Scotland vs England: subsidies and benefits
Old people
Scotland: Free personal care for all residents of nursing homes.
England: Proposal that anyone with assets worth £35,000 should pay all the costs of their care.
University tuition fees
Scotland: Free – to Scottish students. Holyrood abolished £1,000-per-year tuition fees.
England: Students pay tuition and top-up fees of up to £9,000 a year – and English students at Scottish universities are charged £1,800 for tuition.
Education maintenance allowances
Scotland: Up to £30 a week
England: £0
Prescription charges
Scotland: Prescription drugs free for the chronically ill from next April. Expected to be free for everyone within four years. (see comment below - not quite sure what Indy means here!)
England: £6.85 per item
Health checks
Scotland: Free dental checks and free eye tests for all.
England: Standard charge of £17 for dental check-ups; eye tests cost £18.85.
Transport
Scotland: Over-60s travel free on buses; 16- to 18-year-olds get a third off.
England: Off-peak journeys free for over-60s and schoolchildren.
Heating for elderly
Scotland: Central heating installed for all pensioners;
England: Grants available for those on pension credits.
School dinners
Scotland: Free in the first three years of primary school.
England: Poorer children qualify for free meals – but this applies to only 16 per cent of pupils.
Posts
i thought that prescriptions are free in scotland for all
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGerry, I reported the Indy as they pubished it -not quite sure what they meant by that stat ..
ReplyDeleteThe Independent on Scotland and Alex Salmond
Prescription charges - Scotland
I think the stats come from a previous article the journalist had - and they just presumed it was still the case, probably not believing prescriptions are free.
ReplyDeleteNot lazy journalism, just something that happens from time to time.
There's an excuse for me, Stevie, but not for a national newspaper.
ReplyDeleteThat was actually a fairly positive piece coming from an English newspaper. The hostility of the English MSM towards Scotland has always astonished and baffled me. But we Americans often don't understand how these things work.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed about the article was the comment that keeping the SNP from voting on English matters would somehow put Alex Salmond on the back foot. I beg your pardon? Speaking of poor research or just plain inexcusable ignorance for a journalist, when was the last time the SNP voted on a purely English matter?
Would that be never?
It's called the West Lothian Question, Jeanne, because it was posed as a dilemma by Tam Dalziel abour the West Lothian constituency. (I live in West Lothian!)
ReplyDeleteA Scottish MP in Westminster can vote in the UK Parliament on legislation that applies only to England, because the matter, e.g. health service, is devolved to the Scottish Government. An English MP in Westminster cannot vote on legislation that is devolved to the Scottish Government.
This is an anomaly, it occurs regularly in UK mParliamentary votes, and is an inequity. There is a simple solution - Scotland must be an independent country.
If the UK government prevents Scots MPs from voting on English matters, they shoot the Union in the foot, if not in the head. It would matter to Scottish MPs from Unionist parties, but the SNP shouldn't give a damn about it - it simply underlines the case for independence.
The end-game seems to unfolding with not only implications for Scotland, but broader contexts; see
ReplyDeletetoday vis a vis potential impacts on these isles, generally;
and
also today vis a vis the current global financial
crises.
All interesting, interlocking stuff :)
As the sage said, David "There is no problem that, on close, careful professional examination doesn't get more ******* complex.
ReplyDeleteOr, moving swiftly to a higher plane - "No man is an island unto himself alone .."