IN a matter of days, Lord Smith of Kelvin will publish his recommendations on further devolved powers for the Scottish Parliament and, whatever happens, he deserves credit for the job he has done so far.
He has led the talks between the parties with skill and discretion, making clear from the start he did not want an important process played out in the rancourous glare of publicity. He wants the proposals to be judged on their merits once the talking between the parties is done.
The SNP has been represented in the process by Finance Secretary John Swinney and Linda Fabiani MSP who have insisted they are taking part with open minds. However, elsewhere some nationalists have poured scorn on the Smith Commission and at the party conference in Perth, the sentiment was widespread, with MSP Christine Grahame telling a fringe meeting the commission "will not do anything for us".
In response, Anas Sarwar, the interim leader of Scottish Labour, yesterday accused the SNP of betraying the Smith Commission and of deliberately setting it up for a fall. Mr Sarwar also insisted the commission would deliver extensive new powers to the Scottish Parliament as was promised during the campaign.
Mr Sarwar's frustration is perhaps understandable. Not a whisper has emerged over where Lord Smith may be heading with his conclusions, and yet Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, has appeared to pre-empt the peer's conclusions by claiming Scots will be betrayed by them.
The SNP narrative has been that the famous vow made by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband in the final days of the campaign won the referendum for the No side and that the vow will be broken.
In taking this stance, the suspicion must be the SNP are deliberately misrepresenting the vow by the three leaders as a vow to deliver a federal Scotland, even though the wording shows it was no such thing.
The promise was to deliver extensive powers for Scotland but it was always to be firmly within the framework of the UK. Gordon Brown may have appeared to go further in the final days before the referendum, but even he did not promise federalism.
The SNP have to be open and fair about this, but Labour too have to be careful not to be seen to be at the other extreme in being over-cautious. Labour proposes Holyrood raise only 40 per cent of its budget and have control over 15p of the basic 20p rate of income tax, but this is much too timid and risks being seen as failing to live up to the promise of extensive powers.
Income tax should be fully devolved and Holyrood should be responsible for raising most of the money it spends. Anything short of that would allow the Scottish Government to continue blaming Westminster for all its budgetary constraints.
But for Labour, it risks something worse, which is the perception it has broken promises made before the referendum. On ascending to the leadership of her party last week, Nicola Sturgeon said broken promises on devolution would bring independence closer. Labour must surely know the truth of that.
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