England is the only country in the UK not to have its own devolved Parliament and now , as from the 1st of April the only part of the UK where citizens have to pay prescription charges ( £ 7.40 per item of medication) .Scotland , N Ireland and Wales have all legislated for free prescriptions . Seems to be an obvious point .
B K
Favorite Answer
Well the English had their chance to get regional assemblies, but rejected it.
It's not our fault the English vote Tory. You get what you deserve!
You might not like it, but the Scots get to choose how we spend our own money. Next time it comes to the elections, you'll have the chance to vote for what you believe.
The Dark Side
Because it is a "devolved matter" so the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Senedd and Northern Ireland Assembly can make their own rules. If Labour hadn't tried to do its best to break up the United Kingdom by creating the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd, Wales and Scotland wouldn't be different. Northern Ireland has always had a special position because of the particular circumstances there.
Robo kitteh
According to the BBC news this evening, England is spending money on a lot of other NHS services which Scotland DOESN'T get, including a £200 million cancer fund, 90 walk-in treatment centres and a guaranteed treatment time for cancer patients.
The grass isn't always greener, and the UK press rarely present both sides of the story like the BBC did for once today.
THE WANDERING IRISH TAXI DRIVER
It started with Wales abolishing prescription charges, then people in the other two devolved countriess wanted free medication too (they've got it we want it as well). English constituents should write to their MP's demanding that they get the same concession.
Andrew H
I think the obvious answer is look at who's in charge at Westminster. The Tories are simply not going to implement this type of policy.
It's worth noting though that even in England, 90% of prescriptions are already free:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12928485
@Dark Side: If Scotland hadn't had devolution we would probably be independent by now. Labour only implemented it because they knew they pressure for change was becoming explosive.