Quote of the day

Alan Cochrane's response to Professor David Bell's new study on the Barnett Formula:

The Shadow Scottish Secretary’s declaration that a Tory government would continue to devote "significant resources" to Scotland will have to be backed up strongly by similar statements from Mr Cameron and by Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

That said, we’re all living in cloud cuckoo land if we think that public spending levels can continue at the extravagant levels we’ve grown used to – no matter who’s in charge of raising it.

Mind you, would Barnett have been under such intense pressure if devolution hadn’t come along and the politicians it produced hadn’t insisted on throwing money about like drunken sailors? Somehow I doubt it.