William Frame, a 44-year-old benefactor of the Conservative party and prominent Edinburgh property developer, called for a full debate on fiscal autonomy for Scotland and claimed the present system was a failure.The Scottish parliament must be responsible for collecting as well as spending money. This policy is being promoted by the nationalists but I would like to see it adopted by the Scottish Conservatives. They have their spring conference in Glasgow on Friday - a good opportunity to embrace a policy that would force politicians to be less spendthrift.He described Scotland's economic performance as "pathetic" and said: "We have a system where all we are doing is waiting for out bit of cake from Westminster. They give us money and we decide how to spend it. There must be a better way for Scotland spending what we get
A libertarian returns to Scotland
"Freedom and Whisky gang thegither"
- Robert Burns
Tuesday 4 March 2003
More on "fiscal freedom"
The debate on the tax-powers of the Scottish parliament continues: