We were in the local chemist's last week looking for a run-of-the-mill tube of something or other. While waiting in the queue, we became aware of the assistant handing over a prescription medicine to an obviously well-to-do lady who had been awaiting same. The lady then proffered the assistant a £20 note only to be told that prescriptions had been free now for some years. She had no idea.
It reminded us of the time last year when we were visiting a Scottish city and took the bus into town one mid-morning from our billet some three miles out. While we paid our fare in full, we became aware that all of the other passengers who hopped on were using bus passes, apart from a teenage schoolboy who had to pay the appropriate fare. Suddenly, free bus passes for the over-sixty didn't seem right one little bit.
While The Wee Man may well rave about these two freebies, the reality is that, in Mrs Thatcher's famous words, there is no such thing as a free lunch and someone is always left holding the bill. While we are aware that the nationalists did not introduce the free bus pass, they did, nevertheless, introduce the free prescription and both items are now costing the taxpayer upwards of £500 million a year.
Ms Lamont is right to say that such political bribes require to be revisited.
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