Oh Frank!

I often think that any future break-up of the UK would probably happen because of simple misunderstandings. All too many Scots seem to think that large numbers of English folk are rich, bloated capitalists who drive around in Bentleys. Even the Scots-born Birmingham MP who managed his party's disastrous election campaign in the town that builds Bentleys seems to think like that!

But the English get Scotland wrong too. Even Frank Field, the only sensible person in the Labour Party.

Here he is in today's Telegraph:

With no residential care-home fees, Scots, unlike the English, don’t face having to sell their homes to pay them.

But it's not true!

What's provided in Scotland is "Free" Personal Care. That's help with things like personal hygiene. The cost of the accommodation itself is born by the resident - just like in England. Now, as a libertarian, I don't think that the state should be paying for any of this. But at least we should get the facts right. As far as I can see, every single blogger and journalist in England believes that retirement and nursing homes in Scotland are provided by the taxpayer. It ain't so.