Letter: Why can’t the English stop paying for everyone else?
Wednesday 23rd March 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: Recently the news said that Scotland is not going to charge university fees. We in Shropshire have to provide hospital cover for parts of Wales while they enjoy free prescriptions.
We in England will have to pay university fees – soon to be increased – and, for most, prescription items have to be paid for.
We in Shropshire are suffering difficulties with our hospital cover, with people from Wales worried about getting to Telford for certain cover. Why don’t the Welsh pay for their prescription charges and further develop their own hospitals, taking some of the pressure off ours?
The Welsh and Scots – even those in Northern Ireland – have their own MPs to speak for them alone, yet we, in England, have to submit to what their Westminster MPs decide for us.
We in England have no English MPs to speak for us in our own English Parliament, hence we are overburdened while our fellow British people enjoy freedoms we have no hope of, especially as the economic screw is further applied.
Let England speak for England.
BA Flowers
Newport
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It’s completely wrong, but an inevitable consequence of Tony Blair’s ill-thought out policies on devolution.
We should be one nation or none at all
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Have you ever thought what happened to north sea gas revenue the coal mines in scotland and wales there are no good jobs in the uk anymore why did the liberals say no to tuition fees yet voted for them it’s easy to offer the world when you know you have no chance of power,why are we wasting 100 million plus on the av vote on may 5th well thats the liberals price for the sham condem government.
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It is disgraceful that the English universities are being promoted and sold to those who can afford further education or those who are prepared to risk the burden of huge debt. This burden not being equally applicable to Ireland, Scotland or Wales.
What did we do to deserve this?
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Someone voted Labour in 1997.
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We voted for LIBLABCON our fault.
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Until England has a voice, meaning her own Parliament this gross unfairness will go on.
Who in the UK Parliament speaks for England?
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Inequality brought this on. Scotland Wales and to an extent Northern Ireland were treated as second class citizens. The majority of people in Scotland, Wales etc didn’t want independence just fair treatment. Now we have a Scottish parliamnet and Welsh assembly. Their MP’s have to justify their existance thats why you have Free univeersity education etc in Scotland. I’m sure the Scottish taxpayer will have to pay for this somehow. Nothing is freein this world!
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Brian’s comment is complete rubbish – even before Devolution the citizens of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were given preferential treatment via the Barnett Formula and extra Parliamentary time devoted purely to their concerns.
After Devolution the discrimination against England has got steadily worse.
It is primarily English taxes that pay for the extra benefits that the Scots, etc., get – but which we are then denied for ourselves.
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The Barnett Formula is actualy unfair on the peoples of the devolved communities. It takes little notice of need or rurality but concentrates on numbers of people residential. I dont claim to know much about Scotland or Ireland, but if you take the case of Mid Wales for instance the upkeep of Major Roads is not the responsibility of the highways agency but of the local goverment, the amount of traffic bears no relationship to the population especialy in the summer when half of the West Midland,Liverpool and Manchester is heading for the coast. There are many more inequalities that could be cited. I live work and pay my taxes in England and have no problem with Devolution, as far as I am concerned Wales and the Welsh are just starting to put right a thousand years of injustice.
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It may be true that these dissolved government give free stuff we have to pay for but if your leader didn’t get into bed with call me Dave then maybe things like tuition fees may not have gone up so much.
The hospital argument is lost as the Welsh health trusts pay the Shrewsbury and Telford trust for the treatment of people from across the border.
you can tell when it’s getting near council election times when letters like this come out
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I live in Wales and get free prescriptions. The reason I do so is that Wales has decided to spend part of its Health budget doing so.
Is that the right decision to make? I’ve no idea. There’s no extra money that goes towards this – funds from elsewhere are diverted.
Please have a look at the health inequalities that exist not only between England and Wales, but also more importantly between areas within England, and then perhaps have some thanks for the fact you live in Shropshire.
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It is a fact that England is the largest contributor to the financial wealth of the UK and that it cannot manage its internal affairs because it has no body of authority to do so. The EU would like it to be split into self governing regions and Labour tried very hard to accomplish that by funding a massive publicity campaign in John Prescott’s own back yard, the North East, chosen because it was most likely to produce the required result, but even there, the English rejected the idea outright. It may seem odd to hear it said, but the English are being treated very undemocratically. England has for some time now, been in a similar position to that which the American colonies were in prior to revolution. It produces the most, but has no one to address its specific interests. It’s a very hot potato for Westminster, not least because they know that the EU does not consider an English parliament to part of its long term plans. They ignore us because we allow them to.
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Quite right, Bob. And quite right also to point out the attempted “balkanisation” of England by the EU.
An English Parliament is clearly needed, and I did hear a rumour that that may become UKIP policy. Of course, we don’t hold our breath waiting in the current unacceptable Lab/Lib/Con situation, in which all the major parties treat us like cattle, but, in the political turbulence towards which the UK as a whole now seems to be heading, who knows what might become possible?
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The Welsh would prefer their own hospitals and would happily pay prescriptions to get them, but are not given a choice either. It’s the same bureaucrats in positions of power, who year after year fail to make the correct decisions and instead make decisions based on economics or popularity to gain votes.
Mid Wales are fighting on at least five fronts, for better road networks, health services, schools closures, against wind farms and overhead power lines through villages.
Do any of us have a voice to be heard and recognised?
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‘Mid Wales are fighting on at least five fronts, for better road networks, health services, schools closures, against wind farms and overhead power lines through villages’.
You need revenue to fight on five fronts. Stop giving away free prescriptions and student education and you will have sufficient money in the pot to do these things.
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I do believe that we in England have fleeced the rest of these islands for centuries and continue to do so. Little Englanders are a worrying bunch with a narrow minded perspective. Whatever the pros and cons of devolution we continue to reap immense benefits from the whole of the Union, but complain bitterly when the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish stand up for themselves. I suspect England would be in a dire state without the Union and perhaps with that in mind the moaners should shut up. They may get what they have wished for and once the Union is gone it will be gone for good.
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Self loathing is unhelpful and calling those whose opinions differ from your own, names, is childish. Grow up. Of course, we’re stronger as a Union and I for one have no wish to see it split apart, but you cannot undo what has been done nor deny one country the same priviliges that its neighbours have, particularly when it is the largest generator of capital. Whatever was the case historically, we have to live in the here and now. It is entirely right and proper that England should also have its own parliament. Your language suggests you are pro-european. If so, how do you reconcile their desire to regionalize England with your remark “once the Union is gone, it will be gone for good” ?
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It seems very easy for you to brush history aside Bob, perhaps that is because you reap the benifits of it? There are many about who are still suffering the consequenses of anglesisation not only on these islands but all over the world. It makes me quite sick that the English want us all to be one nation, as long as that nation is English!
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If we had an English parliament it would have to be subdivided into London and the rest that’s not London or maybe Outer london.
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I have no objection to Wales, Scotland (or even Rutland!) being totally independent countries, managing their own affairs, laws, and finances. But as a result of making that choice, they lose all financial support from Westminster. Can Scotland or Wales support themselves in this way, without English help?
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In answer to your question R Suppards yes Wales can certainly support itself financialy. Mind you the people of Liverpool, Manchester & Birmingham will have to start paying a realistic price for their water and thats just for starters.
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