We see that “giving you chores to do and calling it a present” is back:

Sigh.

As we’ve been pointing out ever since it was first mooted, the “assignation” of VAT receipts to the Scottish Government is neither a power nor a gift, but a trap. Holyrood will not have the ability to alter VAT in any way, and nor will it be given “control” of any new money. The cash in question is currently part of Holyrood’s block grant, and calling it an “assignation of VAT receipts” is nothing more than giving old money a new name and sneakily cutting Scotland’s budget by the back door.

And by non-trivial amounts:

Everyone’s always known it was a terrible and unworkable idea dreamed up in order to make it LOOK as though Scotland was being given new powers without actually doing it, and now that the only sensible and responsible course of action possible has been taken, the media and opposition can leap on it as a failure of the Scottish Government and proof that independence couldn’t work.

VAT, of course, is fundamentally a function of the economy, and Holyrood doesn’t control the Scottish economy, so it was always a con even in principle. But the main reason the plan is so complex and unworkable is precisely BECAUSE it’s being attempted under devolution rather than independence.

As with delayed welfare administration, the problems arise because the new proposals have to be half-integrated with the UK system, which is obviously far more complicated and difficult than simply having arrangements that only have to worry about Scotland.

In an independent country, companies would have to make Scotland-specific VAT declarations and all the figures would be known. Benefits wouldn’t be all tangled up in a mess of conflicting responsibilities where one government is spending its time and money trying to undo the impact of decisions of another government, as with the bedroom tax. Devolving only PARTS of things is the least efficient and most wasteful approach conceivable.

It’s a bit like, say, trying to leave the EU but while still retaining all the access and privileges of membership. And we all know how that’s working out.