Can The Union Survive The Inequality?
Is it possible to the United Kingdom to survive the inequalities that exist within it - all of which are to the detriment of the largest constituent part of it, and which provides the funding for the inequalities as well?
Government has been devolved to both Scotland and Wales, with the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly - and yet England lacks any form of self-government as an individual country. This is not acceptable, not in the short-term and certainly not in the long term. The very least that should - nay, must - happen is that any Bill in the UK Parliament that only affects England should only be voted on by MPs with constituencies in England [and any that affect only England and Wales should only be voted on by MPs elected by constituencies in those countries]. This is, of course, a minimum - and only a viable alternative until a long-term solution of an English Parliament is reached.
What is most disturbing is the extent to which inequality is rampant within the United Kingdom. Two days ago I blogged on the fact that Scottish university students are gong to get free education - and grants - at the expense of taxpayers in England, just as student debt breaks through the £3 billion mark. Like I said there, and I will repeat again:
It really is hypocritical that the Scottish Nationalist Party will fund their policy on free university education through funding that they would not have were they an independent state. If they want to prove that they can act and live as an economically viable independent state, then they should only use Scottish-raised taxes to fund the elements of Scottish policy on which the Scottish Parliament currently controls.
If the SNP were to provide free university education from their own taxes, I could have no opposition to it - and I would in fact applaud their prioritising. But when they plan to provide free university education off English taxes when English student debt has breached £3 billion, I can have nothing but contempt for their hypocrisy and for this government for allowing it to happen.
It is just plain wrong when taxpayers in England are funding a policy of free university education in Scotland when England’s own student debt problem is soaring. Especially ironic since it is the SNP who are doing it. How can Scotland survive independently if they can’t even fund their policies in the areas they already control?!
And then there is this story on health:
“A drug that improves the eyesight of almost a third of people suffering from the biggest cause of blindness in Britain will be available on the NHS in Scotland from today, but not in England. While Scottish patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will receive free Lucentis injections, thousands living south of the border could go blind if they cannot find up to £28,000 to obtain the treatment privately.” (The Telegraph)
So people in Scotland with this problem get drugs, but not those in England. Nice and equal that, eh?
If these inequalities do not get sorted soon, then I am not sure whether the Union can survive. I am even beginning to question whether it should if this is the state in which it will continue to exist - with a minority having such electoral power over the majority. And I haven’t even started on the West Lothian Question, with the still huge over-representation of Scotland and Wales in the Commons, despite having devolved government. There’s enough material there for an entire rant on that alone, even disregarding everything else.
