We've known it for years, Lord Joel Barnett, devisor of the Barnett Formula in the late 1970s, has admitted his shame over his name being associated with the Barnett Formula, and now he is speaking up again after Gordon Brown has once more told a bared faced lie in the House of Commons, trotting out that hoary old chestnut that the formula is "needs based".Says Lord Barnett:
"All I did was put together, almost on the back of an envelope, a mechanism for allocating public expenditure between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the basis of population - even that was on approximate numbers.
"There was nothing scientific about this but I naively thought it made life easier for me because I didn't need to then have detailed and individual debates with the individual Secretaries of State for the various areas of the UK."
He added: "I don't think I even put it to Cabinet because it was simply a system of expenditure allocation, making life a little easier for me."
Lord Barnett said he thought it would only last a year or two before being replaced by a system based on need.
"The current Prime Minister has frequently said in recent years that the formula is based on need but it isn't.
"It is based on a per-capita basis although varied slightly over the years - a very simple system, very simple but very wrong."
Read the full story here.
Meanwhile, Toque has news of Gordon Brown's latest wheeze - selling off English NHS hospital land and buildings. Read it here.
But, of course, this is only in England - it's only the best for Gordon's own constituents up in Scotland - and for the elites in the two other so-called "Celtic nations"...
Thanks to the Barnett Formula and Gordon's incredibly pronounced anti-English/England stance.
No comments:
Post a Comment