Monday, April 23, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Shropshire Star: Scotland benefits while we pay out
Scotland benefits while we pay out
On April 1st the cost of prescriptions in England went up to £6.85 per
item. On the same day in Wales the charges were abolished.
In Scotland 92% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge and MSPs only
narrowly rejected a bill to abolish them completely in 2005. It is only a
matter of time before they are abolished north of the border.
In Scotland pensioners are entitled to free public transport throughout the
country at all times and Northern Irish pensioners have just been given the
right to travel on public transport throughout Ulster and the Republic of
Ireland free of charge at any time.
In Scotland the elderly are entitled to free personal care in the care home
of their choice without having to go through means testing or selling their
homes.
In Scotland cancer sufferers get the newest and most expensive
treatments. The same applies to those suffering from dementia.
In England the same drugs are refused because the cost of the treatment is
more than the value the English NHS puts on a life.
In England we will shortly be required to pay to have a satellite spy box
fitted to our cars and pay per mile to drive on our roads. The same law
won’t apply to Scotland and Wales so they will be able to drive in England was
well as in their own countries without paying the road pricing tax.
The transport minister was elected in Scotland yet his department doesn’t
have a say in what happens to transport in Scotland.
Taking into account the above and the many other services our neighbours
receive it would be understandable for an Englishman to feel left out but there
is no need because we get something that our neighbours don’t - the
bill.
Stuart Parr
Telford
Monday, April 09, 2007
The Lord Kingsland replies
Dear Mr Higginbottom
'Thank you very much indeed for your letter of 25th March 2007 raising, essentially, the West Lothian question.
Although no final decisions have been made in the Conservative Party about our approach to the inequities that are inherent in the existence of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures, I am reasonably confident that the solution the Party will adopt is likely to be in the form of an English Legislative Committee within the UK Parliament at Westminster. This Committee would take decisions for England on those matters that are devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and would comprise Members solely from English constituencies.
With best wishes.
'Thank you very much indeed for your letter of 25th March 2007 raising, essentially, the West Lothian question.
Although no final decisions have been made in the Conservative Party about our approach to the inequities that are inherent in the existence of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures, I am reasonably confident that the solution the Party will adopt is likely to be in the form of an English Legislative Committee within the UK Parliament at Westminster. This Committee would take decisions for England on those matters that are devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and would comprise Members solely from English constituencies.
With best wishes.
Mark Pritchard MP replies
ROAD PRICING AND DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Thank you for both your letters.
As you are probably aware, I was a sponsor of an Early Day Motion on road pricing and that EDM makes my position clear.
On funding for English counties and local authorities, I agree that the current Government has manipulated the Barnett Formula to strengthen its own heartlands, not only in Scotland and Wales, but also in some parts of the north of England. I agree there needs to be a review of how the funding formula is agreed.
As you are also probably aware, the Conservative Party is likely to publish in its manifesto that English law should be voted on by English MPs, perhaps by having a special English sitting day within the existing Westminster Parliament. Clearly the details of any such policy will be announced prior to the next election. I think this would deal with many of the democratic deficit points that you quite rightly raise.
Yours sincerely,
As you are probably aware, I was a sponsor of an Early Day Motion on road pricing and that EDM makes my position clear.
On funding for English counties and local authorities, I agree that the current Government has manipulated the Barnett Formula to strengthen its own heartlands, not only in Scotland and Wales, but also in some parts of the north of England. I agree there needs to be a review of how the funding formula is agreed.
As you are also probably aware, the Conservative Party is likely to publish in its manifesto that English law should be voted on by English MPs, perhaps by having a special English sitting day within the existing Westminster Parliament. Clearly the details of any such policy will be announced prior to the next election. I think this would deal with many of the democratic deficit points that you quite rightly raise.
Yours sincerely,
Owen Paterson MP replies
29th March 2007
Thank you for your letters of 20th March. I have made my position on these issues clear. As you know, there is a parliamentary convention which prevents me from taking on the case of another MP's constituent. You need to make your representations through Daniel Kawczynski.
Thank you for your letters of 20th March. I have made my position on these issues clear. As you know, there is a parliamentary convention which prevents me from taking on the case of another MP's constituent. You need to make your representations through Daniel Kawczynski.
Daniel Kawcznski MP replies
Dear Edward,
Thank you for writing again on the matter of an English Parliament, and for your kind words towards my family, we are indeed settling in very well to life here in Shrewsbury. / Shawbury
As for the points you raise there are many discrepancies in taxation, for example if looking at the amounts taxed and spent London gets the worse deal in the UK having almost £1 billion less spent there than it gives in tax. The Barnett formula although unfair on paper was established to account for the extra costs of the diverse and rural populations of Scotland and Wales, but also at the time there relative poverty. This does now need to be looked at again.
However it is not related to tax at all but to spending. The additional costs on prescriptions in England, despite being grossly unfair does not naturally equate to more money for Wales but rather fill the black hole created by Gordon Brown and Patricia Hewitt in the English NHS.
As to the idea of an English Parliament, I cannot support the idea of this being totally separate; the extravagant costs involved make the idea prohibitive, as should have been the Scottish Parliament. If the devolved matters to Scotland and Wales where to be debated in an English Parliament this would, or I believe should, be the same as the English members of the UK Parliament. First because it saves on the expense of further, unwanted elections, and secondly would stop another two hundred or more politicians in London, or elsewhere at the tax payer's expense. This is a similar argument as used against an elected second chamber. Furthermore it would probably be established under proportional representation which due to its nature and the nature of English politics would permanently favour a Liberal Labour alliance.
Aspects of Government would be I agree more complicated. Theoretically devolved departments such as Health, Education and Transport would have to be appointed by the Premier of the English Chamber, as opposed to the Prime Minister who would be for the UK as a whole. This I believe would be a compromise between a totally new Chamber and proper equal devolved government.
Thank you once again for continuing this debate with me.
Thank you for writing again on the matter of an English Parliament, and for your kind words towards my family, we are indeed settling in very well to life here in Shrewsbury. / Shawbury
As for the points you raise there are many discrepancies in taxation, for example if looking at the amounts taxed and spent London gets the worse deal in the UK having almost £1 billion less spent there than it gives in tax. The Barnett formula although unfair on paper was established to account for the extra costs of the diverse and rural populations of Scotland and Wales, but also at the time there relative poverty. This does now need to be looked at again.
However it is not related to tax at all but to spending. The additional costs on prescriptions in England, despite being grossly unfair does not naturally equate to more money for Wales but rather fill the black hole created by Gordon Brown and Patricia Hewitt in the English NHS.
As to the idea of an English Parliament, I cannot support the idea of this being totally separate; the extravagant costs involved make the idea prohibitive, as should have been the Scottish Parliament. If the devolved matters to Scotland and Wales where to be debated in an English Parliament this would, or I believe should, be the same as the English members of the UK Parliament. First because it saves on the expense of further, unwanted elections, and secondly would stop another two hundred or more politicians in London, or elsewhere at the tax payer's expense. This is a similar argument as used against an elected second chamber. Furthermore it would probably be established under proportional representation which due to its nature and the nature of English politics would permanently favour a Liberal Labour alliance.
Aspects of Government would be I agree more complicated. Theoretically devolved departments such as Health, Education and Transport would have to be appointed by the Premier of the English Chamber, as opposed to the Prime Minister who would be for the UK as a whole. This I believe would be a compromise between a totally new Chamber and proper equal devolved government.
Thank you once again for continuing this debate with me.
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