More Scottish devolution creates a constitutional shambles which penalises England There is a risk for the Nationalists here, in that they are getting carried away with excitement as their post-referendum surge in the polls continues. Party membership is heading for 100,000 (a phenomenal achievement in the era of anti-politics) and the Unionist parties are falling over each other to make concessions. However, there may come a point when hard-headed voters (the 5.2m Scots who have not joined the SNP) decide that really they would like the government of the day, run by the SNP in Scotland, to get on and use the extensive powers it already has, rather than banging on about the need for ever more powers. But for all their moaning, the Nationalists should be (and probably are) delighted with what has emerged from the Smith Commission. Income tax will be devolved along with numerous other powers. They should be most pleased because the result - and the way in which it was negotiated - is a potential catastrophe for the Union. And I say that as someone who understands the sincere motives of those advocating more powers. It might even have been possible, with careful consideration, to devise a fully federal, thought-through solution in which the constituent parts of the UK agreed which taxes would be devolved to the four parts of the UK, with justice for England on voting and a needs based funding formula. Perhaps the Lords could have been replaced with a federal chamber, with the Commons sitting as England's chamber? We will never know now, because the chance for a proper look at the UK in a constitutional convention has been lost forever in the unseemly rush to deliver on the daft "vow" given by the Westminster leaders at the instigation of Gordon Brown in the feverish final days of the referendum campaign. Of course, Brown was an architect of the original devolution scheme in the 1990s that he promised would see off the Nats. That pledge did about as well as his promise that the economy had arrived under his stewardship at the "end of boom and bust." The result of all this sustained idiocy - and repeated surrender to the separatists - is that we have the insulting spectacle of a bunch of Scottish politicians sitting in a room in Edinburgh dictating terms, in a rush, to the rest of the UK. Lord Smith says that he has been promised by David Cameron that all of the measures his group proposes will be enacted. With respect, that is not in his gift. The UK parliament will decide after debate and it is not hard to imagine the legitimate concerns that will be raised about these asymmetric and dangerous proposals. MPs sitting for English seats will be more than justified in opposing a deal which allows, incredibly, Scottish MPs to vote on income tax in England after Scotland has had income tax devolved to the Edinburgh parliament. On top of that, it is proposed that the Barnett formula will be retained. This amounts to a cynical stitch-up of the England and the Welsh, who have a right to expect to be treated as partners and good neighbours. Instead, Britain's fastest growing industry - the devolution industry - has created the conditions for yet more division and grievance. I fear with all my heart that it brings closer the day when English voters say to Scotland: close the door behind you on the way out.