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Wednesday 1 November 2017

UPDATED DIFFERENCES IN UK GOVERNMENT FUNDING BETWEEN THE NATIONS OF THE UK


THE UPDATED DIFFERENCES IN UK GOVERNMENT FUNDING BETWEEN THE NATIONS OF THE UK



Back in 2009 the cross-bench independent House of Lords Committee enquiring into the Barnett Formula funding allocation system reported that England was subsidising Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to the tune of £49 billion a year. 


Here is a link to that report >>> The Barnett Formula Report with Evidence published 17 July 2009

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldselect/ldbarnett/139/139.pdf


Given the years that have passed since I think it is worth reviewing what public spending is now in the 3 different Nations and in the Province of the United Kingdom. Here are the figures:-



THE PROVINCE OF NORTHERN IRELAND



Population 1.9 million

Public spending per head £14,018 (approx. £14,263 after deal)

Social security 43 per cent: local politicians effectively refused to approve benefit cuts in 2015 and received a £585 million package to soften the blow over four years

Health 19 per cent: funding cuts for GPs have forced some frontline services to be withdrawn and over 6,500 patients waited over 12 hours in A&E last year

Education 13 per cent: Northern Irish pupils are the highest performing in Europe at primary level for maths but a third of GCSE entrants do not achieve five A*-C grades

Public sector workers 25.2 per cent

Private sector workers 74.8 per cent



THE NATION OF ENGLAND



Population 55 million

Public spending per head £11,297

Social security 45 per cent: cuts to benefits have failed to offset the spiralling cost of pensions, which under the DUP deal will still be protected by the triple lock

Health 24 per cent: the Red Cross warned in January that NHS England faced a “humanitarian crisis” amid chronic bed and staff shortages and long waits for care

Education 14 per cent: Many schools are facing real-terms budget cuts under the government’s new funding formula and last year the number of A*-C grades at GCSE saw its sharpest decline since 1998

Public sector workers 17 per cent

Private sector workers 83 per cent



THE NATION OF SCOTLAND



Population 5.4 million

Public spending per head £13,054

Social security 41 per cent: legislation to give the Scottish government control over 11 benefits has been introduced in Holyrood, which the SNP hopes will ease Westminster cuts

Health 21 per cent: only 5 per cent of A&E patients wait more than four hours despite a staffing shortfall and £100 million bill for locum doctors

Education 13 per cent: literacy and numeracy rates have declined or flatlined since 2012 but fewer pupils are leaving school with no qualifications

Public sector workers 21 per cent

Private sector workers 79 per cent



THE NATION OF WALES



Population 3.1 million

Public spending per head £12,531

Social security 46 per cent: Wales’s population is the most deprived in the UK

Health 21 per cent: the Welsh NHS has repeatedly missed targets despite high investment and is suffering from a shortage of full-time nurses

Education 13 per cent: Welsh students score lowest in the UK for science, reading and maths and Carwyn Jones, the first minister, says that the country’s schools are “crumbling”

Public sector workers 20.8 per cent

Private sector workers 79.2 per cent



These figures do clearly show the effect of England’s subsidy to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They have more public sector spending on every man, woman and child and they also have a higher level of State employment. All of that is dependent upon the English taxpayer.


It should also be noted that these figures do not include capital spending and that is split in the same sort of way which explains why Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish politicians are so keen on HS2, since as a result of that money being spent in England, they will get extra windfalls of tens of billions of pounds of English taxpayers’ money!


So far as Ulster is concerned, Theresa May’s DUP deal is the latest subsidy windfall for a Province long reliant on the English taxpayer.



As the Times recently put it:-

“The £1.5 billion price tag for the DUP’s confidence and supply deal — equivalent to an extra £530 for every resident of Northern Ireland — has caused raised eyebrows at Westminster and across the rest of the UK.

But in one respect the windfall is nothing new: The Province of Northern Ireland has long received the most generous funding of any region.

Despite its population of just 1.9 million, public spending per person is higher in the province than anywhere else in the UK: £14,042, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Almost a third (27.4 per cent) of the Northern Irish workforce is employed by the public sector, compared to just 17 per cent across the UK as a whole. Tuition fees remain heavily subsidised and prescriptions are free, as is domestic water. Unlike the other devolved administrations, Northern Ireland runs its own social security system but the money flows directly from the Treasury.

This high public spending and low tax revenues means Stormont’s budget deficit — £9.6 billion in 2014 — is equal to a third of Northern Ireland’s total economic output.

Though that figure is vastly higher than most other developed economies, Northern Ireland defies easy comparison for one very obvious reason: “the Troubles”.

As DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson pointed out last week, decades of conflict have posed huge structural challenges for its economy. Resolving the Troubles has in practice meant the Exchequer alone footing the bill in the absence of significant inward investment from the private sector.

Keen to preserve the delicate constitutional settlement at Stormont, Westminster effectively allowed local politicians to refuse to implement the worst cuts in the coalition years. Not for nothing did the Northern Irish historian John Bew say: “The only thing that unites Northern Ireland’s parties is the way they hold out their hands for money. It’s the SNP on crack.”

Though it is hoped that a planned reduction in Northern Ireland’s corporation tax rate to 12.5 per cent next year – in line with the Republic - will help rectify the imbalance in public and private spending, the DUP deal means a long history of state subsidy will continue.”



6 comments:

  1. If the total subsidy in 2009 was £49bn, what is it now?
    Clive,
    W-s-M

    ReplyDelete
  2. The turmoil in Catalonia has its roots in the fact that that region with only 7m people is keeping the rest of Spain's 40 odd million afloat being the richest area with the most tourism. Similar arguments were behind the recent mock referendum in two of Italy's northern regions because of their funding of the far south. But being here in the North of England, I would be upset if the rich south-east were to kick up about having to fund such as our sporadic local bus service - here today but possibly gone again tomorrow.

    We are going on a trip to the Outer Hebrides next summer and I have been reading a book by Madeleine Bunting about the islands. I agree that everything should be done to help avoid any further depopulation. However, this is being balanced now by the English, especially from the South, fleeing north to get away from the congestion, multiculturalism and other nasty consequences resulting from the unwanted mass immigration into England since the War.

    It would appear that the islands, having fought tooth and nail, have successfully saved their Gaelic heritage, despite the efforts of Westminster and even Edinburgh. In fact, the islanders, particularly in the Roman Catholic southern islands, feel they have more in common with the Republic of Ireland - the Gaels having come originally from Ulster - than with Scotland's central belt.

    As many may know, George Orwell aka Eric Blair, wrote many of his works whilst living on one of the Western Isles. Interestingly, Ms Bunting, quotes form Orwell's "1984" with regard to the islands. Orwell said that a country that loses its history, loses its identity and its freedom. It is almost as if Orwell knew that Cultural Marxism was on its way and what the outcome would be. England's history is being hidden in the name of fighting eurocentrism, as is true also on the Continent. But our history is our identity, as with the Outer Hebrides where Herbideans are very tied to their history and their ancestors. And our freedom has gone as free speech is being eroded hour by hour for those who want to preserve historic England and Europe. Nigel Farage on the Tucker Carlson Show on Fox News was berating Sadiq Khan's comparison of Trump to ISIS. Carlson asked him why the English allow it. Farage said, they shake their heads, say tut tut and look down at their shoes. He is spot on and shows how easy it was for the Left and their puppet masters to silence us. As for freedom, I was interested to read yesterday of a landlord, Fergus Wilson, who barred Asians from renting because of the residual smell of curry. This is no differenrt from barring pet owners or smokers for the same reason. But the Equalities Comission has now taken him to court and forced him to rent to Asians. Little freedom, little identity and little history left but we must keep fighting. I watched the programme on Pasternak and Dr Zhivago. We have not yet reached the totalitarianism of the post-war Soviet Union but we are on our way, as is the rest of Western Europe and North America. As for identity, the United States now has none at all. And to some of us southern England is becoming a mirror image of their multi-cultural melting pot. Hence, the movement of Identitarians on the Continent. But this is just normal and human nature, wanting to preserve your own identity in your own country.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The British Government's website brazenly states that the age at which you qualify for free bus travel is 66, if you live in England and 60, if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. I am in formed by a friend who visits emigrant family in Cardiff that her English bus-pass cannot be used in Wales. United Kingdom? Forget it!
    Clive.
    W-s-M

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clive,

      I was one of the last to get my bus pass at 61. My wife is going to have to wait until she is 66. I would be interested to know if England is funding the earlier bus pass in the Celtic Fringe and are we also funding no prescription charges there? My cousin lives near Glasgow and used her bus pass to ride free to the Isle of Skye. I thought that was a nice idea until I discvered that I could not use my pass north of the border. I don't think it would even get me as far as Lockerbie but she can travel free all the way down to Carlisle.

      Delete
  4. As globalism continues to collapse, Monsieur Macron has accused Putin and Trump of ganging up together to erode the EU's core liberal values. Thank goodness for that. We must bear in mind that Macron is an ex-employee of the Rothschild Bank.

    I happened to listen to an item on the BBC World Service about Hungary and other nations of Eastern Europe the other day, entitled - no surprise with the Beeb - Illiberal Democracies. It centred on the battle between Victor Orban and George Soros whom Orban accuses of using his billions to bring about the mass refugee influx into Europe to undermine Europe's culture, identity and Christian heritage. Interested to hear political commentator Jon Gaunt say on RT the other day that you are no longer allowed to be a Christian in Modern Britain regarding the teacher suspended for "misgendering" whose school Bible Club was instantly supressed.

    So doubly encouraged by Farage calling on all euro mps to disclose any dealings with Soros who has just given the bulk of his wealth - some 18b dollars - to boost his Open Society's efforts to bring about the one world multicultural Marxist revolution and sustain the EU's left-wing agenda, according to Farage, who also said that Open Society has regular meetings with the EU Commission.

    The battle for the preservation of Europe's identity is being fought in the east and Israel has just accused Polish protesters against multiculturalism of gross anti-semitism. A speaker from Orban's home town said that Hungary had put up with the Muslim Ottoman Empire for 150 years and did not want it back.

    The United States are now in total collapse thanks to the mass immigration kicked off by the Left and their financial backers in the 1960s. Peter Lavelle on RT's Cross Talk said that he saw his country ending like the Roman Empire through total corruption. This was actually predicted by an American painter 200 years ago.

    Such is the state of play there that the orginator of posters stating that "It is ok to be white" is being sought as the posters are deemed to be divisive. However, the writing of an article for the NY Times by a non-white asking if their children should trust whites is not viewed as racist. Can you imagine things the other way round? The posters would have been hailed if they had said that it is ok to be a person of colour and the article would have been suppressed if it had questioned whether whites should trust the people of colour about to outnumber them.

    On Cross Talk last night it was suggested that the censorship in the West is now little different from that of Soviet Russia. As a Russian said, "I have lived your future and don't want to have the same here". There is little difference between Cultural Marxism and Communism. They are two sides of the same coin. Interested to watch "The Russian Revolution in Colour" on Yesterday. In the 1960s we were made to think that the Tsars were bad and Lenin good. So I was amazed to learn that Lenin did not believe in democracy and that the Bolsheviks broke up the nascent democratic Duma and punished those behind it. Seems we are now at the same point in history; the removal of democracy and a total Marxist police state. The reaction of the Western elites, who now seem grossly threatened by our grumblings of discontent, seems to be to blame the rebellions on Russian meddling. Have you acquired one of those little badges saying that you are a (Russian) foreign agent yet, Robin?

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  5. With regards to Russian meddling, my wife is Russian and on no occasion did she advise me to vote to leave the EU, there were no threats of her going to the gulag if her husband voted stay in the EU, infact on the lead up to the vote I was in Russia, not one person lent on me to vote out, Russian influence on the vote out is tenuous to say the least

    ReplyDelete