Prescription

Freezing prescription charges is all well and good. But England is the only part of the United Kingdom that still has them, and the Conservatives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (where there are a few) are no more in favour of their reintroduction than anyone else is. Similarly, England outside London will soon be the only place without universal free school meals, and the same thing will apply. 

Labour now wants to reintroduce prescription charges in Scotland. The Conservatives do not. But Labour does. As on the Winter Fuel Payment, the jobs tax, the farm tax, the cap on bus fares, and so much else, Labour is now the greater evil, worse than the Tories.

That would be demonstrated again if the Government failed to honour the recommendations of the pay review bodies, whose "independence" has hitherto been proverbial even though they were in fact appointed by the Ministers who set their terms of reference. Never accept a pay rise below the rate at which your private employer was profitabile, nor a pay cut greater than any fall in that, or your employer does not have a business model. And never accept anything less than a pay rise at the rate of inflation from the currency-issuing State.