Every individual sat round the Smith Commission negotiating table was forced to make compromises during the negotiation process.
But just how close did each of the five political parties get to what they wanted? The reaction from the SNP and Greens betrays anger at not having achieved as much as they initially thought possible.
And yet, on tax at least, it was Labour which was dragged kicking and screaming away from their plans when it came to handing over the full powers of income tax rates. Ironically, that was a Conservative idea.
Labour had initially proposed three-quarters of basic rate income tax being under the control of the Scottish Parliament, with the only real varying power being to raise higher rates.
The idea of percentage of revenue from VAT come north is the Greens, although they also favoured such an approach to corporation tax, which was rejected.
The SNP wanted all tax revenues to be retained in Scotland including income tax, national insurance, corporation tax, capital gains tax, fuel duty, air passenger duty and inheritance tax.
This was partially successful, with APD and income tax wins, but there were more disappointments than reasons for elation.
One big point of agreement was the continuation of the Barnett Formula. The way Scotland’s block grant is calculated won’t be changing.
It was welfare which caused the most controversy yesterday. Sources close to the talks suggest pro-independence politicians were the first to throw pensions off the table, a view point not rejected by the Scottish Government.
Indeed, Holyrood ministers said that was just a sensible negotiation tactic. “Why fight over something you know you have no chance with rather than aim at the areas you think you can win,” was the observation of one.
Again, it was mainly a case of the SNP scaling down and Labour vastly exceeding their narrow proposals to meet somewhere in the middle.
Attendance Allowance, Carer’s Allowance, Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Industrial Injuries Disablement Allowance and Severe Disablement Allowance will all be moved north, while the power to create new benefits is also included.
The latter was apparently a Labour proposal, almost knocked off the table by the Tories but rescued as the other four parties including the Liberal Democrats who themselves revised up their welfare ideas insisted it was worthwhile.
That’s quite an achievement in many senses, given two of the three unionist parties went in with limited proposals for what could be passed to Holyrood.
Nonetheless, it is another area where the SNP feel they have been squeezed out, much like economic policies.
John Swinney and Linda Fabiani went into the talks calling for powers over employment policy, the minimum wage and employment programmes.
The Scottish Parliament will have all powers over support for unemployed people through the programmes such as the Work Programme and Work Choice. This is far from what they wanted.
Meanwhile, Labour lost out on actually wanting to devolve something with no new Scottish Health and Safety Executive being created.
Every team can claim some victories, though. The SNP secured control over all transport policy not currently devolved, including rail, and the Crown Estate will be under Holyrood’s control.
Labour will also try to claim credit for plans to allow the rail franchise to be run on a not-for-profit basis.
The Greens’ call for “a degree of flexibility” in immigration and asylum rules looks like it was taken on board, whilst the Conservatives’ proposals were certainly “a floor rather a ceiling” and the Liberal Democrats are happily claiming their ambitions of “home rule” have been met.