HANDING Holyrood full control over taxes and welfare benefits could achieve consensus in Scotland although the move would enjoy little real enthusiasm, a new analysis has found.
A study based on the latest Scottish Social Attitudes Survey concluded that a majority of people could get behind proposals for "devo max". However, it would be supported only as a "second- best" option by most Nationalists while around half of Unionists were opposed to the idea.
The study, from ScotCen Social Research, said: "The idea of more devolution thus looks like an idea around which a consensus might be capable of being constructed rather than a project for which there is a great deal of enthusiasm." The study, by Rachel Ormston and John Curtice, is based on figures last year showing nearly two- thirds of Scots wanted Holyrood to be responsible for welfare and more than half for MSPs to control all taxes.
Handing the parliament full control of domestic affairs – everything but defence and foreign affairs – has been described as "devo max".
The report said it was "not surprising" Labour, the LibDems and Tories had all begun to develop policies for extending Holyrood's powers, given the levels of support.
"What the idea seems to tap into is a wish among many Scots to have at least formal control over most of their own affairs, but without breaking entirely the ties they have with the rest of the UK," the report concluded.
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