SO, the Scots are to be bribed to vote “no” in September’s independence referendum by raising the extra funding they get to £733 more per person, more than double the £361 extra they were getting in 2010-11 (Echo, Apr 14).
Once again the Scots are to be favoured at the expense of the North-East. Not only have Scotland and Wales had the advantage of this extra money since 1978, they can now decide how to spend it themselves through their own parliament and assembly.
Yet Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont says: “It’s not about the Barnett formula.” But it is.
Unless and until the North- East, now lagging far behind Scotland and Wales, gets its own Barnett formula and the powers to spend it, our region will stay bottom of the league. When will the people of the North-East wake up to this simple fact?
Chris Foote-Wood, Darlington.
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