whether or not to back it.

One Labour Party source not normally given to hyperbole told me last week that he could only envisage a "a huge row at a conference, which you (journalists] will all love".

I'm still not entirely sure that Alexander quite knows what she started when she first floated her plans last summer. Despite Brown's backing today, this issue still has the potential to tear the party apart.

Join Scotland on Sunday political editor Eddie Barnes from Noon GMT today for an online chat about the issues of the day. Add your questions or comments below – now – and visit here later today for the live discussion.