There Is No West Lothian Question

If the Parliament of the United Kingdom were to enact legislation applicable in Scotland or Wales, then that legislation would prevail over any enactment of the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly.

There is simply no doubt at all about this, and anyone who doesn't like it should have voted No to devolution. I bet they didn't. At present, the Parliament of the United Kingdom merely chooses not to enact such legislation, although almost all Scottish and Welsh Labour MPs, and probably also several Lib Dems from Scotland and Wales, would have fought devolution every step of the parliamentary road if they had not assumed or been assured that such enactment would be routine, while Wales, in particular, would have voted No in the referendum. Therefore, the Parliament of the United Kingdom should so enact, not least to make the point.

That point, however, is strictly secondary. The thing that really matters is the money. As an addition to a recent post, free school milk was certainly dispensed in Scotland well into the Eighties, and may still be even today. So much for Scotland as a singular victim of Thatcherism, permanently entitled to compensation monetarily equal to public spending somewhere where there are ten times as many people.