Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Yep, keep paying your taxes so we can continue having free prescriptions :rofl:

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Well, at least you've now acknowledged that the rest of the country needs 'the usual part' to prosper economically.

That is more than the separatists seem able to grasp, anyway! :D

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Mainly because most of the infrastructure funding has been focused there, creating a self-fulfilling cycle.

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Prescriptions are free in Wales not through some great socialist ideal, but because it was shown that the system to collect prescription fees cost more than the prescription fees they received.

" Less government money is spent for each person in Wales than in Scotland or Northern Ireland."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35977052

---------- Post added at 16:58 ---------- Previous post was at 16:54 ----------

The WA is sneaking-in Minimum Unit Pricing for Alcohol "sometime this summer" after "public consultation".

In other words, they just mirror a lot of what Scotland does, but nothing that costs too much WA money. But more usually hitting Joe Public in the pocket.

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Scotland has some properly remote communities and a demographic mix that means it does actually cost money to provide free prescriptions; more than the cost of collecting charges. It would have cost a whole lot more to means test prescription charges (although the exemption cards for those on low incomes are still distributed in Scotland, so those with the dearest need could always get them free). It isn’t a socialist ideal here either, it’s an electoral bribe that forms part of the SNP’s strategy of differentiation.

Oh, and the first evidence since the introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland is that it doesn’t work. Grog consumption hasn’t gone down. In fact it’s gone up slightly, though of course the hardliners will claim that without the policy it might have gone up by more.

Oddly, I just checked in two Dutch people at my B&B who were bemoaning British alcohol licensing laws. In the course of the conversation they revealed that they had heard the Welsh were the hardest drinkers in the UK. Make of that what you will ...

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Yeah, yeah.

The SE, of course, is where the bulk of the population is located.

It's not like the government is averse to funding the north. It was the Conservatives who launched the Northern Powerhouse. They are trying to put right a century of underfunding.

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

Yeah yeah, and the bulk of the population is located there because of the money pumped into infrastructure - self-fulfilling cycle...

It’s like most doctors and lawyers come from families that have doctors and lawyers as parents - it’s easier because of the environment...

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

And apparently it's been shown that FPOC medical issues (the kind of thing you'd go to your GP to deal with) have reportedly come down over the years as prescription medicines are now easier to obtain.

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

And there was I thinking my Welsh OH was a hard drinker due to being in the navy..:D

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

And a greater part of the poulation is there because it's close to the capital.

I'm sure that the better climate has a lot to do with it as well.

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

While the southeast is the driest and almost the warmest, there really isn’t enough of a difference between there and most other places in the UK to make an appreciable difference. It’s hardly like choosing Florida over Rhode Island.

And most people don’t need to be near to the capital just because it’s the capital. Washington DC or Canberra don’t attract vast numbers of people, because those cities exist in capital territories, designed for those administrative functions and little else.

The problem we have in the UK is that since we shifted from an industrial economy to one led by services, especially financial services, the greater part of our economic activity is in the city that has the lead in that area. That is London. I once had a long chat with someone high up in Boots plc who was bemoaning the fact that despite being a Nottingham headquartered company, they had to maintain significant operations in London and ensure the London stores were always the most up to date because the investment analysts were all in London and were notoriously lazy about making research trips outside the city. If you wanted their good opinion, and the best investment at the best rates, you have little choice but to go where the money is.

While I argue that it’s its dominance as a financial centre rather than it being the capital city that gives London such a major advantage, there are things governments can do to decentralise and create centres of activity around which other businesses can accumulate, but the problem is that successive governments have done little or nothing to promote decentralisation, though where it is pushed it’s possible to see what a difference it can make - Media City in Salford would be a good example, as it’s the BBC’s presence there that provides the stability for everything else to grow around it.

Re: Will Wales leave the UK? Will it be reduced in size if it does?
 

This ^^^^

And whilst the Northern Powerhouse initiative is starting to make a difference, there's a long way to go.

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/five-yea...work-progress/ It's good for the whole country if the wealth is spread around - then there are fewer complaints about subsiding the North.