Letters in the Independent

Two letters in the Independent, one about Herceptin being given free to Welsh women in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital but English women being charged £47k and the other asking a very good question about whether chargin English students at Welsh universities more than other EU citizens is actually lawful.

Blame the Scots and Welsh MPs

Sir: Your report (10 April) on the inconsistency of Shrewsbury Royal Hospital depriving patients resident in England of the latest anti-cancer drugs which are available to those resident in Wales shows up another unintended consequence of ill-thought through government legislation.

Similar inconsistencies are developing between England and the other nations of the UK in areas such as social care for the elderly, financing of students in higher education, and state subsidy of public transport.

It makes no odds to anyone working in Shrewsbury whether they commute from Telford or from Welshpool, but if you have children approaching tertiary education, parents likely to need a place in a care home, or a partner suffering the early stages of breast cancer, you would be foolish indeed not to make your residence in Wales.

The result is that house prices and rents rise in Wales relative to neighbouring parts of England, poorer people are forced out of the areas with the better social spending arrangements, and those the measures were mainly intended to support most lose out most.

It is not as if the English can do anything about this at the ballot box: most of the decisions resulting in these anomalies are made by Scottish ministers backed up by Scottish and Welsh MPs whose constituents are not affected by these measures.

DAVID BURTON.

TELFORD, SHROPSHIRE.
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Penalising the English

Sir: Q: When can you be English and not part of the EU? A: If you're an English student and applying to a Welsh university. The Welsh Assembly has reduced the fees payable to Welsh universities for all Welsh students from the standard £3,000 to £1,200. The remaining £1,800 will be paid by British taxpayers. This restricts freedom of movement of Welsh students for financial reasons, and forces others to pay more. That includes those who want veterinary studies because there is no course in Wales. And students from Scotland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the EU, but not England, will also only pay £1,200. Is this legal under the European Convention of Human Rights?

VERITY KALCEV

LINDFIELD, WEST SUSSEX
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