An easier deal

Televised political debates are dire – little more than stairhead rammies – but Nicola ­Sturgeon’s recent offer to make Ed Miliband prime minister was a rare exception.

I suspect the First Minister has just done the slickest diplomatic two-step since Stanley Baldwin bundled Edward VIII and his American floozie into exile.

She knows a Labour-SNP would send so many votes to the Conservatives they will be able to form a viable minority (maybe even a majority) government. But she also knows the Tories can give her a deal that Labour dare not contemplate: some v­ersion of full fiscal autonomy in return for English votes for English laws.

She will certainly find it ­easier to strike a deal (with the below-the-counter economic safeguards) with the pragmatic Cameron-Osborne duo than the fickle Two Eds.

Dr John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews