Unionists Must Wake Up

If you check on the right-hand side of my blog (below my links), you'll see UK-related stories being continuously posted up.

This letter in yesterday's Daily Telegraph is presently showing:

The English are paying a very high price for the United Kingdom

Sir - Jack Straw warned English MPs they are straying into "very dangerous territory" (report, July 9) when they object to the unacceptable discrimination the people of England face over the availability of certain drugs on the NHS, student fees and pay for nurses, and when MPs call for a debate about the possibility of an English parliament, or English MPs only being allowed to vote on proposals that affect England only.

It has to be remembered that we, as taxpayers in England, pay for the upkeep of the entire country. The nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do very well financially from the Union - what does England get?

Without the financial burden of having to carry the far weaker economies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, England would be a nation with an economy equal to the most successful Scandinavian nations.

As an English taxpayer, I certainly do not wish to continue to fund superior public services in the other nations of the United Kingdom. Maybe it's time for the people of England to re-evaluate the purpose and point of the United Kingdom.

Steve Scott, London SE1

The fact that these sentiments are being heard on a more and more regular basis should be serving for as a wake-up call for all Unionists. It is the strategy of the three devolved governments to demand an ever-increasing pot of cash from Westminster; on the part of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and now, it would also seem, the DUP, this is a wider, long-term strategy aimed at completely cutting the ties which bind the United Kingdom together.

There is, of course, no such thing as a victimless "crime", this extra money needs to come from somewhere. It's true that taxpayers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales also contribute towards the UK central exchequer, however, at the same time, their political representatives are seeking preferential conditions for their voters in health, education and the area of corporate taxation. So, effectively English taxpayers are subsidising better services in those parts of the nation over which the central parliament is having less and less authority and control.

As a second letter-writer says:

Give us fair, equal and just treatment in what is supposed to be a united kingdom with a national health service.

And do it before it's too late.....