Formula Milking

At today's PMQs, the redoubtable Ronnie Campbell (look out for whichever ghastly latte-swilling lobotomy case is parachuted in to replace him) asked why the Barnett Formula could not be extended to the English regions. Of course, he received no sort of answer from Brown.

But the Barnett Formula should not be extended. It should be abolished. The devolved body in Scotland has revenue-raising power of its own, which it has never felt any need to use no matter how lavish its spending: free university tuition, free prescriptions, free personal care for the elderly, and so forth.

And in any case, there should be precisely one criterion for spending: need. Need among Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions. And just as importantly, need within them.

Spending money in Scotland or the North East, say, does not automatically constitute helping on the poor, and might very well constitute helping the well-to-do, as it often does. Likewise, I have honestly never seen poverty elsewhere in this country any worse than that in London or on the South Coast (although I have seen it just as bad in the North East, by God I have - so much for 10 years of a County Durham MP as Prime Minister).

Ronnie Campbell has spending money in his Blyth Valley constituency in mind. And why not? But how much of it would actually end up there, and how much in the pockets of the residents of, say, Corbridge, or the poshest Newcastle wards? Just as Barnett Formula money currently ends up in the pockets of the residents of, say, Eastwood, or Edinburgh Pentlands. I say again, the Barnett Formula should simply be abolished. Nothing should matter except need.