Free dosh for Scotland

[Troll]

The row over perks for Scotland reignited today after it emerged that Edinburgh will get £500 million extra simply because Crossrail is being built in London.

Amid signs that the Tories will present themselves as the "English party" at the next election , David Cameron said for the first time that he would review the controversial Barnett formula that allocates cash to different parts of Britain.

The Standard has discovered that, under the formula, Scotland will automatically receive a huge payment to compensate for Crossrail's £16 billion worth of spending in the capital.

The revelation prompted fresh claims that the cash windfall will be used to subsidise free university tuition, elderly care and other perks.

A poll yesterday showed that one in three English voters now favours a break-up of the union with the Conservatives determined to highlight Gordon Brown's Scottishness. Mr Cameron is pushing a plan to allow only English MPs to vote on English affairs at Westminster. But a much bolder move is the review of the Barnett formula, which means the Scots end up getting £1,500 more per head a year than the English.

MPs of all parties are already worried-that English voters resent subsidising free university tuition and care for the elderly north of the border. There is increasing anxiety that Scots are now also in line for free school meals for all and free prescriptions under the Scottish Executive, which is led by the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Now even Labour MPs are complaining about the Barnett formula after the revelation about Crossrail. Jim Cousins, a Labour MP on the Treasury select committee, said: "There is a great slug of money, a Crossrail bonus going to Scotland, that reappears in free prescription charges, free home care, free everything else, extra grants for heating, abolition of the graduate endowment.

"When is there going to be a north of England bonus?"

[snaw]

Nice troll. You're definitely improving.

[AtW]

Jim Cousins, a Labour MP on the Treasury select committee, said: "There is a great slug of money, a Crossrail bonus going to Scotland, that reappears in free prescription charges, free home care, free everything else, extra grants for heating, abolition of the graduate endowment.

Maybe that's where the money should have went in the first place instead of building this rail thing that very few people in the UK will actually use: companies should be forced out of London to decentralise rather than create artificial demand in a place that is already overcrowded.

[snaw]

Fair point, but if you look at commuters in London I think that probably equals close to 1/4 of the British population (At least I believe London's population increases to 17+ million during business hours), so spending to ease congestion i London isn't necessarily unjustified.

[AtW]

They commute there because jobs are concentrated in London - it is not wise to have all that stuff in the same place, better to spread around, maybe not to Scotland/Wales or even Manchester, but surely moving lots of companies out of M25 would cut down a lot of commuting done to center of London. I can understand what people who sell fish and chips to tourists have to be physically present in center of London, but office folk don't - move them out of London I say and stop wasting money trying to solve side effects of centralisation - congestion etc.

Evidently Scotland is putting money where voters want them to go - getting rid of tolls is good idea, in England Govt is doing the opposite.

[snaw]

It's a big chicken and egg that one, London creates as many jobs as it does mainly through private industry - if anything the trend is to remove state jobs to the regions.

The existing transport system isn't good enough for the numbers involved, but it's not stopping the job creation happening. At the end of the day 14 million or so people live in the greater London metropolis, so they've got every right to expect some of the money they pay in tax to go towards improving facilities in the city they live in.

Plus London is playing on a bigger playing field than just Britain, it's trying to compete with other major financial centres so in some way's the government need to take that into account when making these decisions.

[AtW]

It is true that you can't change this problem overnight - but then again this Crossrail project is not going to be build tomorrow: there is a need for policy that would gradually push out work from London, a lot of people commute there from far away anyway, there is no bloody point for these people to go further than M25.

You say the right thing pointing out that it is the Govt that decentralises more than private companies - naturally Nu Liebor does this to support their votes with public sectors jobs in Wales and Scotland, but they are correct in principle by decentralising even if this is done with selfish motive. So should businesses do - they don't need to go to Scotland or even Birmingham, just move them outside of M25 so that commuters that travel further than M25 won't have to.

[sasguru]

They commute there because jobs are concentrated in London - it is not wise to have all that stuff in the same place, better to spread around, maybe not to Scotland/Wales or even Manchester, but surely moving lots of companies out of M25 would cut down a lot of commuting done to center of London. I can understand what people who sell fish and chips to tourists have to be physically present in center of London, but office folk don't - move them out of London I say and stop wasting money trying to solve side effects of centralisation - congestion etc.

Evidently Scotland is putting money where voters want them to go - getting rid of tolls is good idea, in England Govt is doing the opposite.

WHo should move "them"? Are you really that thick?

[Rantor]

WHo should move "them"? Are you really that thick?

I dunno, he may be on to something here - NL are as statist as they com. Need to see what's in the next 5 year plan.

[AtW]

WHo should move "them"? Are you really that thick?

Well, I don't count that common sense would move businesses, so I think gradual increase in taxes with drop in such taxes outside of M25 would give them incentive to move companies. Only high paid City companies will be able to afford to stay in London, which is fair enough - but even them will move peasants like you to outside of M25. It's only fair - I am going to write this suggestion to my local Labour MP - Gisela Stuart. Watch out for it to be read on next PMQ