MP tells of Welsh woe

This article appeared in the Shropshire Star the other day ...

MP tells of Welsh woe

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski has professed that he loves Wales, but he had plenty of complaints about the principality during a debate in the House of Commons.

The Shrewsbury & Atcham MP questioned Wales’s role in health services in Shropshire, flooding, tuberculosis in cattle, and “unfair and uncompetitive” grants to businesses given by the Welsh Assembly.

“The Welsh Assembly creates huge difficulties for English border towns,” he told MPs.

Mr Kawczynski said the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital was losing £2 million a year as a result of the way the assembly paid for treatment across the border.

“We have patients coming from Wales to the hospital who get life-saving medication to which my constituents in Shrewsbury are not entitled,” he told the Commons.

“I have to fight tooth and nail to secure life-saving treatments for my constituents that people from Wales get automatically in our hospital.

“That causes huge frustration and anger and divides our two communities.”

The Conservative MP said 40,000 cows had to be killed in England last year as a result of bovine TB.

“It is such a shame that there is not more co-operation between our parliament here in London and the Welsh Assembly over the issue, which transcends our borders,” he said.

“There should be far more co-operation in dealing with such major issues.”

Mr Kawczynski said flooding caused “tremendous misery” along the length of the River Severn with Shrewsbury flooding repeatedly.

“The way to resolve the problem is not to have little barriers in each town, but to have a wet washland scheme across the border in Wales,” he said.

“This would flood a large piece of agricultural land, which would become a marsh in the summer, encouraging wildlife, and a lake in winter.”

The Conservative MP said it was unacceptable that a Government minister had intervened to block the idea.

By London Editor John Hipwood

The Shropshire branch of the CEP has been plugging away at all five of the county's MPs, including Daniel. He is nominally supportive of some form of better representation for England and, having sat on a devolution committee, is quite aware of the discrimination England faces.

Co-incidently, I received an email from the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which covers the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury and the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt in Oswestry. Prompted by an announcement by the Welsh Government that Welsh patients would be entitled to a new kidney cancer wonder-drug free of charge on the NHS, I had asked them ...

Will Welsh patients treated in the RSH also get these drugs paid for by the Welsh Assembly? Will it be possible for an English and Welsh patient being treated at the RSH for the same thing and for the English patient to be refused the drugs that the Welsh patient will be getting?

The reply was long-winded but, in a nutshell, the answer was "yes". The question is, what does Daniel propose to do about it? The Tory policy of English Pauses for English Clauses won't resolve the issue, only an English Parliament will by putting English health priorities in the hands of politicians elected to represent English interests.

Click the icon below to view a copy of the letter from the NHS Trust.