Just catching up - well done Boris !

Just catching up on events post holiday came across this rousing article by The Boris .

Here's an extract - but read the full thing. Perhaps you have already, I'm only playing catch up here. But in short - well done Boris. We need to keep this up. Its time for justice for England and I for one would rather have it from a free Conservative government than a celtic NuLabour attempt to calculate the bare minimum to keep them all joined with their ministerial salaries and perks after the next election..

....Gentlemen of England now abed, here is the position. The Scots have free nursing care for the elderly — subsidised, under the Barnett formula, by us, the English — while we cannot afford it in England. The Scots have the luxury of refusing to charge their students top-up fees — since they are subsidised by us, the English — while English students have to cough up. Now we learn that the Scots have free cancer drugs — subsidised by us, the English — while we in England are told they are not cost-effective.

And all this injustice is provoked by a fundamental constitutional imbalance. It was because of devolution that the Scottish equivalent of Nice was able to decide that it no longer needed to obey the rulings of this so-called "National" body. It is because of devolution that Scots are able to make their own health arrangements, in the comfortable knowledge that Whitehall will bung them an extra couple of hundred quid for every Scot. It is because of devolution that the numerous Scottish MPs, with their small constituencies, are able to vote on questions that affect England, while English MPs have no corresponding say over healthcare in Scotland.

It is just not good enough for Alistair Darling or John Reid or Charlie Falconer or Gordon Brown or any one of these smooth-talking Scots to say, as they do, that the only answer to the West Lothian question is to "stop asking it".