“Consider every teenager in Birmingham who is going to lose their education maintenance allowance; every young person in Cornwall who is discouraged from applying to university by virtue of the increased tuition fees; every large family in inner London who will face cuts in housing benefit and may lose their home; every frail pensioner in Norfolk struggling to meet increased care costs. That teenager, that would-be university student, that large family losing their home, that frail pensioner; they are all subsidising-effectively paying for-Scotland’s handouts of free tuition, free personal care and frozen council tax. I object. This house faces welfare reform bills with many of us pleading with the Government for £75 million here and £100 million there for some of the most vulnerable people in our community, yet £4.5 billion is going to Scotland on no other basis than that it always has done. Where is the Treasury’s much vaunted financial prudence? Where, indeed, is our collective moral compass? It is not fair. It is not right. It is not decent and it should end-gradually, slowly; I accept all that, but it should end.”
House of Lords debate on the Barnett Formula. 15 June 2011
Link:http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2011-06-15a.852.0
#1 by Radio Free Cornwall (@TheCornishRep) on 17/06/2011 - 4:38 PM
Indeed! That’s why we need Cornish devolution now! The campaign can be found here: http://www.cornishassembly.org/
#2 by Oliver Cromwell on 18/06/2011 - 11:29 AM
I know the EU would like to form a cross Channel region which would involve Kent. If I am not wrong, the real true relationship is Cornwall and Brittany? But this is very ancient history. England is a viable nation, so viable it is propping up the rest of the UK.