I’m not anti-Scot or, for that matter anti-Welsh, despite what my family thinks. I was and am, anti-devolution but now it’s in place we have to live with it and fight for English democratic equity. And one major question is economic. The famed ‘Barnet Formula’ – where tax income – or state funds – are distributed to the nations that make up the United Kingdom – is grossly unbalanced to England’s disfavour, despite the relative size of England and it’s population.

Of the four nations that make up the UK, state spending per head is higher in the three smaller countries leaving England at the bottom of the spending list as well as having no elected body to administer England’s concerns.

It is English tax-payers money that allows Scotland’s Universities to waive top-up fees. It is English tax-payers money that allows free residential care for Scotland’s elderly. It is English tax-payers money that allows drugs – such as Herceptin – to be available to all Scottish residents who need it. The list goes on and now we can add one more.

It will be English tax-payers money that is going to pay for free eye tests for all in Scotland. And not just the standard test that we English pay £20 plus for.

Speaking on a visit to an Aberdeen optician, Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen said: “People throughout Scotland will now be able to access an eye examination which will be more comprehensive than the current eye tests most of us are familiar with.

So – if you are English and can’t afford an eye test isn’t it good to know that our friends north of the border can see you quite clearly as they thumb their noses at you? And you paid for it.