George Osborne : Defence of the Union and mutual respect key in debate over powers

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 22:04

FOR me, the most important aspect of the Calman Commission is that it has at its foundation the protection and continuation of the Union. Sir Ken Calman's primary objective is to ensure Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom. That is why his report is such an important document. David Cameron and I have met with Ken Calman and talked through the issues.

He says that we can improve on the devolution settlement. I agree. So how will a future Conservative government do that?

Ken Calman recommends that the regulations of airguns, administration of Scottish Parliament elections, control over speed limits, budgets for animal health measures (except those to control outbreaks of exotic diseases), legislative responsibility for marine nature conservation and the power to allow the prescribing of illegal drugs to treat illnesses should all be devolved from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament. We agree, and the Conservative Party will now look at the best ways of devolving those powers.

Annabel Goldie, David Mundell and I have had many conversations about how we make the Scottish Parliament more responsible for the financial consequences of the decision it takes.

We want to achieve a better balance and to do so we will use the recommendations in the Calman report as a starting point. We believe that the Scottish Parliament needs to have greater powers over raising and spending taxes and borrowing.

Alex Salmond's obsession with independence has meant that he has used every opportunity to undermine the relationship between the Scottish Government and the British government, as well as the Scottish Parliament and the British parliament. His main weapon has been to say he is not getting enough money from Westminster. All the imminent cuts in budgets have been blamed on the British parliament rather than his own profligacy.

How many populist policies are beginning to unravel because he just can't afford them? Free prescriptions for people on large salaries like Mr Salmond, who is on 160,000: we could have had 2,000 extra nurses or 250,000 MRI scans instead.

Not everything in life can be free, and one of the jobs of government is to make tough choices. That is especially true at the moment because Labour's mishandling of the economy has wrecked the public finances and saddled Britain with debt. But because the Scottish Government has no control over raising the cash it spends, Mr Salmond is able to dodge his responsibility and claim it is all Westminster's fault when the money runs out. This cannot be allowed to continue.

We will not be bound by any white paper rushed out by this ragged Labour government in the short time that remains before the election. If the Conservatives win power, we will bring forward our own white paper and legislation on the financial responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.

Sir Kenneth Calman is also exactly right when he predicates his whole report on the fact that there must be a relationship of "mutual respect" between the British and Scottish governments, as well as the two parliaments. Without that, he believes it will be difficult to move the agenda forward. I agree fully.

David Cameron has said that if he becomes prime minister, he will appear before MSPs once a year to answer questions and he will come to Scotland to meet with the First Minister within a week of taking office.

I would ensure that the finance committee of the Scottish Parliament was fully briefed on the devolved consequences of the pre-Budget report. Members of my Treasury team would be willing to appear before MSPs. That is mutual respect.

That mutual respect unfortunately does not exist between the Westminster Labour government and the SNP Scottish Government.

The Calman Commission recognises this and devotes much of its report to proposing how it could be sorted out. A Conservative government will take its recommendations forward, if we win the election.