THOSE who have long complained the North-East is starved of public spending compared to Scotland should be watching the rise of the Scottish Nationalist Party with relish.

If the polls are to be believed, the Nationalists are poised to become the largest party in the Edinburgh Parliament when the Scots go to the polls next May.

Such a dramatic SNP breakthrough would probably spark a referendum on independence - something supported by 51 per cent of Scots in the most recent survey.

And all this would be taking place as a Scotsman - Chancellor Gordon Brown, of course - prepares to move into Downing Street to run England.

Even if the referendum is lost, it is impossible to believe the 30-year running sore of much higher public spending north of the border can survive such a constitutional crisis.

Under the infamous Barnett Formula, Scotland currently receives £8,265 per head from the Treasury, while the North-East gets just £7,689. Yet income per head north of the border stood at 96.2 per cent of the national average in 2004, while the average North-Easterner had just 79.9 per cent.

Furthermore, if Labour wins in May, it will demand the same powers mooted for Northern Ireland to slash corporation tax in a bid to tempt businesses to Scotland. That would mean English taxpayers subsidising Scottish attempts to persuade companies to move north of the border - while those same Scots are lavished with Whitehall cash.

The English appear to be slowly awakening to the need for change. A poll on Sunday found that 59 per cent supported Scottish independence.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are muttering about a pledge at the next election to prevent Scots MPs voting at Westminster on English legislation. Such a move would prevent any future Labour government passing domestic legislation, because even a small Tory revival will give them a majority of English MPs.

More starkly, the break-up of the United Kingdom would be at stake, just as the 300th anniversary of the 1707 Act of Union is reached.

A further problem for Mr Brown is that he will be surrounded by fellow Scots at his Cabinet table - Alistair Darling, Des Browne, Douglas Alexander and John Reid. If the next prime minister wants to save the Union - and he desperately does - burying Barnett would be a good start.

READERS may remember that David Cameron became Conservative leader promising an end to 'Punch and Judy' politics. Dave, however, appears to have forgotten.

I can't be the only one squirming in embarrassment after the Tories' stunt of handing a scribbled note from Gordon Brown to a handwriting 'expert' for analysis.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne was cock-a-hoop when - on the basis of a few scrawled words - this 'expert' concluded their author was "unreliable" and "shows poor judgement".

I concluded Mr Osborne, faced with a still-booming economy, had reached the bottom of the barrel.

That wheeze came on the back of the Conservative anti-debt campaign, which branded young people who have plunged themselves into the red under Labour as "tossers".

So which organisation was revealed this week to be £35m in debt and planning to sell off its historic headquarters to balance the books? That's right, the Tories!

Who's the tosser now, Dave, young people may well be asking?