More power for the people of Scotland? Don’t hold your breath

With a £15 billion deficit revealed in the Scottish government’s own figures last week, it may seem a bit odd to argue that the problems public services face are not just about money.

Funding is of course critical but so is accountability.

Does anyone remember subsidiarity? Those of us campaigning for a Scottish Parliament in the 1990s certainly do.

We campaigned for a subsidiarity that would see services organised and governed as close to the people as possible because we feared a sucking up of locally controlled services — no matter which party won power in the first parliament — into a central monolith.

We wanted a real parliament, not a pan-Scotland local authority taking over local functions. We clearly didn’t succeed.