Quote Originally Posted by HiVis View Post
it doesn't matter how much fiscal transfers are for infrastructure. If the needs of Wales are different then public spending will be on different things.

As for your claim that the Severn Bridge was funded by the Welsh, the entire suspension bridge is in England, and was funded from central government before the Barnett formula was even thought of.
of course it matters how much is for infrastructure, why can people not see this?
Wales spends a higher proportion on pensions, health issues social security etc BECAUSE we have less money spent on infrastructure offer the decades, it is not a good reason to justify not spending as much on infrastructure as England.

imagine there are 2 towns, one is wealthy with a good rail link , the other is poor with mostly unemployed people and no rail.
if you have a pot of money for infrastructure, do you spend it on the poorer town? or do you further upgrade the rich town because you already spend more in benefits on the poorer town? that is the choice that the UK is continually making and it's bullshit.

the second Severn bridge was paid for by private finance - which cost about £200million - then the agreement made by the Tories was that they would be able to charge for using the bridge until they had made £1bn of profit in 1991 values, after any expenses to maintain the bridge, as this was paid for by motorists it basically came directly from the Welsh economy not paid for by central government at all.
the Welsh paid for it 5 times over!
that whole deal should be a national scandal.