Originally Posted by
stewarty27
This is Labour's "Something for nothing" jibe and look where it got them. Its often fairer and more efficient for services to be paid for centrally through general taxation, which is itself based on ability to pay. Free prescription charges for example costs £57 million, a relatively small sliver of the £34 billion Scottish budget, but up to half of that saving will be lost through the cost of constructing a new bureaucracy to manage the transition and identify and collect from those who are to pay in future. The nugatory savings from bus passes or the winter fuel allowance are hardly going to pay off the national debt. Free personal care for elderly people is expensive at a cost of £360 million, but much of this is saved in the NHS by helping keep older people independent in their own homes rather than occupying beds in hospitals. Its not just Populist policies Bodie there also clever policies. Perhaps you should put your energies into opposing Trident that in itself would save 200Bn.
