It has to be said, the more I read of stuff like this, the happier I am about our impending move to sunnier climes.
I've always considered myself a socialist (with a small "s"), but it is becoming harder and harder to justify such a romantic idealism when faced with the hard-faced political machinations within the, ahem, United Kingdom.
How on earth can the situation continue when the majority of tax payers (English) are subsidising the political largesse of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly? It's not just the prescriptions, the Scottish have already done away with University Fees for students and the Welsh are considering making all hospital parking free when all the while, the English continue to pay more and more for their services. Now, I'm no Economic expert, but I'm pretty sure such schemes would be non-starters if they weren't funded from Westminster.
Maybe it's time that England got their own parliament and the likes of Gordon Brown returned north of the border. Or go all the way and regionalise all government, as I believe Yorkshire has a larger population and economy than Scotland.
The way things are going, the United Kingdom could well degenerate into another Yugoslavia, with provincial frustration spilling over into political in-fighting and spiraling downwards from there. Throw the increasing religious element into the mix and it's a tinderbox waiting to happen.