Britannist

"The cost of being English" (Sunday Times article 9.3.2008):

English families spend thousands on public services that their Scottish equivalents receive for free - Times Online

Britannist

Brief edited extract from the Sunday Times article on the link in the last posting to this thread:

(Quote from the Sunday Times) "The latest figures on (UK) public spending per head show that in 2006-7 it was reckoned at £8,623 in Scotland; £8,139 in Wales; and just £7,121 in England. The latest figures show that eastern England, hardly one of the richest areas, gets just £6,144 in public spending per head, almost £2,500 less than Scotland. The southeast, with its congested roads and overburdened services, gets £6,304. The 'East' Midlands gets £6,491 and the southwest £6,677. Frank Field, the former Labour minister and MP for Birkenhead, said: “It’s a big issue, not just in my own constituency, but with people writing and e-mailing from all around the country. At some stage it will have to be faced.” (End of quote from the Sunday Times)

Mr. Frank Field MP, quoted above, put forward motions in the Commons to change the Barnett Formula (which was devised three decades ago as a way of distributing UK public money to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and on trying to stop Scottish constituency MPs voting on English matters in the Commons - but the UK Blair/Brown Labour Government prevented his motions in the Commons from getting any further. English constituency MPs in the Commons cannot vote on Scottish issues which, since 1999, have been dealt with in the rival Parliament in Edinburgh.