Cameron's Conservatives to give Scotland control of economic but not foreign policy?

The Scottish Cabinet are (l to r): Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister Alex Salmond, Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & the Environment Richard Lochhead. Source http://flickr.com/photos/26320652@N02/2497250208

Peter Osborne, in the Daily Mail, 25 July 2008, (Could Mr Brown be the last Prime Minister of Great Britain?) claims that:

"Allies of Cameron have entered into informal talks with the SNP over recent months...

"An incoming Tory administration would need to meet Alex Salmond's demands that the Scottish Parliament should have massive new powers over taxation and public spending.

"In domestic terms, a Scottish administration would be entirely self-governing and have complete command over economic policy.

"And yet the union could be maintained through the retention of shared armed forces, and foreign policy, and the monarchy.

"These talks are complex. Alex Salmond is demanding control over business taxation, for example.

"Yet such a concession would be desperately unpopular south of the border, because it would allow Scotland to attract British firms by offering lower taxation.

"Salmond also wants to get rid of the Trident independent nuclear deterrent, which is based in Scotland - unthinkable for the Tories, who pride themselves as the party of defence."

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