Have you ever seen two dogs battle it out over a stick so intently that they fail to spot the much more interesting rabbit which sits quietly not far from them?

This is what is happening in Scotland in terms of the debate about whether Scotland pays its way within the UK, or is subsidised or pays more than its share. The debate up to now has been almost entirely framed within the context of the question of whether Scotland withdraws from the Union. My sense is that so far it is a score draw. Scotland pays a bit more tax per head than the UK average and public spending in Scotland is a bit higher than the UK average. Frankly there isn’t much in it. What is beyond question is that the large decline in the price of oil would have forced an independent Scotland to make some seriously unpleasant decisions in terms of spending.

The debate needs to move on and, critically, needs to recognise the fact that Scotland is part of the UK and ask whether we get a fair deal. The answer is that we do not. We are not alone in this, Wales, the West and North of England have the same problem.

The key - and largely ignored - issue is not public spending relative to tax raised but the cost of central Government and where this is spent.

The easiest way to illustrate this is to concentrate on the UK parliament. This costs around £500 million but think of the effects of that expenditure. Every other country has to have its embassy in London. Think of the security costs to protect diplomats, the chauffeurs, the restaurant meals, the plane tickets, the legal services, the hotel stays, the spending in shops - all this takes place in London because the UK has its parliament there. The ripples spread wider, lobbyists need to be near the politicians as do the large companies (or so they think) and investment institutions and on and on and on. What is the total impact? Honest answer - I don’t know (could some academic at Strathclyde University please calculate?) but huge - more or less than £10 billion? - much more I would suspect.

Parliament is only one example albeit probably the biggest. The fact is that although London is a great asset for the UK, the way we run our country in an administrative sense, means that we are hugely centralised - much more so than Germany for example. The economic effect is that the regions and nations including Scotland far away from London are in fact subsidising it - not the other way around.

What Scotland’s politicians of all stripes need to do is come together to pressurise the UK Government to spread the love around - the default position should be that Government in its widest sense takes place away from London.

Let’s start with something practical. The fabric of the Palace of Westminster is rotten and will apparently take over £5 billion (more spending for London!) over decades to fix. The House of Lords is rotten too. Yes, there are some great people in it but there is some serious low-life - second-rate authors, fire-raisers, political cronies, expense fiddlers and, the final straw, Baroness Mone of Mayfair. Embarrassing? Excruciating. The House of Lords needs to be replaced with something better - and to be located in Glasgow. The vested interests would scream and wail but there is no reason why it can’t be done. Let’s all work together to get some value out of the Union.

Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community.