Parcel of Rogues

The Scottish  Labour Party seems to have wandered into something of a political minefield as its leader - Johann Lamont - unveiled support for a new policy that more tax raising powers should be transferred from Westminster to the Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh.

Now many people - myself included - would say that this policy doesn't go far enough and that the Scottish Parliament should assume responsibility for not just income tax - but for all revenue raised within Scotland's borders.

In other words - Devo Max - with Scotland then contributing its fair share of the cost of the country's defence budget which most people would prefer to continue at a UK level - through close cooperation between the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments.

As far as I see things - that's the 'best of both worlds' choice which is being denied to voters in next year's referendum on Scottish independence.

But even the rather timid proposals on income tax raising powers being transferred to Scotland - seems to have upset a die-hard element in the Scottish Labour Party who are worried that this will lead to a cut in the number of MPs that Scotland currently sends to Westminster.

Which is an odd way to behave because as more powers are transferred to the Scottish Parliament - of course the number  of MPs should be significantly reduced - otherwise public money is being poured down the drain in an expensive job creation exercise for the benefit of Westminster MPs.

It's a bit like the situation in some of Scotland's councils - Glasgow City Council being an especially good example - where the council has hived off many of its services and jobs to arms length external organisations (ALEOS) - yet the council chief executive and senior officials retain their big salaries which are based on ALEO budgets and their workforces remaining in-house.

Now Glasgow's chief executive - George Black - is a fine and long serving public servant, but even he would be hard pushed to justify his salary remaining at @ £164,000 a year (not including his pension) - especially when the council has divested itself of responsibility for housing, for example, to the GHA (Glasgow Housing Association) - and transferred its culture and leisure services  to another ALEO in the shape of Glasgow Life.

The council loses direct responsibility for thousands of employees and the services they deliver - yet those at the top retain their top people's salaries as if nothing has changed.

Yet this - incredibly - is what Labour MPs at Westminster are demanding or else they are going to cause trouble - which sounds more like blackmail to me rather than a serious political argument.

But then again Westminster MPs have no shame when it comes to getting their noses deep into the public spending trough - as the MPs' expenses scandal demonstrated - and without the determination of freedom of information campaigners the behaviour of MPs would be continuing to this day.

To my mind, they are a parcel of rogues - an unprincipled band of jobsworths who would not be out of place in a Charles Dickens circumlocution office.