NI well and truly has its snout in thetrough: advisor
David Willetts, now a Conservative MP but in 1985 a twenty-something member of the policy unit at 10 Downing Street, made the claim in a briefing note to the Prime Minister on expenditure in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
On July 29, 1985, he wrote: “Scotland and Northern Ireland have their snouts well and truly in the public expenditure trough.
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Hide Ad“The challenge is to find a politically acceptable way of putting them on the same diet as the English.
“Last year, the Treasury proposed a ‘Needs Assessment Study’ to prove that Scotland and Northern Ireland were getting more than their fair share. “You rightly rejected that approach. It offered the worst of all possible worlds - an almighty row in Scotland, without any prospect of immediate savings.
“The Treasury have learnt their lesson. They aren’t advocating more fancy studies - the figures we already have in the paper show clearly how well Scotland and Northern Ireland are doing.
“What we need to do is to hold expenditure in 1986/87 and beyond in a way that is politically defensible.”
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Hide AdLast year Mr Willetts, speaking in his capacity as Universities Minister, controversially suggested a tuition free-for-all for students from Londonderry, London and Llandudno would create a £150m black-hole for third level colleges in a post-independence Scotland.