So, after growing up in the USA with its advanced medicine if you can afford it, then according to Linkedin, a year in London for a Masters, 5 in back in Boston for a PhD, and 11 in England including 5 in Leeds where the local GP refused a full range of blood tests, Halabi arrived in Aberdeen in June 2023 and continued her search for a diagnosis.
In Aberdeen:
No other availability? That day perhaps? ‘Struggling?’ She went of in the huff and contacted a private GP because she can afford to?
How do I know she can afford it?
An assistant prof in the humanities is not paid at a level where they could regularly do the above. We already saw today a Glasgow private GP charging £6.50 per minute!
Halabi has rich parents back in the USA. She only knows other members of that global elite and the Herald lets her slag our, theirs too, NHS because it did not jump to provide the kind of service she’s used too and to remedy a condition she has clearly had since she was in Leeds, if not long before, judging by the request for blood tests that the GP there did not feel inclined to offer.
What on earth does this case tell us about the NHS care thousands of Scots get every day?
I’ll leave you to answer that.
What on earth does the Herald’s Health Correspondent Helen McCurdle offer us? Zero.
What does she and her pals offer Sir Keir Sturmer’s Englisch Neu Arbeiterpartei and its corporate funders? The earth.
Footnote: 5 years for a PhD after an LSE Masters? Sounds like it was a struggle to get someone to accept its worthiness.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I stuck my wages into one of those online tax calculators and is would seem I pay over 2K more in tax in Scotland than I would if I lived in England. I have no problem with this as that tax goes on free presctiptions, free higher education (meaning our young emerge from Uni debt free), better NHS, schooling, public housing, welfare support for families… the list is becomming endless. I am proud to live in a country that does that.
What I DO have an issue with is lower tax paying foreigners, specifically f****g English settlers freeloading off us.
A big issue has been made about the cost of living crisis, ‘heating or eating’, but what is not mentioned is for our neighbors from hell they also have medication to factor in. I wonder how many English needlessley died of covid because they couldn’t afford their inhailers?
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Indeed
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/09/26/englands-breathing-problems-persist-long-after-covid-pandemic/
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She has , inadvertently , given patients the solution to any delay in getting NHS treatment – simply go abroad – Greece , Bulgaria or the USA . Simples !
Does Sunak not know about this simple solution to long waiting lists ? Bet you he adopts it as part of his manifesto – followed , inevitably, by Starmer .
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I’m not normally a spelling Nazi, but feel compelled to point out that that is not how to spell effluent…
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😉
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O/T….for this article yet also the pattern re #SNPBAD is very much the same.
MSM Monitor Twitter account observes that in Jackie Baillie confirming to the BBC that Labour will vote for Tory VONC in the FM (prior to Labour themselves going one step further and then putting forward a VONC in Scottish government)….the tweet:
“Jackie Baillie has again confirmed Labour will support the Conservatives against the SNP. Whatever happened to ‘No ifs, no buts, no deals with the Tories'”?
Indeed…..but we are now in the political Dog eat Dog territory….of one-upmanship to see who can do most damage, as a pro UK party, via a ‘political opportunity’ , which via elections in Scotland, they, pro UK parties, cannot manage to ever achieve in way of beating the SNP fairly and democratically via the ballot box in Scotland.
Indeed to now listen to the Scottish Greens, namely Lorna Slater, now give interviews to the BBC bemoaning the SNP and confirming the Scottish Greens would vote for the Tory VONC in the FM……….. many of us are somewhat surprised as we recall that the same BBC were the ones who included the accusations of Tories against Ms Slater’s in what they, Tories, called her “hypocrisy” in once taking a “private Ferry for an official visit to an island”……the BBC noted the following on their website in relation to this….
“Donald Cameron, a Tory MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said the Greens were “forever lecturing the public on the need to use public transport” but Ms Slater was “happy for the Scottish government to charter a private boat to take her to and from Rum”.
He added: “Her excuse for doing so – that, essentially, the CalMac timetable doesn’t suit – will go down like a lead balloon with Scotland’s island communities.
“Those who rely on lifeline ferry services don’t have the luxury of hiring a private boat to travel.
“Instead, they are dependent on an ageing and unreliable CalMac fleet they’ve been lumbered with due to the scandalous incompetence of the government Lorna Slater is at the centre of.”
He accused Ms Slater of “breath-taking” hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness, and added that the “tone-deaf indifference to them” was “another kick in the teeth to betrayed islanders”.
Then we had Murdo Fraser ridicule the Scottish Greens as he called them “lentil munching sandal wearing watermelons”……but now he will be more than happy that those same “”lentil munching sandal wearing watermelons” may vote with his party, the Tories, in their VONC in the FM….so who is the biggest hypocrite in this ?
He, Murdo, also once tweeted this about the Scottish Greens “If there’s an extremist Party in Scottish politics the Greens must surely be prime candidates”…..well they will indeed be “extremist” if they, the Scottish Greens, do indeed decide to vote with the Tory party on their VONC vote …..as in voting with the party who have been so disrespectful and dismissive of them as a political party….
But it appears that, for the Scottish Greens, the jibes and disrespectful language is now, it appears, all water under the bridge….and now when it suits both them, the Scottish Greens and also the Tory party to perhaps unite in this vote ….then all previous history between the Scottish Greens and the Tories is conveniently erased and what…..forgiven ?…….or an opportunity not to be missed…….but for different reasons for both parties.
We often hear via the media that the SNP have at times “tried to take a political advantage of a situation” when an opposition party are on the back foot and also that the “SNP were trying to benefit politically” from some chaos involving the Tory party ….yet what is happening now with the Pro UK political parties against the SNP is not being promoted as the same……but it is clearly a moment in Scottish politics where opposition parties are trying to escalate this situation (as are the media) in what they are attempting to do and thus are also taking “full political advantage” and also trying to “benefit politically” from this situation……as in an exercise in ‘kicking their enemy while it is down’ …..though they, the SNP, are only perceived as “down” because of how they are presented in the media (and by opposition parties) as in promoted as #SNPBAD constantly !
No one knows what the outcome or fallout of these two different VONC votes will be…..but what is clear is why they are happening and it is not because of a ‘no confidence’ in either the FM or the Scottish government…..tis ‘playing politics’ to try to gain a political advantage for them as pro UK parties…..and neither of these VONC votes from either the Labour party or the Tory party are being done to gain any advantage for the Scottish Green party or indeed as a way to show a combined pro UK party support for them, the Greens, as a party……indeed if anything it will be seen by both of these Pro UK parties as this being an opportunity handed to them (on a plate) via the Scottish Greens in order for them, as opposition parties, to promote their own usual chaos within Scottish politics…..
So I think that what is clear is that these various pro UK parties see this as a golden opportunity, and one not normally available to them , to finally try and ‘get the SNP out’ ,which has been prompted by another party , Scottish Greens, who as a party seem to suffer from a collective memory lapse…..that is in how, in the past, they have been so badly treated by both the Tory party and too the BBC but which now sees them, the Greens, as a party having a selective memory which currently seems to suit them …but what will they, the Scottish Greens, gain in the future by conspiring with and joining together with the BBC , other media and too the Tory party when it comes to the next GE in the UK…..well that will depend very much on how they vote in the VONC votes and too the outcome of these votes…..
It would be easy for us to to lose heart as this has been a very much concerted effort by both the media and pro UK Parties to try and destroy the SNP over what seems like a prolonged period of time….. where everything and anything is blown up out of proportion relating to the SNP and where nothing they, the SNP, have done that is good has been neither praised nor acknowledged……but one has to see this all in the context of why it is being done….and then realise that they all fear what they are seeing as a significant threat to their UK……if the SNP were not seen as a threat then this would not be the situation we always witness as a regular occurrence i.e. #SNPBAD.
Are we really going to allow them to think that they have the upper hand in allowing this to demoralise us ……all based on false narratives which are really only being promoted to stop Scottish independence ever happening….that surely has to be a NO……..but then again ultimately will also, come the time, have to be a decisive YES when we do finally do get the opportunity to vote in a second independence referendum……we know what our goal is as do they…..hence why for them nothing will “Change” in how they act in the future either politically or via their media…..so why then should we “change” in who we normally vote for or what we want to see happen….as in our country becoming independent…..do not let the B******* grind you down……though one hopes others perhaps less engaged with politics can also see what is really happening too….as in this being a relentless vendetta against the SNP.
Sorry for long comment I will take a wee break from commenting as I know my excessive length of comments and frequency of comments may, for some, be irritating……even irritates me LOL….I have form on this……also…..LOL
NMRN
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Keep commenting…..I always enjoy your writing and observations!!!
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Oh dear mother of God not another McGargle hatchet job – Particularly amusing was her ” One of the reasons Nour Halabi wanted to move to the UK was because she “believes in the NHS”. ” – Ahem, which time ? The first time for a year in London, the second for 5 years in Leeds, the other 6 elsewhere in England, or when she moved to Aberdeen 10 months ago ?
Hello hard of thinking Herald readers, that’s 144 months unsolved which remained unsolved ONLY because she spent 7% of her time in Scotland ?
Spoiled or not, rich or not, Nour Halabi did deserve the best medical attention possible from the NHS, but does “A complex autoimmune disorder” strike you as ‘run of the mill’ only if resident in Aberdeen other than to the Herald’s McGargle ? Here’s the view from a couple of Canadians…
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Westminster fund the NHS £125Billion. Not increased from 2015. Westminster spend £1090Billion a year.
£13Billion a year is spent decommissioning nuclear. Over ten years £130Billion. Increasing. Westminster wasted £Billions on HS2, Hickley Point, redundant weaponry. Brexit costs £Billions. Otherwise there would be an excellent healthcare, education and welfare system. A higher pension rate etc.
Vote for Independence. To stop Westminster wasting £Billions.
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