There’s been a couple of opinion polls over the past couple of days. First there was YouGov’s multiregressive synaptic trigonometrical poll, or something like that. It was some new sooperdooper method of polling from the bottom up, and the result would see an absolute majority for the Conservatives in the UK as a whole. Because too many people in the rest of the UK are mad and gammony. The same poll’s Scottish subsample would place the SNP on 43 seats, almost wiping out Labour, taking Caithness from the Lib Dems (I met the SNP candidate Karl Rosie when I was in Wick the other week – good guy, vote for him!) and making modest gains against the Tories.
Today a new, Scotland only poll, was published. An IPSOS Mori poll for STV places the SNP on 44%, an 18% lead over the Conservatives who have just 26%, with Labour a distant third on 16% and the Lib Dems picking up just 11%. On this result, the SNP would see a gain of 13 seats taking them to 48, the Tories would lose 7, dropping to 6, and Labour would be left with just Ian Murray in Edinburgh South. Meanwhile the same poll places support for indepenence on 50%. As it was primarily a poll of Westminster voting intention, it seems (although I could be mistaken) that it doesn’t include either 16 and 17 year olds or EU citizens, both groups who would have a vote in an independence referendum but not in a Westminster General Election. That would place the true figure for independence very slightly higher.
Both these polls point to similar outcomes. Support for the SNP in this General Election has increased compared to the General Election of 2017, and support for independence continues to show a slow and incremental increase. However a poll doesn’t really matter, only voting does. So it’s vital to ensure that people who support independence and support the SNP get up and get out to vote. If we don’t make sure that happens, then the sole crowing narrative that we’re going to hear from the media and the anti-independence parties is that Scotland doesn’t want independence, and doesn’t want another referendum. No party is perfect, but the SNP is the only vehicle that we have, and it’s the only vehicle which can get us across the bridge of the next General Election. All routes to another independence referendum must first cross that bridge.
Meanwhile, after assuring all the other party leaders that Boris Johnson would be subjected to constant interruptions from an Andrew Neil who has no interest in getting answers from politicians, but merely wrong footing them, we discover that the Conservative leader has -at the last minute – cancelled his interview. He got the result he wanted, the other party leaders were sneered at by the Brillopad, while he gets away without scrutiny. The BBC was at best naive to agree to allow Johnson to be interviewed last. It was entirely predictable to everyone that he’d cancel at the last minute after interviews with the other party leaders had already been broadcast. The Tories have judged that it’s less damaging for Johnson to be accused of cowardice than it is for him to be shown up to be the empty headed opportunistic liar that he really is. So instead of being ritually humiliated by Andrew Neil, he’s going to spend some time wherever it is that Jacob Rees Mogg is hiding. If Andrew Neil, the chairman of the right wing Spectator magazine, can’t get an interview with Boris Johnson, the former editor of the right wing Spectator magazine, then any pretence of political accountability in the UK is dead.
Johnson had already pulled out of the Channel 4 debate which is due to focus on climate change. Brave brave brave bold Sir Boris. This is a man whose sense of entitlement is so great that he believes that he has the right to rule the UK, to determine the course that our lives take, to unilaterally suspend Scotland’s democratic right to decide its own future, to take us out of the EU, and all without being held to account either by the public or by Parliament. He’s very brave when it comes to calling gay men “bum boys”. He’s fearless in his willingness to insult muslim women. He’s bold in his ability to father children that he refuses to acknowledge. He’s courageous when it comes to using racist language to describe people in Africa. He’s heroic when it comes to dismissing the abuse faced by women MPs. But when it comes to explaining himself, when it comes to being held to account for his lies and deceit, he’s a spineless snivelling coward.
This is a man who would fail a character test for a licence to have a dog. He’s a man who penned an article in the Telegraph about how it was unfair and reprehensible that married couples were expected to contribute via their taxes to the support of single mothers who “chose” to have children without being in stable relationships with the father, all the while he was cheating on his wife and siring children he later refused to take responsibility for. Yet this loathesome creature is entirely likely to become the next Prime Minister of the UK.
Yeah. You might detect a note of scorn. You might pick up that I really dislike Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. You’d not be wrong. This man is dangerous. He lies as easily as the rest of us breathe, and he’d be happy to sell his grandmother to a US health corporation if he thought there was an advantage in it for him. So you can be sure that he’s got even less concern for the rest of us. I lived all the way through the 1980s, and worked up a supervolcano’s worth of contempt, anger, and disgust for the Conservative government of Thatcher. This guy is worse.
Voting to reject the lying liar Boris Johnson and his bunch of xenophobes, sectarian bigots, and English nationalists is a moral imperative. It’s only by ensuring that we hammer the Tories in Scotland that the Scottish Government will have the political and moral capital it requires in order to pursue Scotland’s right to decide its own path – a path that takes us away from deceitful entitled posh boys who refuse to be held to account as they trash our public services, destroy our democracy, and reduce us to forelock tugging downstairs servants in a dystopian Downton Britain.
So vote. Vote to keep out the Tories. Vote for the candidate most likely to keep the Conservatives out in whatever seat you live in. In most seats in Scotland, that means voting SNP. Your future, the future of your children, and Scotland’s future depend on it.
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Wee Ginger Dug 
[…] Wee Ginger Dug The lying liar who refuses to be held to account There’s been a couple of opinion polls over the past couple of days. First there was […]
By all rights he should never be a candidate based on his record of being racist, a bigot, a sexist, a homophobic and a complete liar.
Let’s not forget Johnson published in the Spectator that racist article saying Scots should be put in concentration camps and then exterminated like vermin. Shades of Hitler’s rhetoric.
He is doing his best to fool people at the moment by avoiding scrutiny but the mask will come off if he gets a decent majority and it won’t be a pretty sight. Does anyone really think that someone who published such an article will not choose ( as Thatcher did ) to pass on any economic pain to Scotland rather than England.
There is only one answer and it is Scottish independence and it needs to be soon.
Is Dom the master puppeteers wife not 2nd in charge of the Spectator?
She is indeed
So Neil is chairman and the master puppeteers wife is 2nd in charge. Does that not tell you what’s really going on? It really does look like a set up by Bojo’s master.
It certainly smells that way.
I think I read elsewhere that she may also be Brillo’s editor (presumably for his TV work).
Holy moly. Even the name of the rag is a flippin’ lie. Whatever they are, they ain’t spectators.
A key point has been left out Paul.
The state broadcaster, Pravda with its Scottish branch MacPravda, are likely to have been in on the act. Pravda has been getting called out more frequently now for their obvious political bias. Actually most of this is from Labour supporters complaining of their treatment and there is a tendency, from me at any rate, to give a shrug and say, ‘well, your propaganda chickens are coming home to roost are they not?’ Pravda must have made the political impact calculation that the others could get the full Neil propaganda treatment, and then if Mr de Pfeffel Johnson refrains from participation they can say ‘honest, it’s not us, we asked him’. He has form for ducking out of awkward corners does Mr de P J and Pravda knows this as well as the rest of us.
A wee thought for you for a future article when you’ve a wee cup of tea and a lie doon. In the almost forgotten CCCP era there was what was called a politburo. Editors were summoned to be told the line they were to follow. Now thinking of the unity of party line that exists between all the news channels and that group now known only as the MSM, is somebody trying to tell me that the Politburo concept has not been privatised?
p.s. thanks for the endorsement of our great candidate Karl Rosie. Good to see you in Wick.
Doesn’t have to be an organised politburo-type structure as Noam Chomksy has explained!
There’s something vile in the state of the state broadcaster that no amount of bleach can ever defeat…it has to be put out of its misery imho!
Brillo could “empty chair” Boris.
His past lies, misoginisms, homophobia, racist comments, pro and anti Brexit statements, his conduct in government, his disloyalty, his contempt for women, not least his wives—-all could be read by actors.
We used to be good at satire, but the rich and famous seem to have had it expunged from radio, TV and print.
As if satire could cover the life, times and crimes of this ‘Golden Child’!
Gavin,
Well he was ‘represented’ by a melting block of ice on Channel 4 tonight, apparently. (Climate Change Debate). And the Tories are going to Ofcom to complain. You couldn’t make it up.
Incidentally, they also tell me that my First Leader (Adam) made an excellent case, too. Perhaps Petra or another of my fellow ‘vile seps.’ can verify.
I can confirm Adam was good.
I enjoyed the ice blocks – one for Johnson one for Farage. One Tory on Newsnight says Sturgeon is not a leader and she was there – she’s not busy she is not campaigning as the Scottish election is not until 2021 but Boris is too busy campaigning to attend. What a load of ignorant bull some Tories come out with. Sturgeon is campaigning, running the Scotgov and was at FMs questions at Holyrood today. What the Tory meant was she is not a leader of a London controlled party and therefore does not count. What a Tory moron.
I was amazed to hear Adam say there is no rail line between south and north Wales. He was comparing that with HS2 being proposed from south to north England when Wales does not have any line at all. The UK will never serve Wales well.
Cubby,
I used to live in the heart of what English speakers call Snowdonia (in a hamlet of 60 people) and 9 miles south of the nearest railway station at Bangor (Gwynedd).
In order to visit my capital city of Caerdydd/Cardiff by train (a distance of some 171 miles), I could take a semi-fast train which would take about 4 (FOUR) hours 30 minutes (with two changes). This would also cross the English-Welsh border 4 (FOUR) times.
Even the fastest train Bangor-Caerdydd takes 4 (FOUR) hours 14 minutes, is direct and again, cross the border 4 (FOUR) times.
As for road transport, the main North-South artery is the A470, which is not dualled all the way from Llandudno-Caerdydd, a distance of 186 miles. That would take about 4 (FOUR) hours 23 minutes.
Going by bus from North Wales to Caerdydd – on the A487? 9 (NINE) hours and 25 minutes – with one change.
Here endeth the lesson on Welsh transport.
(I should mention – the bus doesn’t cross the England-Wales border once …)
I’ve been to Bangor train station. Went on holiday once by car to Anglesey and my son joined us by train from his Uni.
In Scotland we only have a 2 lane motorway between our two largest cities Glasgow and Edinburgh. Half a century of oil wealth and no 3 lane motorway. In fact parts of it have only recently been upgraded from an A road.
The UK looks after England and wastes money. Time for it to end.
Try to avoid casting your eyes over the Irish Sea. If you see the (EU-supported) amount that has been invested in the Irish motorway network and other transport infrastructure, and then look back at poor wee Scotland, you will weep. You really will weep.
Yeah he’s a leader to be proud of WS and actually managed to get the opportunity, uninterrupted, to point out on a number of occasions how Westminster has been treating Wales like sh*t. I was just thinking when I was listening to him and Nicola Sturgeon that they should run programmes like this on a weekly basis (same format .. no audience) covering different issues to help enlighten the UK numpties and that included me when it came to some points that Adam Price made about Wales.
Boris and Farage did a runner, surprise, surprise, and later in the news LBJ was asked if he was going to be interviewed by A Neil. He said (whined), “but I’m here with you now being interviewed. I’m being interviewed all the time.” It’s clear that his advisors, such as Cumming’s are carrying out a damage limitation excercise to minimise the number of people finding out that LBJ is not only a funny big clown but also a big fat ignoramus and that includes his understanding, lack of, his own Brexit deal. Or rather 95% of T May’s deal, the one that he said was garbage and then resigned as FS because he didn’t agree with it.
It’s so bad now, the blatant lying and corruption, that I’m beginning to think that ignorance is bliss right enough.
I have no doubt that Scotland will give the tories a right good kick in the balls. The tragedy is that England will happily vote for Johnson. If there was any further proof that Scotland and England are travelling in different directions and increasingly have little in common, its that they will vote for a man who has only ever failed in life upwards. But what he touches turns to shit.
Correct. Comparatively speaking, Thatcher was a moderate.
And yes, vote, vote, vote SNP.
They’ll keep him well clear of anything that looks like a grilling at this point.
Who’da thunk?
Sometimes I think if only Corbyn found some steel in his pants and fire in his belly and started shouting “Bloody coward Johnson” and “BBC bastards” from the rooftops, people might just start taking him more seriously. Ain’t going to happen unforunately. He is just too nice a peace-loving, fence-sitting guy, trying to lease everyone and impressing noone.
Sorry for the delay in reply Luigi (been off on me travels). 🙂
Corbyn is what he is (shrugs).
The whole thing stinks ambush tbh. Having said that. It’s only going to play well to Johnson’s most ardent support. Pretty sure they’ll consider the whole thing a stroke of genius.
Also pretty sure there’s more than one Tory having second thoughts about now on the the current regime.
Interesting comment on the moral imperative to vote against ABsPJ. Independent of your great mind, just today, relishing the upcoming vote I used the exact same term “moral imperative” to describe the process of selecting a party that goes against returning him to power. Yes, and in Scotland that indeed means SNP.
“This is a man whose sense of entitlement is so great that he believes that he has the right to rule the UK, to determine the course that our lives take, to unilaterally suspend Scotland’s democratic right to decide its own future, to take us out of the EU, ”
Looking at some of the lack of real urgency and anger in Scots, he could very well be right. The seeming indifference to their own massive buggering is something to behold.
Many still talk as if this is just another GE. Extraordinary.
I think I’ll be looking at the offer the Dutch are making.
Looks like the outlaws have taken over the town and the sheriff has either been bought or has pissed off , This brand of right wing Tory are doing exactly what they want and flouting every descent convention and rule out there and the towns folk seem powerless to stop them in their tracks.
I don’t believe if they are real Scottish people those ones who are dyed in the wool Tory , will tolerate Johnstons continued antics I think even they will boak at what is going on .
This carry on bending rules , breaking rules, flouting the law won’t end well .
What a country ( sic ) the UK has become when a person like Boris Johnson and his merry band of neo-fascists can be so far ahead in the polls that we are all f*cked for the forseeable future .
Paul is so right when he calls Johnson ”dangerous ” , not so much for the No-Deal Brexit which is clearly on his agenda ( or rather on the agenda of those who are pulling his strings ) for that would only be the start .
His thwarted attempt to by-pass Parliament ( proroguing ) was a clear and present danger to our democracy , and remember , this was without a Parliamentary majority . Just imagine what this man and his backers will do when he has a working majority – those Henry viii powers will not get rusty through lack of use . Scotland is a prime target for his colonial mindset – doing away with the Scottish Parliament ( in all but name ) will be high on his hit list .
And how many of us really think that the NHS ( Scotland’s or England’s ) is safe when he is in control ?
And who can be confident that he will not enact some extreme policy that dilutes even further the role of Parliament , or does away with elections themselves ? Would you be happy to trust our future democricy ( either Scottish or British ) to this man ?
It is utterly depressing to see the reaction from so many people south of the border to this charlatan , even when faced with irrefutable evidence of his mendacity , his racism and his hypocrisy .
The mainstream media are , of course , completely complicit in creating this vile caricature of a politician , for he serves them and their masters .
Now Corbyn , who I believe is a thoroughly good man but a poor leader , is painted as an anti semite by the media and is hounded to apologise for threats and abuses that he has never uttered , while the Eton Bombscare that is Johnson , who has made a career out of name calling minority groups , sometimes with the most racist terms , is feted by the media and apologists are queued round the block to defend him whenever ANOTHER instance of his racist buffoonery arises .
Ye gods ! He is not just teflon-coated but is ascending to the status of a national icon in the minds of so many voters in England – and his tartan bedecked ( sometimes orange-jaiketed ) Scottish fan club.
John Lawrie ( Dad’s Army ) was so , so right when he proclaimed : ”We’re doomed , all doomed !”
Millsy a black woman really got into their ribs on QT last night (last audience member to speak) about the constant anti-Semitic attack on Corbyn. I’m on my IPad right now so can’t post it but will do so tomorrow.
Don’t think you can do everything by yourself, Petra. DELEGATE! We’re all friendly Duggers here who share the good things (and the not so good, but relevant) with each other.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000bql9/question-time-2019-28112019
Thanks WS. Delegate? Well I really wanted to enquire if anyone else could / would dig it out but decided against it, in case I got short shrift, lol.
Another great article Paul. Thanks for keeping on keeping on.
It was looking good for Neale Hanvey SNP GE contender in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath facing Lesly Laird Labour, however he’s been suspended by the party now due to an anti-Semitic tweet (cartoon?).
Sarah Smith was on the Brexitcast programme last night and said that even although he’s been suspended people can still vote for him. So what about just going out and voting for him to knock the Unionists out?
Oops forgot to post the relevant link.
https://stv.tv/news/politics/1442774-snp-suspend-candidate-over-anti-semitism-claims/
Petra,
There has been a concerted effort by the media to tar the SNP with the anti-semitism charge on the basis of ‘guilt by association’ with Labour. Along the lines of: ‘how could you offer to support a gov led by JC a man the Chief Rabbi has branded unfit for office’
This clip of Ciaran Jenkins, Ch4 news, illustrates that approach which was then taken up by several newspapers including the Herald
https://mobile.twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1199698466404028416
Now they have a scalp.
Thanks for that link Legerwood and doesn’t it just highlight Nicola Sturgeon’s amazing level of professionalism. Truly head and shoulders above any UK politician and in fact I would say, even worldwide. She’s in a fortunate position due to her being innately honest, compassionate and kind. She doesn’t have to rack her brains searching for what she thinks the public wants to hear. She’s formulated her opinions on most subjects over time and can stand up and get her message across with ease. She isn’t too proud (or sneaky) to admit to making mistakes and / or still having a great deal of work to do.
In light of the media trying to tar Nicola Sturgeon with the so-called Corbyn anti-Semitic smear brush they must have been rubbing their hands in glee when Neale Hanvey “slipped up”. Some people seem to be annoyed that he’s been suspended. I reckon that the party had no option but to do so to avoid being hammered by the media from now until the GE and beyond if Corbyn wins and seeks SNP support.
Totally agree.
I like it when you don’t hold back.
Your character (I use the word loosely) analysis is spot on.
Still refusing to be held to account. AGAIN.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/28/cabinet-office-ignores-court-order-to-release-secret-fracking-report
Check out the Human Rights section of the Labour manifesto. Is that what p*ssed Chief Rabbi Mirvis, LBJ’s friend, right off and led to the unprecedented lurch into political realms and subsequent attack on Corbyn?
https://labour.org.uk/manifesto/a-new-internationalism/
And “prioritising conflict.”
Conflation of antisemitism with criticism of the Israeli state has been a propaganda war Israel have been prosecuting successfully for a long time.
Actual antisemitism has existed even longer and probably persists today with a minority in society, they didn’t all join the Labour Party.
There are 1000 in Glasgow. 5000 in Edinburgh. 5.2million population. Scotland is secular,
Netanyahu faces corruption charges. There have been three inconclusive elections. The economy is tanking,
Trump is talking to the Taliban.
The Middle East has been blown to bits. The worse migrant crisis since the 11WW, The EU countries are picking up the bill and dealing with the mess.
The Westminster unionists are trying to Brexit.
I do so agree with everything you say about LBJ. How anyone could vote for him beggars belief!
And I’ve just read an article which referred to him as ‘charismatic ‘! Sometimes you feel you live in a parallel universe.
Check out the latest links on:-
https://indyref2.space/forum/topic/links-friday-29th-november/
In true bully fashion Bojo send his Faither along to intimidate Channel 4 into letting his wee stooge into the debate in his place. ‘Ah’ll get ma Da tae ye’ doesn’t cut it in grown up politics.
Spot on…
Without MSM conspiring to promote the Tories, Brexit, and now Johnson, none of this farce would have unfolded as it has, but at least it gave Scots a good look at the existing and coming chaos of Westminster.
SMSM couldn’t sell Johnson to Scotland even if they tried, so stick to smearing SNP over QEUH..
Just read their latest piece, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-50596004
Quoting from a 2015 Legionella assessment, the advice of risk from “significant communication issues” over water supply, is wilfully misinterpreted as “problem of contaminated water” in the following paragraph, and a statement that nothing was done to prevent the death of this child.
Hello ?
Heads should be rolling all right, Donalda McKinnon and Anas Sarwar would be a good start.
Anas Sarwar has been almost invisible and practically mute since he lost the leadership contest to RL.
His reappearance now on the QEUH issue smacks more of someone positioning himself for another leadership bid post-GE when Labour’s inevitable defeat in Scotland will result in calls for RL to resign as leader than any concern for patient safety.
I just wonder about the QEH whistleblower and how long they were sitting on his / her revelations? Holding them back to coincide with the GE?
Until the price was right perhaps? Or am I being too cynical?
The problem is the perception being spun that these are revelations instead of mischievous assertions for political ends which have no factual basis.
All these reports are either in the public domain or available on request, most are H&S audits SNHS regularly execute to constantly re-evaluate risks.
eg – Note the subject of Sarwar’s latest theatre which the Beeb amplified and stretched.
The 2015 Legionella assessment report risk they seized on was communication, not finding Legionella and hiding it as implied.
Legionella can only thrive in a water/air interface such as a showerhead or a tower cooler within specific temperatures, it cannot exist in a chlorinated water supply or distribution system. Thereby the Beeb’s leap to contaminated water is entirely bogus.
From that false premise, they leapt to “catheter used to administer drugs, became infected” leading to her death, thereby to the parent, negligence caused her death.
The infection of the catheter was one of the possibilities listed on her death certificate, Legionella could neither enter nor survive in that environment, so again bogus.
The whistleblower is probably bogus also, but gives a Deep Throat inference to what is a disgusting propaganda campaign using dead children for political advantage.
You are probably correct in your analysis about Sarwar. However, British Labour are well on their way to being as relevant in Scotland as British Lib Dems. Just another tiny annoying British Party in Scotland that has no say in Scotlands future. They deserve no more.
The New Leader of the RED Tory Branch Office has a solution to the SNP BAD education record.
Send every child to a private school, like wot he did as a Tony Blair New Labour Old Tory Socialist.
No more from me right now. I’m sitting back and witnessing the death of the UK as a democracy.
Dinner to prepare.
Thoroughly enjoying the comments of my fellow Duggers, inspired by some purple prose from the Dug Himself.
The PFI Ayrshire Schools scandal and the BBC setting us all up to convince us that austerity was a GOOOD THING are further boils on the bum of their ‘precious union’.
Daniella Rowlay….despair Momentum Branch Office despair.
I’ll be backing Kelly to take the hot seat when Rimwheel Lemoncurd is booted out and returns to his old job at GMB settling compen claims.
The BBC has got a lot to answer for. They are hammering the SNP and Corbyn right now to ensure that the corrupt, narcissist LBJ gets into power to block Indyref2 and ensure that the UK gets dragged out of the EU. The propaganda strategies that they use are as plain as the nose on your face, blatant, when you watch the news and more so political programmes such as PoliticsLive with Jo Coburn. She uses all other politicians to discredit Labour and then brings on Danielle Rowley Labour (today) to discredit the SNP. Now we’ve got Nick Robinson on PL making excuses for Johnston not attending the debate tonight. Not necessary!
My husband had a Polish relative who was involved in the installation of the water works in Katovice in Poland. When something went wrong with it he and the rest of the management team were thrown into prison without trial. He lolled in there for years, under hellish conditions, whilst his wife and two children suffered extreme poverty due to receiving no wages / benefits. When he was released years later without notice, this highly intelligent man who had nothing to do with the WW problem, was forced to work as a lift operator 7 days a week in a coal mine and additionally was called out through the night. No one advocates seeing that happen in this country, however the instigators, media and politicians, of this horrendous catastrophe that’s about to befall the UK should face some kind of retribution.
The part, small one, that the BBC plays in it all.
https://mobile.twitter.com/IamalrightJack/status/1200030262719066113
My Mum knows a very close friend of Richard Arkless, SNP candidate for Dumfries & Galloway. Richard is up against our Tory Governor General, Alistair Jack.
So, Mum ran into Richard’s pal last night, as he was heading home from the Borders after an exhausting couple of days of canvassing, leafleting & door chappin’ in Dumfries & Galloway, for his mate, Richard.
He told Weemaw, ‘I’m finding this hard to believe, because I canvassed in Dumfries & Galloway in the 2015 & 2017 General Elections, and I have never experienced such responses; but what I can scarcely believe is happening, is happening.
He told went on: there appears to be a terrible, terrible anger burning in Dumfries & Galloway against the Tories and their head henchman, Alistair Jack. Richard’s pal said he is loathe to get his hopes up,or my Mum’s hopes up; but he has never imagined such a dark mood against the Tories in this remain-voting area.
My own anecdotal evidence was a conversation I had with one of my daughter’s pals. She’s from Dumfries and she and all her family voted No in 2014 and had normally voted Tory. Well she said that’s all changed and her family & friends in Dumfries will all now vote Yes and SNP on 12th December 2019, as they feel Boris & Alistair are taking them for mugs..
So, apparently, there’s a slow burning fire building up in Scotland. We’re not going to be taken for fools any longer. Let’s hope it catches as it did in 2015.
I hope. I hope. I hope.
👍
Here’s hoping indeed. I know Richard Arkless, he’s one of the good guys. I was gutted when he lost his seat in 2017. I will be in Stranraer on Saturday 7 December to speak at an event for him. Don’t have the details of the venue just yet, but will post them as soon as I do.
I’m also in Richard’s constituency and was similarly appalled when an excellent, hard-working consituency MP lost out to a Tory placeholder who does nothing to justify being elected as an MP and swift elevation to Scottish Secretary. I would like to think that people have indeed wakened up and realised they have to reverse the last GE result and get Richard Arkless back in.
Fingers crossed.
The media and in particular the BBC keep on and on about the QEUH and hope that people will take that as a sign that the whole edifice of NHS Scotland is crumbling on the SG’s watch.
What the media, and their little helpers on the opposition benches don’t realise is the number of people who use the NHS in Scotland and know it is working for most people despite a growing increase in demand. Let’s look at some numbers:
There are 4.5 million OPD appointments per year of which 1.5 million are first time appointments. Yes the waiting time targets may be missed but given the demand and the fact that 10% of those first time appointments don’t turn up it is doing pretty well.
Each month there are between 100,000 to 130,000 attendances at A&E the majority, around 84-88% are seen, dealt with and discharged within 4 hours.
Each month there are between 25,000 and 30,000 planned operations. Usually less than 10% are cancelled and one of the main reasons for cancellation is the patient cancelling the OP.
Finally, 5.1 million people in Scotland are registered with an NHS dentist out of a population of 5.4 million.
Yes the NHS in Scotland is under pressure from increased demand but it is still working for the vast majority of users and the SG has taken steps to increase staff and put money into the ‘hot spots’
Perhaps the media should take note.
Thanks for the statistics Legerwood. Mind boggling!
One thing for sure is that staff in our hospitals, surgeries and clinics (160,000 of them) plus the millions of patients and their relatives / friends who have been treated / are aware of their treatment won’t be one bit happy with many of the assertions that are being made right now. The media seems to forget that the people that they are attempting to undermine (other than Nicola Sturgeon) and those that rely on them are actually voters too.
They also conveniently forget to mention that the Scottish A&E system differs from that in England with the 4 hour target here equating to the time of arrival to admission / treatment being completed. Down south the four hour target seemingly gets “extended” through the target being renewed every time they’re seen by a different medical professional.
I’d also like to add that my daughter attended QEUH A&E last week. She said that the place was absolutely heaving, especially with children crying and screaming. Many of those, vast majority, who were waiting on treatment were immigrants. She got talking to a nurse who told her that they weren’t allowed to visit a GP hence them all having to bring for example their kids to A&E, many of whom had minor ailments that could have been dealt with efficiently by a GP. A woman sitting next to my daughter said she was horrified to see that so many foreigners were now living in Scotland. “There’s more of them than us now.”
The sooner we get shot of Westminster the better.
A few months ago the results of a survey were published showing the level of satisfaction with the NHS England. What was quite striking was that the level of satisfaction was much higher among people who had actually used the health services compared to those who had not and so were basing their opinion on what they had seen reported in the media. Given the numbers using the health services in Scotland then it is likely to be a minority who get their impression of the service from the media and some will know someone who has used the service and can counteract that publicity.
The UK Gov made the rules that all but denied health care to asylum seekers etc. But they have not stopped there. Health workers from outwith the EU who come to work in the UK now have to pay over £600 to use the health services. They will be paying tax and NI but have to pay this additional tax and pay it for each member of their family who comes with them. This will apply to health workers from the EU once the UK leaves.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/20/calls-scrap-plans-nhs-fee-foreign-staff-health-surcharge
Yet we are told they want to attract workers from overseas to staff the NHS. Funny way of going about it.
“What was quite striking was that the level of satisfaction was much higher among people who had actually used the health services compared to those who had not and so were basing their opinion on what they had seen reported in the media.”
👍
And I see that around 20% of the NHS workforce is non-British (as of September 2014) and it rises to 30% of doctors, when locums are included. As I said already the sooner we get shot of Westminster the better.
The Scottish population has hardly changed since 1900. 5 million. It fell slightly in the 1950’s. War dead? It only increased after Devolution 2000. 5.2Million.
Many of the healthcare workers are migrants. People from Scotland have migrated all over the world! Especially US, NZ, Australia and Canada.
Scotland spends £12.5Billion on healthcare. Higher than the rest of the UK, pro rata. £100Billion. The ConDems cut NHS spending £4Billion a year. (£20Billion) from 2015 to 2020. Cameron/Clegg cut spending on NHS/Education, after promising to support it.
MUP will save lives and funds.
Medical students will now be resident in Scotland, about time. Many came from elsewhere and left again.
Can I copy and post to FB please? Peter
Sure
Legerwood, 29th November at 5:57:
Ledgerwood’s comment is exactly the kind of factual overview that the moderators at Wikiscot.com are looking for, and I’ve therefore posted it there as it stands (except for a wee bit of editing) under ‘Scottish NHS (Indy)’. It can be amended there by anybody, without restriction.
Reblogged this on rebelbreeze and commented:
A blast about Boris from Scotland