Fair play for the English (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Fair play for the English

IS this Celt-dominated Government subtly reducing the English to second class citizenship?

For two years Scotland has had a more advanced technique for cervical smear testing, which only now is being introduced in England, and then only a pilot scheme. This is scandalous.

The more nutritious school dinners campaign does not apply in Scotland. There it has already been in place for the past 24 months.

You do not have to sell your house in Scotland if you are unfortunate enough to require long-term care. North of the border, where Health Secretary John Ried is a native, different criteria are used.

Now the Welsh Minister, Rhodric Morgan, is to tighten the rules so that the English, just east of the border, cannot get £4 prescriptions compared with £6.50 in England.

Incidentally, Welsh prescription charges will be scrapped altogether in 2007.

Are the English becoming second class citizens after the Scots, Welsh and ethnic minorities?

Am I being jingoistic or just an Englishman who wants parity and fair play?

J E Plumtree

Brook Meadow, Wroughton