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.