to wonder why people in England have to pay for prescriptions

[AtYourCervix]

and in Scotland and Wales they are free?

How the fuck can that happen?

"The funding situation is a lot more complex than people are making out - tax revenue from Scottish people and industry (notably oil and whisky) is substantial, and also pays for things like, oh, say, the Olympics..."

The amount of funding allocated to different countries and different regions is not based on the level of tax raised there. And tbh it makes sense for it not to be. The most disadvanatged areas that need more money also raise the lowest tax.

exactly, habs.

guys, if you don't like Barnett then get yourselves a party that wants to break up the Union.

Exactly, dreaming - there's a lot more to it than just chances of getting in. Scotland is a big revenue producer, much as the Barnett formula is spouted as the root of all evil, Scotland, as Aitch has said, generally pays more into the pot than it gets back. Which is fine.

yy - why don't you all start writing to your MPs opposing the Union?

"DreamingofSun" if we're talking revenue generated then I think Scotland would have done pretty well out of oil and gas over the last thirty years.

Awful lot of bigoted nonsense being spouted on this thread.

At least I suppose people in Scotland now do get the prescriptions free, people used to spout this ignorant trip while we were still paying!

Or people could move to Scotland...

Nice blaming culture here. Don't you think the devolved parliaments should be allowed to make some of their own decisions? For the good of their own population? Just for a change?

Well said Habbibu and AitchTwoOh.

Why doesn't Westminster just dump the draining parasites if they are such a burden?
And why don't you all start lobbying your own mps and parliament about these perceived inequalities?

I meant ignorant crap, my phone is a prude.

can you imagine what Jockland would be like now if we'd had all that oil money? would we be Norway or Dubai, do you think?

you need to take that up at your local elections, then... it's ridiculous the way you all bleat about this as if nothing can be done. where is the english independence party and why aren't you voting for it if england is getting such a bad deal out of a united kingdom?

England is getting a bad deal out of the UK. And I'm sure if the question was put the the English people, the Barnett formula would be scrapped. However, it will never be since it would be voted down by MP's who are afraid they'd lose out, afraid it would spell the end of the union and with it the global influence of the UK.

It's easy to say it's ridiculous that we think nothing can be done when you are the ones getting the extra cash. I suspect you don't see anything ridiculous every time Salmond came to London demanding extra cash for whatever hair brained scheme he had.

I would link, but not sure how to do that yet. Following is a quote which basically says that scotland gets 2.1 billion more than it raises in tax.

Figures from Oxford Economics study via Daily Telegraph 30 9 2008 show:

The sobering truth (or it should be one) for Celtic nationalists is that the Celtic provinces all produce a substantially smaller tax revenue per head than England, viz:

?In Wales, public spending exceeded taxes paid by £9.3 billion. For Scotland, the deficit was £2.1 billion [RH this calculation is based on Scotland receiving all oil and gas revenue, a very improbably event], Northern Ireland?s deficit was £7.2 billion.

London pays £16 billion more in taxes than the Government spends in the capital, Oxford Economics said ? equivalent to more than £2,000 for every person in the city.

By contrast, spending exceeds tax by more than £4,000 per capita in Northern Ireland, by more than £3,000 per capita in Wales and £2,600 in the North East.

Thats because most of the ridiculously high earners are in London, which skews it.

actually what that harvard guy was saying last year was that those figures don't include every bit of tax going to the exchequer from scotland... vat, road tax etc so those figures are 'misleading'. (by which he means 'a bunch of bollocks').

taking into account all the money going from scotland to the exchequer, we are a bit ahead. which is fine, you won't hear us bleating about it. because we are socialist by nature.

But why is the union so critical to global influence?

On a different note in wales we only get 10 hours a week funding for playschool whereas in england its 15 hours. Also we can only use 2 hours per day whereas in england you can use however many hours a day you want so my children go twice a week for 3 hours (total 6 hours) but can only claim for 4 hours funding and have to pay a top up fee but if I was in england I would be able to claim for all 6 hours.

i look forward to hearing about NiceGuy's new anti-Union political party. i'm all for it, personally. (or maybe he'll just keep moaning foreeeeeeeeeeever on MN about how nothing can change.)

there is no reason for the tories to keep wales and scotland on board, we don't vote for them. are you saying that dave and gideon wouldn't cut us loose in a heartbeat if we were such a terrible drain on resources?

FIFTEEN HOURS!

WE GET TWELVE AND A HALF!

those selfish english toddlers etc.

jojane - well you get an extra 1k per head of population per year than the english do. i guess more money is going towards tuition fees for uni students - so they won't leave with the massive debts that english students will have

What is it with the Tories and the union, though, seriously?

dreaming re the uni fees... it's a bit of a pipe dream that there won't be fees by the time my kids go to uni, tbh. so i wouldn't get too het up about that, we'll probably all be in the shit together by then. so it'll be fair.

but still shit.

I have found this thread very interesting, I live in Scotland and have just recently had a baby, I've bought Calpol, Infacol etc in my niavety I didn't realise that I could get these for free (not that I would have wanted to anyway I am by no means well off, I just wouldn't want to take advantage of the system).

After people talking about how much Scotland get from Westminster, I thought I would try and find out how much Scotland gave to Westminster, apparently it was £12.9 billion in 2008. With a further £225 billion going to them in the next 15 years, these figures are from oil & gas alone. I got my info form here but I don't know if the figures are correct. Certainly makes interesting reading if it is true.

aitch - my 3 kids will be going over the next 10 years and from the 2012 intake tuition fees will increase to 9k at many unis for english students - compared to 3k for other european ones - incl scottish and welsh.

so we are not all in the shit together and it is not fair either.

You'd have got them for free in England too, Claudine - children get them for free under 16, and you get yours free for a year post baby.

And yy, fees will come to Scotland too, I think. It's mad, though - US students studying in St Andrews, and paying full overseas fees and airfares still pay LESS than they would at an equally prestigious uni in the US. That's weird. And tangential!

So protest to your MEP, dreaming - the Scottish and EU govts have reciprocal agreements. This is an English policy you're complaining about - the Scots just maintained the status quo.