Stupid, Whingeing Jocks

There is, apparently such a thing as society after all. The end of the Thatcherite fallacy that private home onwership is some sort of liberation was marked today when it was announced that the Scottish Government is seeking to end the 'right to buy' policy that has left housing stocks depleted.The ban on the sale of new council and housing association homes is part of a strategy to address Scotland's housing crisis by encouraging local authorities to build new properties. The proposed legislation sits alongside the pilot free school meals project which launches today and the plan to drop prescription charges within four years - as a triptych of social policies that represent a reclaiming of collective social respsponsibility. At last it's the end of the 80s. But wait a minute, Mittel Ingerlund isn't amused.

Here's the Daily Mail was in full flow (not in the Scottish editions): "All prescription charges will be abolished in Scotland – with English taxpayers picking up the bill – if the nationalist leaders of the Scottish government get their way, it emerged yesterday.

In the latest perk for citizens north of the border not available in England, Scottish Nationalist Party ministers announced no one would have to pay a penny for drugs within four years.

The SNP administration had already decided to scrap prescription charges for chronically- ill patients from next April. But yesterday's move – which will cost £70million a year – was branded the last straw for English taxpayers forced to pay for a huge range of public service handouts for Scottish citizens."

Annual public spending on schools, hospitals and other public services is around £1,500 a head more in Scotland than in England – all funded by the British Treasury.

Scots now enjoy free personal care for the elderly, free bus and train travel for over 60s, free eye and dental checks, pay no university tuition fees, and get range of life-saving drugs on the NHS that are denied to patients in England.

The extension of free prescription charges all is being seen as a deliberately provocative move by the SNP, which toppled the Labour administration in Scotland earlier this year and wants full independence from England.

Last night Opposition MPs demanded review of the annual £22billion subsidy paid Scotland and campaigners protested at the medical "apartheid" which means the NHS providing dramatically different care on either side of the border.

Shadow health minister Mike Penning said: "We have big financial problems in the NHS in England. I don't think the English taxpayer will understand why, in those circumstances, they are being asked to subsidise preferential treatment in Scotland.

Tory MP Philip Davies, who has highlighted Scotland's funding advantage, said: "English taxpayers are getting sick of putting their hands their pockets to pay for the best possible levels of care and service in Scotland.

The situation as it stands is completely unsustainable. "

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: "Scotland has a choice: either it pays its own way through proper fiscal independence or it should abide by the same rules as the rest of us."

Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday: "Many people with life-limiting conditions go without their prescribed medicines because they can't afford the prescription charges.

"That is not a situation the new government will tolerate.

"I can confirm that prescription charges will be abolished completely – in the lifetime of this parliament."

In England, by contrast, prescription charges now stand at £6.85 per item following a three per cent increase in April.

Earlier this month, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond accused Chancellor Alistair Darling of short-changing Scots after his comprehensive spending review gave Holyrood a 1.8 per cent funding increase, compared to the UK average of 2.1 per cent.

But former Scottish Labour minister Sam Galbraith said that when Scotland gets 20 per cent more money per head for public services, Mr Salmond's comments "make us look like stupid, whingeing Jocks".