English regions have lost up to £671m ($996m) in funds for combating recession, according to figures from the European Commission.That may be so, but it still means that England loses out, while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have had their full allocation. It stinks, especially in a time of economic recession. That money could have presumably been used on infrastructure projects which create a lot of jobs. But it seems our government couldn't get off its collective arse and fill in the necessary paperwork to claim the money.
As reported in the FT last month, the government declined a deadline extension offered by Brussels to help the UK spend the money. Ministers took up the option for devolved regions but rejected it for England. The unspent money will instead be recouped by the Treasury, which can deduct it from future contributions to European Union budgets.
I'd like an explanation please, because the one offered by Hazel Blears's department so far is totally unconvincing.
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Alternatively, if the Treasury decides to spend the money, then Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get a cut of it in Barnett Consequentials.
We should stop giving money to the EU and negotiate for a free trade arrangement.
Ms Blears needs to explain why EU money is nt best value for England, but is acceptable for Scotland and Wales.
Could it be that Scotland and Wales have a higher proportion of Labour MP's, who are trying to hand onto their seats, but in England there are too many of those pesky Conservatives and Lib Dems
Good post Iain!
One wonders how the British government will be spending this English windfall...
Presumably the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish will be getting a share.
"Better an imperfect Union than a broken union"?
This Union IS broken as far as I'm concerned.
Home rule for England.
That is shocking!
Given all the guff about fiscal stimulus and bringing spending forwards this news is an outrage.
The government are failing on so many levels, that each new horror story of incompetence or corruption just blends into the background noise.
No doubt Gordon and gang will continue to limp on, notching up outrage after outrage.
This is a long-running saga. HM Treasury have been doing it for at least a decade. Some other EU countries (Spain and Denmark from memory) also do it.
No idea why other than the usual Treasury blinkeredness. At least they actually get the money now - for many years they actually let the EU keep it!
You couldn't make it up.
Explanation: The concept of "England" is detested by these Fabian Federasts.
The explanation is straightforward Iain,as I am sure you realise. This government thinks it can afford to ignore English interests, while falling over backwards to keep Scotland and Wales on side.
The trouble is there does not seem to be any reason to believe that Cameron will be any better. He has no plans to change the Barnett formula and the tone of his speeches to Scottish audiences -respect for Scotland - fixing devolution - sour little Englanders, etc, suggests that grovelling to these minorities will remain the order of the day.
I hope I am wrong, but I can't see anyone speaking for England under Cameron, any more than under Brown
Interesting stuff. And the money could have gone some way to assist those London Labour boroughs who are rejecting Boris' projected social housing increases within their boundaries (Newham seemingly the most vociferous) on the grounds that Boris' figures are economically untenable.
Incidentally, Newham's Mayor (Labour) is always bleating on about how Newham has inner-London problems but is funded (by a Labour Government) as an outer-London borough… some of this money may have come in handy in rectifying this situation. You'd have thought the three Newham MPs (Labour) would have spotted this - Lyn Brown (West Ham); Stephen Timms (East Ham - Financial Secretary to the Treasury); Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar & Canning Town - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport).
Write to your English 'regional minister' (who will be a Labour MP irrespective of the party allegiance of the region in which you live) and demand to know what they are doing about it.
Labour are busy channelling lottery money to their marginal constituencies.
Iain,
Not just if you are English. What plenty people forget is that there are a huge amount of people from Scotland, Wales and NI who are English taxpayers and get the rough deal as well.
I think this Scottish conspiracy stuff is guff. The real disgrace is that the government is supposed to be in the midst of a fiscal stimulus - getting money into the economy. Just like the claim of bringing forward infrastructure spending has been shown up by all the projects being put on the back burner by quangos and govt. departments.
Well, if the government spend money on England, its just spending, whereas they spend money on Scotland, Wales, Ireland, its now investment and hence of much greater moral worth.
The explanation is right there. They didn't forget to fill out paperwork, they did not claim for England because, as the story explains, the Treasury gets to keep the money.
The Treasury was short of cash, so the Scottish Raj that rules Cabinet decided to take money from the English. England is crumbling away, how about a little democracy here? No taxation without representation ...
I for one can't wait for English independence.Ive lived all over the UK and it was the scots and welsh who showed the most racial bias.I thought of myself as british before that.
Is this not just a ruse to make the National Accounts look better.
If the money had gone to the regions the money would not appear in the Governments coffers.
With the reduction in EU contribution, this will directly affect the Government coffers...
Allowing National Debt to be £671 million lower than it otherwise would be.
Of course, once the money is spent, we will be back to square one, however that may be after an election.
I just wish that the English would get up off their knees and start to demand equality with the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish.
We are marginalised and ignored by every party - including the Tories. Can you imaging the furore there would have been if David Cameron had issued his Glasgow 'sour little Englanders' speech to an audience in London and entitled it 'Sour little Scotlanders'?
It puts the faux panic after Jeremy Clarke's little insult into context.
No matter how people try to muddy the waters, a particularly gross form of racism is the result of the Scottish Raj at Westminster: the so-called "Celtic" elite gets jam, England, the largest and most cosmopolitan nation gets the dregs.
There is a row in Wales because £77m is likely to be returned to Brussels.
See http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/welsh-politics/welsh-politics-news/2009/02/04/wales-still-set-to-send-77m-back-to-ec-despite-getting-more-time-to-spend-it-91466-22849194/
Restore Hadrian's Wall and then send the Scottish MPs home, for ever.
"Let 'em eat fried Mars bars".
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