We all know that the National Health Service is facing unprecedented pressures on its resources at all levels - anyone who has struggled to get a doctor's appointment or is on an interminable waiting list for treatment will testify to that.

But that is absolutely no excuse for some areas such as Bradford and surrounding districts receiving increases to their health budgets which can only be described as derisory.

And to heap insult on injury, other parts of the country are getting up to twice as much NHS cash as areas in our part of the country.

It is, after all, called the National Health Service, and there can be no valid reason for parts of the north getting a rougher deal than our counterparts in the south.

Bradford, especially, has well-documented health issues so it cannot be argued that there is a greater need than the one we have in our district where obesity, smoking and child mortality continue to be major issues.

It is hard to argue with those commentators who have surmised that this is simply a vote-winning move on the part of a government which wishes to court areas which might return the favour at the polls this spring.

With Bradford getting just a 1.71% increase in its budget and neighbouring areas receiving as little as 0.24%, while areas such as Windsor and Ascot get a whopping 3.5% boost to their funding, this would appear to be the north-south divide rendered at its most stark.

Public health should trump politics every single time, and this money should go to where it is most needed, not to where it might win votes.