The Tories are like a stuck record for those from a bygone era.

The press is reporting today that the Tories are again considering more tax powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Have we heard this before?  Of course we have.  Does anything ever serious come of it?  No.

Let’s put this in context.   There are approximately 25 taxes, duties and charges.  The Scottish Parliament presently only has control of two of them.  See my earlier blog on this which can be found here.  The 2012 Scotland Act does not take us much further.  The Liberal Democrat ‘Home Rule’ report goes nowhere near as far as the ‘Steel Commission’ or ‘Devo Plus’.

The Tories were against even minor tax powers being included in the original devolution settlement.  Many prominent Scottish Tories struggled to accept the Calman proposal of 4 miscellaneous taxes and partial control over income tax.  Partial control means no real control at all.

The UK coalition Government watered down the extremely timid Calman proposals in the 2012 Scotland Act.  Only two miscellaneous taxes were included and some control over income tax was removed.   I like to call this “Calman minus”.

How likely is it that the Tories will go as far as say ‘Devo Plus’ which devolves almost tax powers except for VAT and National Insurance, and devolves the majority of welfare powers?   I think that is a rhetorical question.

More on this from the BBC news website can be found here.