Stephen, I note you ask your question again, so I guess my strongest reply is to answer it and return the tennis ball? Local government's capacity has been hollowed out by Holyrood and the SNP in particular which has seen it as an easy method of cost-savings to fund irresponsible 'free' pledges (see all my articles and, no doubt yours, on Scot Fiscal Com on this point since 2011). The Accounts Commission found councils absorbed a 4.2% real-terms cut since 2013/14 (excluding Covid money), a deeper cut than the rest of the Scottish Government budget. An ever larger share of what remained was ring-fenced to Edinburgh's priorities. Councils have had no multi-year settlements and no revenue autonomy, and they administer ministerial agendas with a local logo attached. That is not evidence against devolving power. It is evidence of what centralisation does to the tier beneath it. You cannot starve an institution and then cite its malnutrition as proof it should not be fed. Apply your test consistently. Holyrood has a unicameral chamber and a civil service that left no documentary trail on the Ferguson Marine guarantee. It went fifteen years without a single ministerial direction. Whitehall gave us HS2. Are calibre, scrutiny and accountability "meaningfully better" there? If not, your criteria count against your conclusion as much as against mine. The accountability deficit is structural. Holyrood spends money it does not raise. Councils answer for services they neither fund nor control. Restore the fiscal link, with genuine revenue powers and transparent settlements in place of ring-fencing, and voters can finally attach consequences to decisions. Responsibility builds calibre. Proximity to Whitehall does not. Nor is this "32 little Holyroods." Subsidiarity means decisions are taken at the most local level capable of effective delivery. Some functions go to regions, some to councils, and some stay national. Germany and Switzerland work this way, and neither concludes that weak municipalities justify a stronger capital. Badenoch has identified the right failure and prescribed the wrong cure. Recentralisation does not defeat nationalism. It hands the SNP the grievance it has lacked since 2014. Maybe read my book, I do address your content, albeit finding a different solution. amazon.sg/Scotland-Undone-Na…