UK – Unfair Kingdom

Let a thousand flowers bloom, and let some of them be prettier. Then the people who get the worst flowers can challenge local leaders, locally, and sack them briskly when they fail. – Libby Purves

Yesterday in The Times, Libby Purves called for a localisation agenda for England. She did this in the light of a recent decision by the Welsh Assembly to abolish prescription charges. This announcement has joined a number of similar pledges made by both the Prinicipality’s elected assembly and our friends north of the border over the last few years. To free prescriptions for the Welsh, one can add free residential care for the Scottish elderly and free university tuition for Scottish students at Scottish universities (note: not free for English students studying in Scottish universities!). All these commitments are to be paid for by the UK taypayer. To add insult to injury, the First Minister in Wales, Rhodri Morgan, declared that the English would be “jealous” of free prescriptions.

And let us not forget the ‘West Lothian question’ so eloquently asked by a Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, in November 1977 –

For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate… at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on British politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

Yes. 1977. This is not a new problem. It has, however, been further exacerbated by the devolution imposed since 1997 by this Labour government. We now have a situation where Scottish MPs have voted on Westminster legislation, safe in the knowledge that it would not affect their own constituents. Furthermore, in the case of tuition fees, the absence of Scottish MP’s support would have led to the government failing to get the policy implemented in England and Wales. The audacity and inappropriateness of this behaviour was remarkable.

And let us also not forget the ‘Barnett formula’. This 1970s implemented policy has led to the present-day unfairness of regional public expenditure in the United Kingdom. On the basis of figures from the financial year 2003/2004 (source: HM Treasury Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis -PESA), the expenditure per head in England is £5,940. This compares rather unfavourably to Scotland where it is £7,346, Wales where it is £6,901, and in Northern Ireland where it is £7,945. Lord Barnett himself now views the formula as unfair. In The Scotsman in January 2004 he wrote “It was never meant to last this long, but it has gone on and on and it has become increasingly unfair to the regions of England. I didn’t create this formula to give Scotland an advantage over the rest of the country when it comes to public funding.” When will this formula be consigned to history? Not by a Scottish dominated Labour Party I suspect.

In Libby Purves’ article, she went on to call for a localisation drive in England. The blatant unfairness of the present situation should, she argued, be seen as an opportunity for the English local regions to reassert themselves. I have long been an advocate of localism in schools and hospitals administration. The “postcode lottery” that in the past we have been led to believe is so wrong, has now been introduced by devolution in Scotland and Wales. I welcome the different approaches by our Celtic friends, and would like to see more diversity in service provision throughout the United Kingdom. What I resent, however, is that the English, from whom the Exchequer extracts the most tax, are being short-changed financially. This must stop. The poorer regions of England need more money and we should be providing it. I believe future Conservative Party policy should be about empowering local areas to organise the public services they want. It is not only the right thing to be doing, it is also politically the most astute. And with regards to the democratic deficit, it remains to be seen how the English will respond to a future Scottish Prime Minister whose Parliamentary majority in Westminster could very well be solely due to the demographic over-representation of Wales and Scotland. Interesting times ahead I believe.