Tory MPs want to cut Scottish subsidy

Here's a question - Which is the most fractured party in the UK right now?

The Lib Dems? A couple of stooshies over a mansion tax and whether to be liberal and democratic enough to hold an independence referendum does not alter the fact that it's a fairly cosy club.

The SNP? One defecting (possibly even defective) councillor who was due to face disciplinary charges does not take away from the very tight ship that the SNP enjoys sailing at the moment.

The Greens? Not likely. The energy and team spirit at its base could power a large town.

Labour? You know, even with constant media-fuelled chatter of leadership battles you've got to think if it's fallen to Geoff Hoon to rabble and rouse then there is a danger of pre-election harmony breaking out across the party. Regrettably.

So that leaves the Tories.

David Cameron may well have smothered his party with attractive frosty icing but most people know that the party's leader is merely hiding chunks, cracks and undercooked elements buried not so deep within and spread across the whole spectrum of the party. Deep divides will no doubt spill out after the election, regardless of whether the members manage to hold together long enough to stagger over the finish line. How the cake crumbles on the EU, on schools, on Scotland, on breaking up banks and on the NHS will be interesting to behold.

And we have a clue today how one area might go as a majority of the Tory party's MPs is advocating Scotland has its share of public spending decreased as concluded in a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). This will clearly play into the SNP's hands while they are the Scottish Government and if there are only a handful of Tory MPs north of the border.

Now, let me just say that the debate over who is cutting the money the most has been desperately disappointing. The UK Government not having enough money to spend because of the 'global' recession, the Scottish Government not having enough money to spend because of the UK Government, councils not having enough money to spend because of the Scottish Government, schools not having enough money to spend because of councils etc etc. If we could all have agreed that we're all skint on day 1 then we might have saved ourselves a lot of time.

However, that said, the call from Tory MPs to Cameron to cut Scotland's spending is a total blunder, even if Scotland gets paid too much. I daresay there is an element in the Tory party who understand the trickly political terrain north of the border and I daresay they let out a long sigh when they read the Telegraph story.

While recovering from a recession and with unemployment still high, it's probably not the best idea to have the deepest cuts in a more socialist part of the country that, in the main, didn't vote for you.

The Tories should bite the bullet and campaign on full fiscal autonomy for Scotland. Such a policy surely sits at the core of conservative values; that is, no spending without responsibility for raising that money and it would surely bind the party together and save Cameron at least some effort in smoothing over the cracks with his PR skills.