In the Scotsman today, above, Dr Zubir Ahmed, Labour, notes the crisis in A&E and and cancer care in England, then suggests Scotland might learn from there.
He clearly does not know or does not want to know this:
First, on A&E longer waiting times, by stewartb, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine data:
On the longest times spent in A&E i.e. 12 hours or more, the equivalent percentages during January 2024 are: England = 13.2%; Wales = 15.5%; Scotland = 8%.
On more than 8 hour waits, the equivalent percentages during January 2024 are: Wales = 24%; Scotland = 16%. (NHS England doesn’t publish monthly 8 hour performance data.)1
These are substantial differences. They confirm that NHS Scotland, notwithstanding its shortcomings, provides by some margin the best performing A&E service measured by waiting times of any in the UK.
Second, on cancer waiting times, from the ONS:
Missing the 31 day and 62 day standards
- Northern Ireland – 12.1% and 66% (!!!)
- Wales – no data and 44.7% (!!!)
- England – 8.9% and 33.4%*
- Scotland – 5.9% and 29.6%2
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
NHS Scotland collects 8 hour A&E statistics; England doesn’t yet it is more transparent according to the Scot Lab MP!
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“Scottish Labour MP suggests following England’s failed strategies”
Of course he does.
The “Scottish” part is only the part where he was elected and not where his heart or head is.
(In fact for a Scottish Labour MP the natural (selfish) order is self first , then party and then the UK as a sustained state ).
This is reflected in how they, as ‘Scottish Labour MP’s, have voted so far in the HOC in this new session of parliament .
(Michael Shanks started the ball rolling as he was first elected prior to the recent UK GE but then he was also re-elected on July 4th. It seemed to be that his constituents were either happy or oblivious to the fact that he , in the HOC, has always acted in both his own interest and in his party’s interest first and foremost and less in his constituents interests so perhaps it is a case of, in respect to his constituents who are still supporting and voting for him, more a ‘to each their own’ I suppose)
Now others , as newly elected ‘Scottish’ Labour MP’s, are also seemingly not voting in the HOC only on behalf of their constituents or FOR their constituents best interests.
Same constituents who elected them, ‘Scottish’ Labour MP’s, to represent them in the HOC but instead they , their elected MP’s, vote to keep the Labour whip, keep their Labour leader happy and in many cases are actually voting against the best interests of their constituents !
I mean let’s be honest here Hell would freeze over before:
a) Any Labour MP anywhere in the UK (especially in Scotland) would highlight “England’s failed strategies” while they, as a party , were in charge as the UK government.
b) Would say as a Labour MP (anywhere in the UK) that England should follow any of Scotland’s successful strategies while the SNP were in charge as the Scottish government.
Also same goes for Wales where Labour are also in charge and where a Scottish Labour MP will soon also “suggest Scotland follows Wales (former failed) Strategies’ too but if in the future Labour ,as the UK government, decide to prop up the Welsh Labour government then we may see them , Wales, progress far more than Scotland.
Mind you will all those who elected ‘Scottish’ Labour MP’s in the recent UK GE be aware of that happening.
I doubt it as they will most certainly not hear or read about it in “The news where we are” (or indeed elsewhere either).
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This man will become Labour’s Sandesh Gulhane and become BBC Scotland’s go-to rentaquote quack.
Alasdair Macdonald.
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As side note to the Scotsman platforming Dr Ahmed, the Darzi ‘report’, Starmer’s speech, Streeting etc., I do recommend reading Richard Murphy’s withering appraisal https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/09/13/starmer-a-man-way-of-of-his-depth-when-dealing-with-the-nhs/
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O/T
Compare and contrast this below story .
That is if , instead of it being a Labour Peer, the current Labour PM and his wife , it was instead concerning a Tory Peer, a former Tory PM and his wife .
How would it , as a story, be received and then communicated by many of those so called renowned ‘liberal’ minded and prominent political commentators on Twitter (‘X’) who did not support Brexit, do not support or like the Tory party (newer version) , hate Farage and those like him and who were constantly slating and promoting anything and everything negative connected to the Tory party especially cronyism.
Sky News online reported this via The Sunday Times (also reported in The Independent and The Guardian):
(I have highlighted in bold words I think are significant).
“Sir Keir Starmer is facing an investigation over a possible breach of parliamentary rules after failing to declare that some of his wife’s high-end clothes were bought for her by his biggest personal donor, Lord Alli”.
“The Labour peer paid for a personal shopper, clothes and alterations for Lady Victoria Starmer, reportedly both before and after the Labour leader became prime minister in July, according to The Sunday Times”
“This year Sir Keir has received – and disclosed – nearly £19,000 worth of work clothes and several pairs of glasses from Lord Alli, the former chairman of online fashion retailer Asos, The Times reports”
“In addition, the peer, whose personal wealth is estimated at £200m, spent £20,000 on accommodation for the now prime minister during the election and a similar sum on “private office” costs, which was also disclosed, the paper says”
“A Number 10 spokesperson told Sky News it was an oversight that had been corrected after it “sought advice from the authorities on coming to office”.
“They added: “We believed we’d been compliant, however, following further interrogation this month, we’ve declared further items.”
“Lord Alli’s involvement with the Labour leader has already proved controversial after it emerged he had been given a Downing Street security pass without apparently having a government role”.
“The revelations are awkward for the prime minister, who has promised to clean up politics”.
So where is the actual “Change” there then from the previous lot (Tories)who were in charge as the former UK government ?
As to Starmer “promising to clean up politics” well we also went down a similar path with Rishi Sunak when he became the new Tory leader and Tory PM.
When he, Sunak, “promised a government of integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” and we all know that “promise” fell way way short in being (not) delivered, just as it now appears that Starmer’s supposed “promise” is now, as a “promise”, also failing to be delivered as well.
Of course Keir Starmer has previous form in “promising” and “pledging” a lot of things both before and after he became the Labour leader and then became the Labour PM where most , if not all of these have, like Sunak’s ‘promises’ and ‘pledges’, all fallen by the wayside.
(And just like Sunak and other Tory PM’s , we now see that with Labour in power, the buck apparently never stops with them but instead is passed on as being the fault (blame) of the opposition party when they were in power previously- this is a rinse and repeat exercise that will do nothing to ease the burden suffered by the public within the UK as it is merely them, WM politicians, “playing politics” as in the WM version).
Also for comedy value some Tories called for an “investigation” into this story about Keir Starmer, his wife and the Labour peer for what they, the Tories, stated was “cronyism” which to be fair is , as a subject , one that they the Tories are experts in (with their own Tory party being embroiled in many a cronyism scandal where some of these were reported and some were not).
However do not bother to look to the BBC in Scotland via either their Scottish TV news, Radio programmes or indeed on any of the Scottish pages on their website for either a report or an article on this particular story .
Where if there ever was an report/article by BBC Scotland on this story you would then need to see Anas Sarwar being challenged (or even timidly but never forcefully questioned and asked by the BBC here ) to defend his leader on this story.
However this is the exact type of story where we see Anas Sarwar going into hiding (as in him adopting what is now a familiar evasive manoeuvre-cowardly even-whenever there is a #BADLabourPartyUK story doing the rounds) .
Yes and he is allowed to do that as he is never sought out by the BBC in Scotland when the story in question has just been revealed as a “controversial” story by others but apparently it is not considered to be “controversial” enough by the BBC in Scotland for them to then attempt to seek out the Labour leader in Scotland for his response on it as a #BadLabourPartyUK story.
Remember throughout the recent UK GE Anas Sarwar and some other Labour MSP’s in Scotland played a very prominent part in the Labour UK GE campaign and they were all promoting their UK party and their UK leader where we also heard them all repeating the slogans “Change” and a “Fresh Start” only apparently on offer with Labour UK as the new UK government.
So that being the case they all , especially Anas Sarwar as leader (of sorts) of Labour in Scotland, then deserve to be challenged or at least asked for their responses to stories such as this one involving a Labour leader/PM, his wife and a Labour peer who donates to them as a party and also to their leader.
Of course we need to remember that so far none of us have either witnessed or experienced any real “Change” or feel we are seeing what appears to be a “Fresh Start” with Keir Starmer as PM or Labour as the new UK government.
So no amount of Labour PR by the BBC in Scotland or indeed by any of the other Labour friendly media here will be able to either convey to us or convince us that Labour have indeed brought about “Real Change” and a “Fresh start” when reality is they have shown themselves to be Tories in all but party name via their actions, words and who they associate with and also take money from (as in wealthy donors).
Remember any wealthy person who donates to a political party must surely then personally see themselves as having a vested interest via that political donation.
So with Labour in power and them also taking donations from the wealthy, we then travel down the same path that we saw being reported with the Tories ‘Cash for access’ scandals and the ,as yet unpunished, ‘Tory PPE Scandal where contracts were awarded to Tory donors , Tory Peers and those associated with the Tory party’.
Tory donor, Tory Peer and Tory leader/Tory PM so what’s changed now with Labour ?
(BTW what the H is happening with the NCA investigation into Tory Peer Michelle Mone and the Tory PPE scandal -where also former Tory minister Michael Gove was noted as being involved in this incident/scandal- and why is she , Mone, still a Peer ?
That’s another topic that was and still is pretty much left untouched by BBC Scotland even though she, Mone, is a Scottish Tory peer so surely this scandal connected to her is of some interest to the Scottish public).
Maybe all of the supposed “Controversial”, “Fiasco” and “Crisis” and “Scandalous” stories are always only to be reserved for one party alone in Scotland by the BBC here and other media here too.
No need for me to mention who that party is .
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Just an additional “Compare and Contrast exercise with the Tpry party”
As in when it was recently reported that “The Labour government revealing this week that there had been no wide-ranging assessment of the impact of winter fuel cuts“
Now imagine or rather remember when the Tories were in power and Labour were the official opposition party at WM.
Bearing that in mind how would Labour and Keir Starmer react if it was “The Tory government who were revealed to have done no wide-ranging assessment of any impact on cuts” they , the Tories, made to a benefit or allowance for those most in need and unable to take such a cut without suffering some hardship and serious consequence?
Well they, Labour as the official opposition , would be up in arms. (supposedly) most indignant, (supposedly) very angry and (for the optics) uber critical of the Tories for :
a) Not doing a “wide-ranging assessment” before imposing such a cut
b) Critical and against the cut being made in the first place.
I for one cannot wait until , at some point in the future , a real journalist or a real political commentator who is not compromised by an (unofficial but obvious) alliance with the Labour party decides to then make a “wide-ranging assessment on Labour UK’s performance as the Labour UK government”.
I think if that “assessment” is read or heard by many within the UK then it will be Labour who are next to be “cut” as the UK government.
However for Scotland that will then still mean we are to be governed by those others who will still steal our resources and deny us another justified independence referendum.
That being the case it will then still be a situation of ‘No Change‘ there then for us in Scotland via whoever is to be the next UK government going forward.
Of course we could actually see a REAL change if a majority in Scotland stopped voting for pro UK political parties in all elections on a consistent basis with the reason being they, as voters in Scotland, supported their democratic right to hold another justified Independence Referendum.
If only.
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*Just an additional “Compare and Contrast exercise with the Tpry party”
*Tory party
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Ho Ho Ho
By way of a classic example of a ‘prominent liberal minded political commentator on twitter’ trying to justify and excuse Keir Starmer’s behaviour on the above noted story .
Well when any similar behaviour was seen as coming from any Tory leader(s) or former PM(s) and too any Tory Peer(s) , then he, this high profile twitter individual and political commentator, was and still is , highly critical of those Tory leader(s) and former Tory PM(s) and also the Tory Peer(s).
So here below is a tweet from that prominent Twitter individual ,as in Otto English, where today in reference to the above story of Starmer accepting donations from a Labour peer for his clothes and his wife’s high end clothes states this :
“If we are going to expect the spouses of our PMs to appear on the national and international stages, then perhaps there should be a pot of money put aside to fund their clothes when they do so. Otherwise, someone else ends up paying for it”.
What a defence from Otto .
Oh yes Otto let’s get a Labour donor (Peer) to pay for it or , as you infer, we the public will find that we will have to pay for (both Starmer) and also his –wife’s clothes?
However the only problem with that is that , as an ‘opinion’ , it is not one this particular political commentator (Otto English) would also attribute as being a fair assessment (as an opinion ) in it being either acceptable or justified as an action if it was a Tory leader/PM and Tory donor (Peer) who were involved.
In 2019 Otto tweeted this:
“So the Tories have received donations totalling seven times as much as all the other parties combined”
In 2022 he also tweeted:
“Look I’m sure it’s just a MASSIVE coincidence that 1 in 10 Tory peers are huge donors to the party, giving £50m in total… sure it would have happened anyway… just a pure fluke they were deemed suitable to lord it over us… move on… nothing to see”
So it seems that Otto English does have a problem with or is concerned about donors to political parties being Peers though reading his tweets it does seem to be only those Tory Peers who donate to the Tory party.
Let’s wait and see how many wealthy Labour donors perhaps eventually end up also becoming Labour peers in the HOL then we will see what, if anything, Otto thinks about that. (as he does seem to have a strong position on it, or rather a strong position on the Tories doing it that is).
Once again we see how it is not just those who support right wing political parties who are often seen to be both very hypocritical and very partisan in their opinions.
As it seems to also often be observed that those who oppose the right and so oppose the newer version of the Tory party , also do themselves ,on many an occasion have a tendency to be at times a tad hypocritical and very partisan in their opinions.
They , as supposed ‘liberal’ minded commentators, also have a problem with Jeremy Corbyn and his left wing politics as they much prefer to hide in the pretend centrist politics of parties like New Labour who , as the newer version of the Tory party (Ha Ha) .
Also New Labour, who are now the new UK government, they themselves are also very desperate to hide their own preference for the right and thus obscure their own hypocrisy too.
Scotland could do so much better but we seem to always have so many people regarded as ‘Prominent’ who are against us achieving our independence from the UK state .
As in ‘Prominent’ opponents from the media, the alternate media , on Twitter (X) , opposition parties and also many others whose profile is only raised by the media here in Scotland , and elsewhere too , because of their opposition to our independence.
Strangely none of them as ‘prominent’ individuals , businesses or establishments are ever very ‘concerned’ about Scotland always being denied another democratically justified independence referendum from their precious UK state supporting politicians . As that is apparently fair and right (for them alone that is).
Or indeed they are also not very ‘concerned‘ that currently under Labour UK and formerly under the UK Tories devolution was and still is being undermined by UK government(s) from both of those UK parties bypassing the Scottish government in funding allocation.
No wonder so many of us often are heard to declare FFS !
Who wouldn’t with the constant S**te we are subjected to from supposed (partisan) ‘Prominent’ individuals whose own bias is also very much prominent in what they say both online and via MSM.
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Lord Alli should pay more tax for the over priced, slave Labour clothes that are sold or given away to tax evading Labour unionists politicians. To fund the NHS properly. After the ConDem lying Tories cut the NHS funding and resources. Instead of supporting policies killing the elderly which will also put a higher burden on the NHS with more elderly admissions.
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What is that women wearing? Starmer’s wife works for the NHS? but cannot afford to buy clothes. The PPE scandal that gave Tories and their associates £Billions of taxpayers monies. Totally wasted. Nothing done about getting returns on that. Just swept under the carpet. The Westminster corruption a total disgrace of cronyism.
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