Whether you live in England or Wales, it's still the United Kingdom and we should all receive the same treatment.
Yes, if we still had a truly National Health Service, that should indeed be the case.
But we no longer do.
And because of the gross inequalities now existing in the area of health, we are going to see more and more of this type of thing...
The community, nine miles from the Welsh border, has launched an online campaign to redraw the UK map and become part of Wales.
And it's not just because, though it pains me to admit it, Wales are the better rugby nation at the moment.
What started as an April 1 spoof has gathered momentum, and nearly two-thirds of those voting on Audlem's village website have voiced their desire to abandon England for good to capitalise on the healthcare benefits.
OK, like Berwick's earlier demand for repatriation, this looks like a humourous stunt, but there is quite clearly a serious message behind these increasing number of "stunts".
There is a growing system of medical apartheid between two countries with so many similarities, right down to the same legal system.
British Healthcare for British citizens, it's a simple and just demand.
5 comments:
"British Healthcare for British citizens, it's a simple and just demand."
As simple and just as Welsh Healthcare for Welsh citizens or English Healthcare for English citizens?
If English people want the same NHS as we enjoy then they should lobby their MP's to change the English NHS, not try and force us back into compliance with them.
If English people are jelous of the way the Welsh NHS has developed since Wales got to choose what it wanted to do with it's NHS then surely that's a mark of devolution doing well, not bad.
Without devolution no-one in the UK would have free prescriptions, free car parking etc etc.
Following your logic through, then the Welsh taxpayers solely should be paying for its own health system.
Would support for devolution increase or decrease in that scenario?
Ah right, the "England pays for your benefits" argument. The two clear flaws in the argument are:
1. The Welsh budget hasn't changed due to devolution, when we spend more on free prescriptions, the money comes from another part of the Welsh budget. English taxpayers don't lose out a single extra penny when the Assembly decides to make some other thing free for the Welsh
2. I'm still waiting to see any figures on the "English subsidy". They don't exist because the Treasury refuse to tell us how many tax relates to the different countries. Until such figures are collated, it's impossible to say who subsidiss who.
My original reply was a weak one; if I think it a bit more deeply, the furore over health is proving apoint I made on another thread- it's the perception (is thta England is paying) which is more important than the reality at the minute. Still, I believe firmly, that every citizen of the UK should have exactly the same benefits re health and education- it's the basic requirement of a civilised democracy. If that means re-centralising the various strands of the NHS, then so be it.
Your point 2) is a vaild one, I wonder how a FOI request would work in this case?
I believe firmly, that every citizen of the UK should have exactly the same benefits re health and education- it's the basic requirement of a civilised democracy
That's because you see the UK as one unit. Since I see it as four units then clearly I wouldn't agree. I feel that it is a basic requirement for all those living in Wales(or England/NI/Scotland) to have the same benefits as each other, but I also see no problem in each constituent country being allowed to decide for themselves how to tackle our everyday problems.
As for the taxation point a FOI request would be pointless because it would be refused due to the costs of doing it. The problem is you that tax is counted as orignating in the Tax Office closest to the HQ of each company. So every pound Tesco brings in in VAT and every pound they pay in Corporation tax is treated as originating in London, same for all the other big firms.
To make it even harder, the income tax paid by people in places like North East Wales is probably classed as being English tax due to the nearest tax office being in Chester/Liverpool/Manchester.
That's why it's nigh on impossible to work out who pays what, and how different analyst can come out with totally different results about who's funding who and to what tune.
The final problem is the way Barnett works. Money to the Welsh and NI Assemblys and Scot Parliament is a percentage of the money earmarked for England. But a lot of money is deemed to be for "british" causes and therefore shared by all. So while the Millenium Dome was a "british" cause, the Wales Millenium Centre is for Welsh benefit. Similarly the Eden Project is funded by money earmarked for "British" causes but the National Gardens for Wales by "Welsh" money.
It's a mess to be honest, and everyone with an agenda (either way) can publish figures "proving" that A is subsidisng B to the tune of £Xm
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