WHY on earth are Scottish taxpayers paying £4.78 a pop for pharmacies to hand out paracetamol to well-off people? It’s a question I raise in the spirit of a long-overdue debate about Scotland’s love for universal benefits . 3 Scots receive prescriptions for free as part of a universal benefit Credit: Getty 3 Pharmacy paracetamol costs the tax payer £4.
79 a time - compared to 37p on the street 3 Chris Musson, the Scottish Sun's Associate Editor for Politics, has called for more common sense Credit: Andrew Barr Government is struggling to afford the basics, and last week the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves , decided enough was enough with one example of this — the Winter Fuel Payment. The benefit of up to £300 per person is being stopped for people other than society’s worst-off, in a bid to help plug a £22billion hole in public finances. This move prompted shrieking from the likes of the SNP, who have shown over time they love nothing more than a good universal freebie to butter-up middle-class voters.
The Scottish Government was due to get £180million this winter to start their version of the Winter Fuel Payment. Read More Scottish Politics RUTTY HELL Scotland's eye-watering pothole repair bill REVEALED in new SNP Gov stats CHOPPY WATERS SNP accused of overseeing ‘national embarrassment’ as ferries delayed AGAIN Remarkably, they managed to come up with a worse name for the same benefit, having announced their intention to bring in the — wait for it — the �.