Committee questioning: Salmond must know that wishful thinking isn’t a strategy for Scotland

Commenting on the Scotland Bill Committee's questioning of recent witnesses, Scottish Conservative Chief Whip and Scotland Bill Committee member, David McLetchie MSP says:

"It is not the extent of your powers that matters but what you do with them. That is simple common sense. The two professors are obviously embarrassed that their research and claims for fiscal autonomy have been misrepresented by Alex Salmond and the SNP. They should direct their anger at the First Minister – not at a Committee of the Parliament charged with the responsibility of both considering the Bill's proposals and the alternative fiscal powers which could be given to the Parliament.

"To suggest that witnesses should determine the line of questioning is ludicrous, particularly when the Professors are the authors of the Report which is the foundation of the SNP case.

"What's extraordinary about this story is not that economists disagree, or that some of them get it wrong. It's how the SNP took one injudicious claim, misquoted it, exaggerated it - and then used it as the basis not just to attack the Scotland Bill but for their whole policy. It tells us it tells us a lot about how desperate they are. Alex Salmond ought to know that wishful thinking isn't a strategy for Scotland."

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