CHARLIE WHELAN: SNP’s responsible for Scots’ National Unhealthy Service
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There is one area where the SNP Government has full control and can’t accuse anyone else for all the problems and that is the National Health Service.
That, of course, won’t stop the Nats from trying to blame others when things go badly wrong which is why renowned Nationalist Fergus Ewing, who seems to care more about building roads than hospitals, fails even to mention that it’s his government which is making the cuts that have seen the works on the new Grantown Health Centre being put on hold.
Ewing says he will seek an explanation from NHS bosses!
Er...what? We know what the explanation is already, Fergus.
Your government announced it a few weeks ago and that was to stall on a number of projects across the Highlands. It’s nothing to do with NHS bosses or their magnificent staff.
Is it any wonder that the good folk of Grantown are holding a town hall protest meeting and the key movers in this are the doctors, nurses and health workers from the town’s practice?
The SNP never take responsibility for their own failings. Our Scottish health service may be falling apart and our kids education may be getting worse but it’s never their fault.
Hopefully, they will get a rude awakening at the next election when we the voters may have a say in that. I wouldn’t fancy canvassing for votes in Grantown if I were them.
• I see that George Galloway has yet again been elected to Parliament at a by-election.
I wouldn’t expect him to be MP for Rochdale for long though.
As the anti-racist organisation Hope not Hate said: “George Galloway has a track record of moving from place to place, whipping up hateful politics that divides communities, spreading misinformation and dangerously demonising opponents, only to leave soon after.”
I’ve never been a fan of Galloway since as a Labour MP he demanded that the head of the Treasury sack me for calling him a piece of excrement!
The Treasury boss refused, saying: “ Charlie would never call him that, more likely he called him a piece of s***.”
• Remember when the Nationalists demanded that Scotland should have their own BBC nine o’clock news? Hatred was whipped up by nationalist demonstrators against the then highly respected BBC political editor Nick Robinson.
At a saltire-waving demo one banner read “Sack Nick the liar Robinson, totally corrupt journalist.”
To its eternal shame the BBC eventually gave into the pressure from the now disgraced ex-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and not only set up ‘The Nine’ but also an entirely Scottish digital channel.
It’s just unfortunate for the Nationalists that the Scottish people didn’t have the same appetite for this new venture. Last week the BBC gave the show the red card as viewing numbers tumbled.
One week there were just 1,700 people tuning in or just 0.1 per cent of those watching TV at the time. The earlier news programme had just 200 people watching! If there was ever a reason to keep politicians away from deciding what we should watch, that was it.
n The salmon-fishing season has already started on the Spey and I’ve been digging out my tackle and putting my rods up.
I can’t say I’m very optimistic about actually catching anything as I didn’t have any luck last year. It was the year of the lowest number of salmon caught in Scotland since records began.
We all know by now the reasons for this and it’s why I’ll not be giving up my campaigns against pollution and an end to all blockages on our rivers especially the Spey dam. You have been warned!
• Charlie Whelan (Labour) was Gordon Brown’s spokesman
