Pensioner or not: this article will be of interest to every man, woman and child living in England. It is a slightly amended copy of my Pensioners Platform column published in the August-September 2014 edition of the Torbay Times, and it proves UK politicians of all parties since the 1970s have been trying to hide a serious injustice from the people of England...
FIRST things first, that’s not a printing error you see in the title of
this article. Nor is it intended as a tongue-in-cheek play on the Cockney
Londoner rhyming slang for “hair”. On the contrary, the title is spelt
correctly, and it raises a very serious question that affects all of us here in England.
Let me explain: way back in 1978, Prime Minister James Callaghan and his
Cabinet were so troubled by the rise of Scottish and Welsh nationalism, they
invited the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Joel Barnett to devise a
formula that distributed the funding for UK public services in a way that
favoured the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
By his own admission, the now Lord Barnett drew-up his formula “almost
on the back of an envelope” and it was quickly enshrined into law. Nearly forty
years on, the Barnett Formula is still in force, and it continues to benefit
every person in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, at the expense of the
people of England. Even Lord Barnett himself has admitted that his Barnett
Formula was only intended as a short-term measure. In fact, at a public enquiry
in 2009 he said, “I do not
consider it is successful. I do not think it is fair. I thought it might last a
year or two before the government would decide to change it. It never
occurred to me for one moment that it would last this long.”
Nevertheless, successive governments have not only kept the Barnett
Formula in-place, but they have also gone out of their way to conceal its skewed
and deeply discriminatory – some might say racist – mechanism from the English
people.
Consequently, for some thirty-seven years, the people of England have lost-out
to the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and here’s the proof:-
The latest Treasury public expenditure figures (2012-13) detailing the Barnett
Formula sums allocated for public services across the nations of the United
Kingdom show that Northern Ireland was granted £10,876 per head of population;
Scotland £10,152; Wales £9,709 and England £8,529 per head of population. That
means every person in Scotland (when looking at the UK average) is being
allocated £1,364 more than everyone else. And that translates to a whopping £1,623
advantage every Scot has over every person in England.
In fact, it gets worse because, when broken down further into England’s nine
regions, we here in the South West are in a rather lowly sixth place behind
London, the North East; the North West; Yorkshire & Humber and the West
Midlands, with an allocation of £8,219 per head of population.
Adding even more weight to the unfairness of the above
allocations, earlier this year, the Local Government Association (LGA), which
represents councils south of the Border, revealed that the Barnett Formula system
means England’s communities are being “short-changed” by £4.1 billion a year.
Is it any wonder, then, that Scotland has been able to offer free
prescriptions for all, while the NHS in England struggles to meet some of the
basic demands placed upon it? Then there’s the Scotland government’s funding of
education that guarantees free university tuition, while England’s universities
are forced to charge up to £9000. Both of these advantages – and quite a few others
– come about because Scotland’s devolved parliament can spend its Barnett
Formula annual windfall as it sees fit.
Now, I ask you, is that fair in a so-called equality conscious United
Kingdom? Come to that, is it right to deliberately disadvantage the majority
English population by forcing us, as tax payers, to contribute to Scotland’s
disproportionate Barnett Formula hand-outs? After all, when all the facts and
figures are laid on the table, England and its tax-paying workforce still
represent the power house of the UK’s economy.
So, whatever the result of Scotland’s Referendum on September 18, surely
it’ll be time to scrap the thoroughly discredited Barnett Formula, and give
back to the people of England their rightful – and equal – share of public
service funding?
In the meantime, we’re left to ponder one simple question: is the Barnett
Formula fair on the people of England? Given the statistics and quotes
mentioned above, the answer appears to be a resounding … NO IT ISN’T!
