TIME is running out for the Scottish and UK governments to reach an agreement on a financial settlement to underpin the Scotland Act. The actions of Westminster throughout the process have been as duplicitous as their colonialists who went to foreign lands saying that they’d come in peace, seeking gold and slaves. In the family tree of Britain, Westminster expects Scotland to be the sap. Now they’re getting upset because Scotland isn’t cooperating in the kicking they want to give us.

The Scottish Government wants a funding formula that fulfils the conditions of the Smith Commission, that there should be no detriment to Scotland or the rest of the UK in the new financial arrangements to underpin the devolution settlement. This was what the UK Government signed up to, and it was one of the core provisions of the watered down Smith Commission that was itself a watered down version of the Vow. There’s more watering down in the proposals of the UK Government than drunk men relieving themselves up closes after a Saturday night out in Glasgow, and the Westminster torrent of micturition continues unabated.

The respected economist Prof Anton Muscatelli of the University of Glasgow, who happens to be a Unionist, says that the system preferred by the Scottish Government is the one most likely to be safest for both Scotland and the UK. The UK Government disagrees. They want a financial settlement that allows Whitehall to screw Scotland over in order to appease the legions of Tory MPs who are convinced that Scotland is funded by English taxpayers. The Tories want a settlement that could result in Scotland losing £3.5 billion in funding on top of the cuts that they’re already imposing. That’s the Union benefit we were promised by the Better Together campaign during the independence referendum.

When the Tory Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands discusses this provision in the Smith Commission, he keeps stressing the word “initially”. This is just another way of saying that while the UK Goverment promises not to penalise Scotland on the Monday, they reserve the right to rob Scotland’s pay packet blind on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and on the weekend they’re going to burgle our house. Greg thinks we don’t realise how Westminster weasel words work.

Earlier this week we had the usual farce that passes for Scottish questions in the House of Commons, although English MPs Scoffing at Scotland would be a more accurate description. Just four out of the many MPs who spoke were Scottish MPs, and one of those was Tweedlemundell and the other Tweedlemurry. Remember when the UK Government made a big deal out of how unfair it was that Scottish MPs might swing the balance on an English issue when England’s representatives were pretty evenly divided? English MPs dominating Scottish issues is the UK Government’s usual means of operation. It’s a feature not a bug, no matter how much it bugs Scotland’s voters.

The SNP moved a motion that would commit the UK Government to the promises it made to the Smith Commission, that there should be no detriment to the Scottish budget as a result of the Scotland Act. The Tories came out of the woodwork of the Commons bars and voted against. Meanwhile Labour employed its usual Tory-resisting tactics and bravely abstained again.

Labour abstains while the Tories slash Scotland’s budget and rip up the Smith Commission, then they tell Scottish voters that we must pay a Better Together tax to make up the shortfall that Labour did nothing to forestall. The cuts to their budgets faced by Scottish local authorities are all the fault of the evil SNP. Labour is the guy who blames the first aider for not being quick enough with the bandages, while ignoring the mad axeman who’s chopping people’s legs off. Actually it’s worse than that. Labour connives with the mad axeman, because they’d far rather blame the SNP than oppose the Tories. Labour and the Tories are playing the same mendacious game.

There’s no profit for Scotland in reaching an agreement with a duplicitous government in Westminster which views the Scotland Act as a means to screw us over. There’s no profit in appeasing a Labour party in opposition that only opposes anything that’s to Scotland’s advantage. One of the greatest lessons from the civil rights campaigns of the 20th century is that the first step to personal liberation is to stop cooperating with your own oppression. If Scotland’s government consents to being robbed, then Scotland can’t complain about it.

Let’s not consent to being robbed. Let’s not consent to being ripped off. Let’s not consent to being lied to. The Scottish government should tell Westminster where they can stick their financial agreement. The Scottish electorate is sophisticated enough to know where the real blame lies.