Dr Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service under Boris Johnson PM at the Covid Inquiry today.
By Professor John Robertson
An extract from an exchange between Case and Helen Macnamara, his Depute, in 2020:
Are we surprised?
From May 2020
While Scotland’s 35% lower fatality rate will be explained by multiple factors, the decision in 2008, to axe outsourced cleaning and to increase the number of cleaners, by Nicola Sturgeon, then Health Secretary, seems likely to have been a major factor.
What happened:
(May 2011) In the 1980s, the Thatcher government in the UK introduced compulsory tendering of all cleaning and catering work in hospitals throughout the UK. This was bitterly fought at the time, with a series of lengthy strikes, public campaigns and court cases. For the next 20 years the unions continued to organise cleaners, negotiate to improve their pay and conditions , and campaign to bring work back in-house. Now, three of the four countries in the UK have decided that there will be no more contracting-out of these services, and all cleaning in NHS hospitals will remain in-house. In Scotland, the decision was taken in 2008, against the background of major problems in British hospitals with infections resistant to treatment. The Scottish ministry of health banned any further contracting-out of these services, so that when existing contracts expire all work returns and remains in-house. It also financed the employment of 600 extra cleaners to raise standards of cleanliness.
https://www.epsu.org/article/uk-hospital-cleaning-brought-house-scotland-wales-n-ireland
Scientific evidence that it has worked:
The number of older people recorded as having contracted the Clostridium difficile hospital bug has dropped by 37% in a year, statistics showed today. Quarterly figures from Health Protection Scotland show that between October and December last year 425 new cases of C.diff were recorded in those over 65, compared with 672 in the same period of 2009. The number of new cases in under-65s has fallen by 45%, from 235 in the final quarter of 2009 to 129 in the final quarter of last year. Cases of MRSA-related illness among all age groups were also down, with 82 new infections recorded between October and December 2009, down from 119 cases in the same period of 2009.
SNP Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon today praised Scotland’s NHS staff’s commitment to driving down the number of hospital infections. Commenting on the figures, she said: “The SNP Government has put 1,000 additional cleaners in our hospitals, brought an end to the privatisation of hospital cleaning contracts and introduced a tough new inspection regime by the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/health/number-of-cases-of-killer-hospital-bug-1099571
New research shows that NHS hospitals that employ private cleaners are associated with a higher incidence of MRSA, a ‘superbug’ that causes life-threatening infection and has previously been linked with a lack of cleanliness…on average, the incidence of MRSA infection between 2005 and 2009 was 2.28 in every 100,000 bed days in trusts that outsourced their cleaning, compared with 1.46 bed days in trusts that used in-house cleaners –.a difference of almost 50 per cent.
The research was conducted by the University of Oxford, with the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Talking-up Scotland / Facts on NHS, Crime, ferries and everything else you can think of 
Nurses uniforms were once cleaned in house.
The Police wasting more monies.
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Apologies for going O/T so soon:
Just seen a tweet (couple of days old) from the estimable MSM Monitor regarding an interview on Radio Scotland’s GMS with Liz Lloyd, former chief of staff for Nicola Sturgeon. Apparently, the BBC interviewer sought to focus the interview on ‘trans issues’.
This morning I listened to a BBC Radio 4 Today programme interview with Kate Forbes. The BBC interviewer did exactly the same thing.
Coincidence?
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O/T
Remember ‘London calling: How the BBC stole the Referendum.
Well they, the BBC, are trying to do it all over again but this time they are trying to steal this General election for the Labour party to gain them seats in Scotland.
Cue……BBC Clarifications & Corrections latest addition…..
“Radio News Bulletins
19 April 2024
In some brief news items we said that the former Chief Executive of the Scottish National Party Peter Murrell had been charged with the embezzlement of “public funds”. We should have said “SNP funds”.
23/05/24“
“Public funds” v “SNP Funds”……big difference …….and someone somewhere was on the ball and highlighted this to the BBC as an ‘error’ (another one…..that just so happened to be, as an ‘error‘, one, that once again , sought to disadvantage and misrepresent news connected to the SNP via promoting misinformation BBC Style)……..
BBC Scotland website currently has an article entitled :
” How important is Scotland in deciding the UK election”?
Yep we are actually seeing that old chestnut rear it’s ugly and lying head yet again.
This piece by James Cook continues with…..
“Does the path to 10 Downing Street run through Scotland? The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, appears to think so“…….
I bet he does but he and others should also know , including the BBC, that in relation to the total numbers of MP’s elected to sit in the HOC the Scottish allocated constituency seats are far far lesser than the much higher amount of seats allocated for English constituencies…..indeed with the new boundary changes in the UK it is only England whose seat allocation will increase (by 10 more constituency seats)…..and Scotland will lose 2 constituency seats…….so seems once again Labour have decided to take us in Scotland for Fools.…and the BBC are once again pandering to them (a Pro UK party) in conspiring with Labour in promoting their fake news.….
Pre new boundary changes seat allocation in HOC were:
England 533……Scotland 59.….Wales 40……NI 18
Post new boundary changes seat allocation in HOC will be:
England 543….Scotland 57….Wales 32…..NI 18 (no change).
Do the Maths and then try and still say that the “path to 10 Downing Street runs through Scotland”….you might find you get met with derision….and deservedly so.
The article then goes on to state……
“Both Sir Keir and the Conservative leader Rishi Sunak are hoping that this election marks the end of an era in which the Scottish National Party has dominated Scottish politics”….
I see…..so that is as opposed to Scotland being in the unfair position (disadvantage) of being a country whose voters were and still are “dominated” by a political party (Tories) they as voters did not vote for in a succession of GE’s but we had to tolerate them (Tories) as the UK government as alas we were and still are a part of their UK……and only Scottish independence will “mark the end of that era” for us in Scotland.
This article which was supposedly based on the Labour party and Scotland quickly morphed into another #SNPBAD piece……as it went on to note “Then there is the police investigation into the SNP’s finances which has led to its former chief executive, Peter Murrell, who is married to Ms Sturgeon, facing charges in connection with embezzlement of funds.”…..
Note how it states “embezzlement of funds” but it does not not specify it was SNP “funds”…..that’s clever that is…..leaves it as ambiguous as to what “funds” were involved…..that is for the uninformed reader…..but for people like us it shows that the BBC are once again at it…..omitting information that is pertinent and instead hoping the public assumes the wrong thing.……plus noting he, PM, is “married to Ms Sturgeon”….just in case anyone either forgot that fact or were unaware of it……so they , the BBC, did not forget to include that fact……did they ?
Meanwhile Anas Sarwar is trying to get the public in Scotland to believe that in this UK GE they are voting for his ‘Scottish’ Labour as in the Labour branch office……so if that is the case then WTF is Keir Starmer from Labour HQ doing in Scotland today to launch part of their Labour’s UK GE campaign…..this is a UK GE but forget that….Sarwar & Starmer will fight their campaign in Scotland on the basis of the SNP as the Scottish government…….focusing on devolved issues which I am sure the BBC will help them to promote as being relevant in the context of a ……UK GE !!!!
However should anyone dare to do the same to Labour in Wales in this UK GE……where they, Labour, are the Welsh devolved government…..then that will be, promoted as not appropriate in the context of a UK GE……..and according to Labour HQ devolved issues in Wales have apparently been negatively impacted by a Tory UK central government’s poor and wrong decisions….(note though apparently this is not applicable, as a same situation, for the devolved government in Scotland via the SNP.….how very convenient and partisan that is …..for Labour HQ and their branch office in Scotland as well (plus the BBC too)……..So…….seems to be….
One rule for Labour, Tory & Lib Dems with Scotland and another rule for the SNP…obvs…..and we all know whose rules the BBC prefers to support and promote.….clue…….It’s not and never has been those via the SNP…..
BBC……the British part in their corporation title does tell you why they support British political parties while simultanously opposing any political party that seeks to part ways with their UK….as in the SNP seeks independence for Scotland (and also seeks that their country (Scotland) is no longer willing to contribute their resources to benefit the whole of their, BBC’s, Britain)……while being told by British political parties and also told by the BBC that their (Scottish) resource’s are worthless to an independent Scotland (but somehow invaluable to their Britain.….not exactly rocket science to figure out that both of these statements cannot be true as facts…..unless you are thick….LOL)
So if you , as a voter, are willing to be conned by both Labour and the BBC in voting for Labour in the next GE in Scotland…..then……fill your boots…..BUT note….
You are sending a message to Keir Starmer that is saying …….
“Do what you will with Scotland, keep exploiting our resources to benefit and subsidise the whole UK, and we are also content with the continued position being that you will focus more upon what England wants than what Scotland actually wants and needs as the new Labour UK government (just as the previous Tory UK government did also) …..so that is perfectly fine as is your continuing with the Tory Brexit which we in Scotland, via every region, voted against….so in Scotland once again now voting for more Labour MP’s in this UK GE that then clearly demonstrates to you that we (some of us that is) in Scotland are more than happy to continue to be ignored within the context of your UK/Britain which we believe you regard to be synonymous with England“…….
“File us under Mugs…..because that is what we will be considered to be if we ,do vote for an increased amount of Labour MP’s in Scotland in the GE on the 4 July, and the world will know that some of us in Scotland can indeed be fooled not just once…… but time and time again“……but…..perhaps……
The ‘Penny will only finally drop’ at a much much later date for some within Scotland when Labour, like the Tory party, fail to deliver for us as the next UK Govt and thus we will be in the same sad position of being once more …..ducked all over again………. by another pro UK party as the UK government…….
Note that as they, Labour, will probably fail as the next UK government then we in Scotland will once again see the Tories win the subsequent GE in four years time……and we Scotland will be, once more, back at square one…..as in some of us , it seems, will never ever learn.….as in either not be willing to learn or apparently just unable to learn…..Duck knows……. but my patience is ebbing away as I write this comment….as clearly “Now is the Time” to vote for the SNP in this UK GE …..or reap the dire consequences…..that is the choice currently open to us in Scotland….no ifs ands or buts about it…..simples really.
NMRN
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