Ian Murray finally concedes Scotland is hamstrung by Westminster

Well, it was a long time coming. Finally, a Labour MP has admitted that Westminster controls Scotland's purse strings and that that can be a bad thing.

Of course, it was all wrapped up in a rant about how bad SNP's ideology was for Scotland, particularly Full Fiscal Autonomy.

But Ian Murry did make one concession:

The Tories cut Holyrood's budget by over £100m last week. 

(Note that a revision of figures has seen the proposed cut of £176.8m drop to £107m.) 

Hopefully with this admission, Labour will stop ranting that Holyrood should stop blaming Westminster for its problems. When Westminster cuts Scotland's budget and thus makes delivering services in their current state impossible, forcing centralisation and unwanted cuts to key services like college places to reduce costs, it is entirely right for the SNP to point the finger of blame at Westminster.

Perhaps Labour will now be more honest about the extent to which Scotland is controlled by Westminster. Even devolved issues ultimately are controlled by Westminster because Westminster controls the budget Scotland has to spend on these.

I imagine Labour will quickly change their tune when they realise they've allowed honesty into their rhetoric...

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