The ‘Funding Devo More’ launch

We held the Funding Devo More launch event in Edinburgh on Friday morning, with Willie Rennie MSP responding on behalf of the Scottish Lib Dems and Sarah Boyack MSP (a late replacement for Margaret Curran MP) responding for Labour.  Rachel Ormston of ScotCen also gave a presentation on the key parts of the results of the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2012 that bear on the constitutional debate.

My presentation from the launch is now available HERE.  Rachel Ormston’s slides – particularly interesting on what she calls the ‘maximalists’, those who want significantly enhanced devolution for Scotland but not independence – are here.

To highlight events and other activities relating to this project for those using Twitter, we shall be using the hashtag #devomore.

I’m also going to be on BBC Radio Wales’s ‘excellent Sunday Supplement’ programme this coming Sunday (27 January) to talk about the report and its implications for Wales.  That should be at about 8.30 am.

‘Financing Devo More’ in Scotland on Sunday

I’ve given Scotland on Sunday a preview of my IPPR report on devolution finance ‘Financing Devo More’ and they’ve given it generous coverage.  There are news stories here and here, a comment piece by Guy Lodge and me regarding the wider politics of what I propose here, and an editorial here.

The paper should be available on Thursday, and we’re launching it at an event in Edinburgh on Friday.  I’ll be writing more in due course to explain what the wider ‘Devo More’ project is about.

UPDATE, 22 January: Monday’s papers included coverage of the report’s implications for Wales in the Western Mail, available here.  The Scotsman‘s coverage (here) included suggestions by David Mundell, Minister of State at the Scotland Office, that the unionist parties would have a collective ‘enhanced devolution’ position come the autumn, the first time he’s made any such suggestion.

The Herald had responses which included a general welcome from Alistair Darling of Better Together, and a dismissal of the proposals by Nicola Sturgeon.  That’s available here.  Sturgeon’s dismissal of the proposals is remarkable as the report not been published yet and so she can’t know its details.  Despite the SNP’s earlier suggestions that it would have welcomed an ‘enhanced devolution’ option on the referendum ballot, it would seem determined to resist any actual proposal to deliver that.

Financing devolution and the More or Less Federal model: report launch

One reason why this blog has been so quiet for the last few weeks is that I’ve been trying to finalise work I’ve had underway for some time on what I call the ‘more or less federal model’ for devolution finance.  The idea behind this project was to see what sort of lessons could usefully be learned from the financing arrangements in federal systems for financing devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; how to extend devolved tax-setting powers in a workable way, and reconcile these with securing an equitable distribution of resources across the UK.  That work is now completed, and the paper is due for publication by the Institute for Public Policy Research next week. It’s a detailed and chunky piece of work, drawing on data published in GERS, the Northern Ireland Net Fiscal Balance Reports, and by the Silk Commission, and I hope it will be a valuable contribution to the current debates in Scotland and elsewhere about the future of devolution.

There will be a launch of the event at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on George Street in Edinburgh at 8.30 am on Friday 25 January.  Speakers will include me, Guy Lodge of IPPR, Willie Rennie MSP, leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, and a Labour speaker.  There’s information about it on the IPPR website here, and anyone would like to attend should email Glenn Gottfried of IPPR at G.Gottfried@ippr,org to book a place.

Enhancing devolution: presentation at PSA Territorial Politics conference in Brussels

On Friday 14 September, I gave a presentation at the conference of the Territorial Politics working group of the Political Studies Association.  This is a biennial event, and this time it was held in Brussels.

I presented a version of the work I’ve been doing on how a more decentralised approach to devolution finance might work, and also discussed how that relates to wider ideas about ‘enhanced devolution’ particularly but not only for Scotland.  I gave it the snappy and glamorous title ‘Devo more, devo plus and so on: extending devolution in the UK, and financing it.’  At least it’s accurate.

Fiscal devolution is the starting point here, but the problem is that it’s hard to design a funding system when you don’t know the nature and costs of the functions devolved.  This means that outlining models for ‘fiscal devolution’ at the start of working on schemes of enhanced devolution rather than the end of them is like putting the cart before the horse.  The deeply-established fiscal centralisation of the United Kingdom – which goes back at least to the Middle Ages, and which in both Tudor times and the late seventeenth century was key to the power of the English state – is a major factor here.  Under the existing model of devolution, health, education and local government services are the most costly functions in devolved hands.  For this, I think it’s possible to create something workable through devolving (all) personal income tax, assigning a large proportion of VAT to devolved governments, and devolving the various land taxes and alcohol and tobacco duties (though that will require quite a major restructuring of how those work).  That needs to be accompanied by an equalisation grant, and there are some big questions about how that works.

A Welsh legal jurisdiction, and its effects on legislation

I haven’t properly posted about the Welsh Government’s consultation on the idea of establishing a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction.  They launched this in late March and it’s reputedly a concern close to Carwyn Jones’s heart.  Details are here, the consultation paper itself is available here, and the closing date for responses is 19 June.  The consultation paper is open-ended (or open-minded) in the extreme.  In essence, the paper is a set of exam questions about whether there should be a separate legal jurisdiction for Wales and what form it should take.  Examinees, sorry respondents, are required to ‘give reasons’ for all their answers.

One important point about legal jurisdictions is that, in the common-law world, they invariably coincide with the existence of a legislature.  Thus, in Canada, even a tiny province like Prince Edward Island has its own legal jurisdiction – as well as a provincial legislature.  In federal systems, there will also be a legal jurisdiction attached to the federal order/level; so PEI is both a jurisdiction of its own, in relation to exclusively provincial matters, and part of the jurisdiction of Canada in relation to federal ones.  The civil-law world works differently, and can more easily accommodate multiple legislatures passing laws for particular territories within a single legal jurisdiction.  Thus, there is a single German or Swiss jurisdiction, despite the existence of federal and Land or cantonal parliaments that can both pass laws.

London conference on ‘Scottish politics explained’, 3 July

I’m taking part in a conference organised by Holyrood Magazine conferences, taking place in central London on 3 July 2012.  It’s got an impressive line-up of speakers, including Henry McLeish, Jeremy Purvis and Jim Mather, MPs including Stewart Hosie, Margaret Curran and Danny Alexander, as well as a clutch of academics.  The aim of the event is to survey the current shifting ground of Scottish politics, as the independence referendum comes seriously onto the agenda.  I’m taking part in a panel discussion about economic and financial issues, along with Brian Ashcroft of Strathclyde University, Drew Scott of Edinburgh University, and Jeremy Purvis, the former MSP now involved in Reform Scotland’s Devolution Plus initiative.

Details of the event, including booking arrangements, are here.  It should be a good event, though it’s also rather expensive.

Constitution Unit seminar on a Scottish independence referendum, 12 March

I shall be taking part in a seminar at the Constitution Unit at UCL on a Scottish independence referendum at 1 pm on Monday 12 March, talking about the politics of an independence referendum, along with Professor Robert Hazell.  Details of the event can be found on the Unit’s website here.  Please visit the website to book a (free) place if you’d like to come.

UPDATE, 12 March: My slides from this seminar, and Robert Hazell’s, are now available on the Constitution Unit’s website here.  Mine are also available as a PDF file here.

Scotsman conference on an independence referendum, 8 March

The Scottish independence referendum means there’s a lot of interest in a Scottish independence referendum.  Along with such luminaries as Michael Moore MP, UK Government Scottish Secretary, and Bruce Crawford MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy in the Scottish Government, I shall be taking part in a half-day conference organised by The Scotsman on Thursday 8 March, at their offices in Edinburgh.

Details of this event and booking arrangments can be found here.  This one needs to be paid for, I’m afraid.

IPPR event on public attitudes about Englishness and English devolution

I’ve mentioned previously that IPPR have been leading some very interesting survey work about public attitudes to devolution and self-government in England.  The report based on that work is going to be published toward the end of January, titled ‘The English dog that finally barked: Understanding the new politics of Englishness’.  To mark the launch, there will be an event at IPPR’s offices on Buckingham Street, London WC2, with speakers including Richard Wyn Jones from Cardiff University and Mike Kenny from QMUL.  It will be at 2 pm on Thursday 26 January.

Further details about the seminar are available here, and those interested in attending should contact Guy Lodge at g.lodge@ippr.org to book a place.

UPDATE: I understand that John Denham MP and David Davis MP have also been invited to speak.

FURTHER UPDATE, 23 January: Those looking for the IPPR report on attitudes in England can download it from here.

London event on the 2011 Scottish and Welsh elections

This year’s Scottish and Welsh elections, and the Welsh referendum on primary law-making powers, have made 2011 a watershed year in UK politics.  Fortunately, the ESRC has funded detailed studies of all three polls, and the research teams involved (based at Strathclyde, in the Scottish case, and Cardiff and Aberystwyth in the Welsh) are holding a seminar in London to present their work.  It will take place at the Institute for Government at 2 Carlton Gardens, London SW1Y 5AA, at 6.15 pm on Wednesday 14 December.  Speakers include James Mitchell from Strathclyde and Richard Wyn Jones from Cardiff.

There’s a flyer with more details of the event here.  Please email RumbulRA@cardiff.ac.uk by 9 December if you wish to attend.

UPDATE: Presentations from the 2011 Scottish Election Study can be found here, and from the Welsh Election Study here.