I have just come across a tweet from the Scottish
Conservatives lauding the “Union Dividend”.
The tweet proclaims: “This week we once again saw the benefit of being
in the UK. Thanks to the Union every
Scot received an extra £1,576 above the UK average . . . .” Do not the Scottish Conservatives wonder how
these words will be received by the English and Welsh?
In such circumstances it is timely of Robin Tilbrook,
Chairman of the English Democrats, to have just written an article on his blog,
using figures from a House of Commons research paper, highlighting how British
Government spending discriminates against England.
Here are the basic facts given in the first three paragraphs
of Robin Tilbrook’s article.
“The House of Commons Library
published a paper in November last year which was brought to my attention
recently. The report has the figures for the financial year 2016/17 of
the Barnett Formula. The Barnett Formula determines that differential
spending on UK citizens depending on which of the UK countries those citizens
live in.
The summary of the House of Commons
research paper shows that England has the lowest national average spent on
every man, woman and child. This was £8,898 in 2016/17. In Northern
Ireland by contrast, it was £11,042.
If you live in the English “Regions”
of the South East, East of England, East Midlands, South West or West Midlands
you get less spent on you than even the average of England. It is only in
London that British Government spending is more than even one of the other
Nations of the UK. It is slightly more than Wales. London has
£10,192 for every man, woman and child, instead of the Welsh average of
£10,076!”
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