ANOTHER FELONY COMPOUNDED..

I read yesterday that the British Medical Association were imploring the Government to abolish prescription charges in England. At present, the charge for each item on a prescription is £7.10 - a considerable sum which doesn`t take into account the actual cost of producing the medications which are prescribed. Some of them - especially for `popular` ailments like hypertension - are very cheap to produce.

For some time now, prescription charges in Wales have been abolished and before long there will be no charge for prescriptions in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Which leaves England. Today, the Government`s response to the call made by the good doctors on the BMA has been to announce that, from 1st April, the £7.10 charge in England will not be abolished but instead be increased to £7.20.

Now, I happen to be on regular medication for high blood pressure and to control cholesterol and I get a prescription each month for three lots of pills. As I am well past the sell-by date of 60, I don`t have to pay the charge, which would amount to £21.30 each month, soon to be £21.60. So maybe I have nothing to complain about, but the truth is that I am finding it more and more offensive that we in England have to effectively subsidise our Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish neighbours in the United Kingdom....and I wonder why.

Maybe we in England are suffering increased levels of high blood pressure as a result of yet another iniquity and so we consume more and more pills to combat its effects. But whatever the reason, it`s beginning to wear a bit thin. It`s one thing having to put up with the wasteful, self-serving, dictatorial nonsense that is the EU, but quite another when our so-called United Kingdom is becoming increasingly disunited as a result of own goals like this one.