PRIME Minster David Cameron recently agreed with other European leaders that spending in the EU should be cut.

That decision means that there will be a 32 per cent reduction in the UK’s structural funds which are intended to attract investment and create jobs.

The North-East was previously expecting £330m over the next six years but that figure is now likely to be reduced by about £110m.

However, Mr Cameron has now decided that Scotland will receive an increase in its structural fund of £193m (Echo, Mar 30).

So he is giving Scotland special treatment, possibly in the hope that it will return the favour by rejecting Scottish Independence in the September 2014 referendum.

And he has taken this step even though Scotland’s gross value added is 98.6 per cent of the UK average, while the figure for the North-East is only 75.9 per cent.

As it says in the Bible: “To everyone who hath shall be given. And from him who hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath.”

Jim Allan, Hartlepool.