That is absolutely what is meant by full fiscal autonomy Rob - to have all the levers that enable Scotland to grow its own economy in the best way for Scotland. The Smith Commission does not allow that. It is right to say that we have had some control over tax for some considerable time and not used that control but there are good reasons why we haven't done that. Mainly because we could only raise the basic rate of income tax only which would impact on the lowest paid in society and leave those on higher wages with no extra responsibility. That is contrary to what the SNP have talked about for the last ten years. That was one of the problems with Labour's offer of tax powers before the referendum - they would allow Scotland to increase taxes but not decrease them. If we are to have control over taxation then that has to BE control - rates, bands, and the ablity to vary it as is necessary.
Full Fiscal Autonomy isnt like Independence - It depends on all sorts of things which at first thought would not seem to be important in FFA. For example, in order to properly have control of the welfare budget we will also need control of Scottish Jobcentreplus offices. Without that we cant influence how benefits are delivered for example or how sanctions are implemented which will impact on Welfare spending. With independence EVERYTHING is passed over on a specific date and with FFA there needs to be an understanding of how spending and budgets are impacted by everything else. And those other things will also need to be passed for control to the Scottish Government. That may take some time to negotiate and work out.
You talk about cuts. The thing about cuts is that with FFA the Scottish Government can make decisions on where those cuts are to be implemented - just like the tax increases I was talking about before, but that also depends on having more influence over other things like the amount that Scotland is charged for UK wide projects. As an example of this we can look at the projects that Scotland is obliged to contribute today - lets say Crossrail. Cross Rail is a project based in London, affecting London and yet Scotland has to contribute to that project. There are others too - I dont have an issue with Scotland contributing to the repairs to the Houses of Parliament for example but i dont think that we shoud be contributing to things like Cross rail or HS2 when they dont impact at all on Scotland. These things will need to be negotiated and a new protocol decided upon where Scotland has some control rather than no control. If we arent spending on those sorts of projects then we have more money to spend in Scotland to help us to avoid cuts. If we have full fiscal autonomy then this issue needs to be up for negotiation which it is not at the moment.
These are a couple of examples which show that FFA is more complicated that simply handing over the purse and saying "here you go - you do the shopping" and more complicated that Independence would have been. We are not getting Independence any time soon - that is clear and before anyone jumps on me and suggests that i am moaning and complaining and whining about it I am not. I am simply recognising that FFA is different than Independence and that we all need to understand that when discussing FFA because these are the things that prevent FFA happening overnight.
I think we will need to see the details of the amendment before we can talk specifics so I look forward to next week. We do however already have the SNP manifesto from the General Elecction which sets out what the SNP wants to achieve for Scotland and is a good place to start if you are looking for specifics. If the amendment is passed next week then we should see that reflected in the Manifesto for Holyrood and so build on the 2015 manifesto to get more of the specifics that you are looking for. This amendment if passed is just the start of what will be a very long process
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