Catch-22 for Scottish Lib Dems

John Curtice, writing in the Scotsman, sheds some light on Charles Kennedy's panicky hypocrisy:

The Scottish Lib Dems claim credit for having ensured in the early years of devolution that up-front tuition fees were abolished in Scotland. More recently they provided the SNP with the votes needed to axe the graduate endowment.

But universities in England were amongst the big losers yesterday. The coalition made it clear that as and when students in England start to pay higher fees, so the grant from Whitehall to universities will be cut, more or less pound for pound. Thanks to the Barnett formula that cut will be reflected in the money Holyrood receives too.

This leaves Scottish Lib Dems with a tough choice. Do they announce that, in tandem with their colleagues down south, they have abandoned their commitment to one of the icons of devolution, free university tuition? Or do they argue that Scotland should find the now even greater sum required to sustain free tuition by taking an even bigger hit than England somewhere else in the extremely tight Holyrood budget? Neither choice seems likely to be politically palatable.

The more politically palatable alternative would be for the Scottish Lib Dems to stick to their principles and argue for the system of fiscal federalism outlined in the Steel Commission. The impact of English budget cuts on the Scottish university sector should provide the Scottish Lib Dems with a great example with which to advance the arguments in favour of fiscal federalism, but do they have the balls to do so?