Sunday, May 29, 2005
The French have today voted NO to the EU Constitution, a result that pretty much kills the EU Constitution off. France has been one of the key drivers for EU integration and a no result from there shows have naff the constitution is.
Am I right in thinking that this is the first referrendum to be held on it and that the only countries to ratify it did so without consulting their citizens?
I've booked tickets to go and watch Star Wars Episode III tomorrow. Taking Callum and my brother-in-law. Should be good, Callum's been nagging me for a couple of months now over when the new one was coming out. I wouldn't let him watch Episodes 4, 5 and 6 until he'd seen 3 because it would be too confusing for him. Cruel I know but it's for his own good.
On a side note, the UCI online booking is excellent. You can choose where you want to sit, the layout fo the booking pages are excellent and it processes your payment while you're online.
This article at Cross of St George got me going. Breast Cancer patients in Scotland are given a life saving cancer drug called Femara. English patients aren't allowed it because it's too expensive. It makes me mad because it is only the huge subsidies which the Scots receive out of English taxes that makes it possible for Scottish patients to receive a superior health service compared to English patients. So much of our money goes in subsidising the rest of the UK that there isn't enough left to give English patients life saving treatment. The article invites its readers to write in to the Yorkshire Post to give your views on the subject (the article is about a letter in the Yorkshire Post). So I did ...
I came across a letter written to the Yorkshire Post on the internet and felt compelled to write this letter.
The letter was regarding the appaling situation where English patients are denied potentially life saving treatment that our neightbours north of the border enjoy at our expense. The writer explains that sufferers of breast cancer in Scotland are given the drug Femara on the NHS whereas English patients are denied the use of this very effective but expensive drug.
While health is a devolved matter in Scotland and therefore under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament, it is still funded almost entirely by central government funds. The vast majority of taxes paid into the Treasury are from England as it comprises 5/6ths of the population of the UK. The Barnett Formula then ensures that Scots receive a disproportionately amount of these taxes to appease the Scottish nationalists. Under this formula, a Scottish person will recieve an average of £1,300 of central government spending per year more than an English person, paid for out of English taxes.
Why should English people be expected to subsidise the rest of the UK but be denied things such as life saving drugs because there is no more money in the pot for the English? This is a disgusting state of affairs that can be summed up in three words - "state sponsored discrimination". We need an English Parliament looking after English people, not Minority Rule by a Scottish Raj that has no sense of moral responsibility towards its English subordinates.
There was a letter in the Shropshire Star the other day from a Councillor Richley (Con.) criticising the Lib Dems' calls for Proportional Representation (PR). Under PR, of course, Labour would most likely have lost the election as they received about 66,000 vootes less than the Conservatives. His letter prompted me to write the following (unpublished as I've only just sent it) letter ...
Councillor Richey's criticism of proportional representation is a little surprising. If we had a system of proportional representation in the UK it would most likely have been his party, the Conservatives, that would now be in power instead of the Labour government we find ourselves with now.
In England, Labour received over 60,000 votes less than the Conservatives. England accounts for around 86% of the population of the UK. Labour achieved their election win with a combination of the Scottish/Welsh vote and securing a number of small seats. Under a proportional representation system of voting, the Conservatives would almost certainly have won the election.
This Labour government has no moral mandate to govern the people of England as the majority of the people of England did not vote for them. England will continue to be lorded over by a government we did not want, dominated by Scottish MP's that we did not elect who have no say in the domestic policies of their own constituencies. The only way to stop this gross political, social and economic imbalance and discrimination is to establish a devolved English Parliament to make England an equal partner in the United Kingdom and end the Minority Rule of the Scottish Raj.