Posted on 11/14/2007 1:35:12 PM PST by shrinkermd
...It was against this troublesome backdrop that Mr Darling went to Stirling. Labour is desperate not to lose Scotland, because it would lose 40 of Scotland's 59 MPs. Bang would go its working majority at Westminster and the jobs, salaries and perks of the Scottish Raj that rules England...
Yet herein lies the difficulty. Every time Mr Darling, or any other member of the Raj, brags about the largesse Scotland gets from London, the English get angrier and angrier. Eleven drugs available on NHS prescription in Scotland, treating such awful conditions as lung cancer, brain tumours, bone and bone marrow cancer and Alzheimer's disease, are denied to NHS patients in England. Now, it might reasonably be supposed (and indeed many in England do suppose it) that if £11 billion of their money were not going to Edinburgh, there might just be a few bawbees available for such unimportant things as alleviating the sufferings of the English sick.
Mr Brown, in his squalid and anti-democratic way, has since the first devolved parliament opened in 1999 firmly resisted any suggestion that the West Lothian question needs an answer. He sees no reason why Scottish MPs (and indeed Welsh ones - Labour has 29 of them) at Westminster should not be allowed to continue to vote on matters that affect only the English. Since the Welsh Assembly has recently received a new tranche of powers, expanding its areas of competence, this means that at Westminster Labour can technically deploy 69 MPs to vote on questions that do not affect their constituents one jot, but which can change the course of law in England. That Mr Brown blithely affects to be unmoved by this outrage causes one to question not merely his intelligence but his sanity.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Are we witnessing the devolution of the UK? If so, the beneficiary will be England, or so it seems.
If Scotland is splitting off, the Great Britian is getting a lot more conservative quickly.
This is a stunning development if it really comes to anything.
Better yet, privatise the health care system, and introduce competition into the equation. We only partially do that here, and we have scads better health care than pretty much every other country on earth (though you'll pay through the nose for it).
I couldn’t resize my image in time!
I was stunned to read on another FReeper posting that Scotland is full of libs and England would be far more conservative without the highlanders.
Isaac Newton's old job.
I didn’t think I’d be the first.
Woo...same headline. Same image. Very scary.
I think Scotland might be so Left because they see it as a good way of sucking money from the Brits.
If so, they might get less socialistic when they governing themselves.
PANTS OFF!
Can this be correct?
The National Health System in England actually denies drugs that treat lung cancer, brain tumors, bone and marrow cancer, and Alzheimer's disease to English patients?
Paging Michael Moore. Please pick up the nearest white courtesy telephone.
Scotland, Wales, England, and Ireland are all naturally important parts of Britain, and Britain is One Nation. I’ve never understood why they’ve not conducted themselves accordingly.
Most of the Irish citizenry would disagree.
The Treaty of Union was voluntarily entered into by a sovereign Scotland.
Its true. Labour would be out of power so fast without Scotland’s high proportion of socialist moochers.
And English income tax would come down by some ungodly figure, like 8p in the pound.
AND THIS IS TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE LOSS OF OIL RECEIPTS!!
Do you know why they call people from North Carolina “Tar-Heels”?
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