EIGHT months in and Labour has had no impact on ‘avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure’ in England
Bristol in February 2025
Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Guardian today:
The official plan to increase access to NHS dental services in England has been a “complete failure”, and some of the government’s initiatives have worsened the crisis, a damning report warns. Millions of patients continue to be denied dental care, forcing them to pay for private treatment, build up mountains of credit card debt, or even worse perform dangerous DIY dentistry on their own teeth, the research by MPs found. Without immediate and significant changes to fix the “broken” system, there would be no future for population-wide access to NHS dentistry, the report by the public accounts committee (PAC) said. “This country is now years deep in an avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure,” said Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the committee. “It is utterly disgraceful that, in the 21st century, some Britons [sic] have been forced to remove their own teeth.”
There’s no mention of Scotland in the Guardian report. That kind of makes to wonder if things are the same there. I suppose we could ask Jackie Baillie?
No, let’s have the facts. Here they are:
The Labour Party went into the 2024 election promising to reform the discredited NHS contract fuelling the current crisis.
According to @TheBDA there has been no material progress to date. The BDA say its deeply concerned that the Treasury is now standing in the way of progress. THE SHOCKING state of NHS dentistry in England is today again laid bare Where is the Governments promised plan to fix it?
@wesstreeting? If you are one of the 13 million people now struggling to access NHS dental care RT this jaw dropping report & join me in asking him
The Labour Party went into the 2024 election promising to reform the discredited NHS contract fuelling the current crisis.
According to @TheBDA there has been no material progress to date. The BDA say its deeply concerned that the Treasury is now standing in the way of progress https://t.co/9pXFJfmp6e
According to Jackie Baillie, Sandy Gullane and that guy the Herald knows, it’s just as bad in Scotland after 17 years of ‘SNP misrule’ or is it?
Here’s what Kirsteen Sullivan Labour MP for Bathgate and Linlithgow tried a month ago. She had just asked PM Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs about a supposed shortage of dentists in Scotland which then allowed Starmer to attack the SNP.
We see, above, Sullivan’s supposed commitment to honesty in public life.
However, on the availability of NHS dentistry in Scotland, she doesn’t want you to know the honest truth, this:
From Public Health Scotland, May 28, 2024:
5,182,993 people were registered with an NHS dentist as at 31 March 2024 (94.6% of the Scottish population). 732,618 extensive clinical examinations were paid in the quarter ending March 2024 under the new pay arrangements
I can’t find directly comparable figures for NHS England, but from a UK Parliament report in 2023:
1 in 5 Britons (22%) are currently not “registered” with a dentist. Of those who were not “registered” 37% said this was because they couldn’t find an NHS dentist.
Only 78% in UK registered, 16.6% lower than the 94.6% in Scotland. So access to NHS dentistry in Scotland 21% higher (16.6% of 78) than in UK.
Maybe, to be fair, there’s a shortage of NHS dentistry in Bathgate?
4 thoughts on “EIGHT months in and Labour has had no impact on ‘avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure’ in England”
“EIGHT months in and Labour has had no impact on ‘avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure’ in England”
(Surely Keir needs to get NHS expert , Labour MP Imogen Walker, on the job as she’ll lie and say that England has actually ‘Fixed it’).
Or alternatively……a better headline would be just saying….
‘EIGHT months in and Labour has had no positive impact’…..
Yesterday in what was an absolute brazen performance that proved how out of touch Keir Starmer appears to be (or was pretending to be oblivious), as we heard him had launch his party’s local (English) election campaign (pitch).
In what was a unbelievable choice of slogan we heard Starmer announce promises of “Change” with Labour.
Surely, like Sarwar, Keir Starmer could have focused on the new slogan that Labour here in Scotland are using which is “New Direction” ?
(Sarwar realised that the ‘Old Direction’ of “Change” didn’t work as in did not happen with Labour HQ as the new UK government, or perhaps knew it was a “Change” for the worse).
“Sir Keir Starmer has urged the public to “vote for change in your community”.
Change from what ?
Labour UK government type of politicians ?
He said that “Last year, the general election was that opportunity to vote for change for the country.”
Yes indeed it was an “opportunity to vote for change last year” in the UK GE, unfortunately that was NOT what the country or rather the UK State got.
All that has happened since the GE is that the UK State now have a continuity government with Labour, who as the new UK government are indistinguishable from the old Tory UK government. (actually , if we are being honest her, they, Labour, are worse than the Tories).
Now it seems , looking at the polls with subsequent different elections, some voters may make another mistake in who they vote for and whom they assume will be better (but will not be) in that some may vote for Reform UK candidates.
That is not as a result of them, Reform UK, being better it is as a result of Labour and the Tories and also others in pro UK parties all being proven worse whenever they gain any power.
It is also because both the Tories and Labour have adopted the same disgusting rhetoric as Reform UK which then legitimises their, Reform UK’s, (non) arguments, as have the media too.
Who , as a media, have also (over) indulged Reform UK with an excessive amount of publicity and promotion in publicising their fake arguments , their othering of those who are most vulnerable and so are those in need of refuge (as in the Refugees and Immigrants) and also their false representation of the EU.
I do hope that many more people in England vote for a better political alternative, which would be The Green Party , also in subsequent elections in Wales hopefully more people will vote for Plaid Cymru and obviously in Scotland I hope more people will vote for the SNP.
Unfortunately with a politically compromised media within the UK , both mainstream and rogue media, we will see that neither The Green party in England, Plaid Cymru in Wales nor the SNP in Scotland will get the same ‘air time’ or positivity as the more right wing parties within the UK like Labour, the Tories and Reform UK currently do.
I do hope those voters who are not compromised (brainwashed) by both mainstream and rogue propaganda then make the best choice for them and their families with their votes in all future elections.
Which will then send a message to those who have already failed them , Labour and the Tories, and also to those who they know would most certainly fail them in the future, as in Reform UK (and also Labour and Tories too).
Vote SNP in 2026 to show them all that we in Scotland prefer success as an alternative to all of their political Pro UK failures .
This week’s Barrhead News has a man from Newquay who has driven 500 miles, stayed overnight, to a dentist in Paisley for treatment having given up on his local NHS!
Talking-up Scotland 
“EIGHT months in and Labour has had no impact on ‘avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure’ in England”
(Surely Keir needs to get NHS expert , Labour MP Imogen Walker, on the job as she’ll lie and say that England has actually ‘Fixed it’).
Or alternatively……a better headline would be just saying….
‘EIGHT months in and Labour has had no positive impact’…..
Yesterday in what was an absolute brazen performance that proved how out of touch Keir Starmer appears to be (or was pretending to be oblivious), as we heard him had launch his party’s local (English) election campaign (pitch).
In what was a unbelievable choice of slogan we heard Starmer announce promises of “Change” with Labour.
Surely, like Sarwar, Keir Starmer could have focused on the new slogan that Labour here in Scotland are using which is “New Direction” ?
(Sarwar realised that the ‘Old Direction’ of “Change” didn’t work as in did not happen with Labour HQ as the new UK government, or perhaps knew it was a “Change” for the worse).
“Sir Keir Starmer has urged the public to “vote for change in your community”.
Change from what ?
Labour UK government type of politicians ?
He said that “Last year, the general election was that opportunity to vote for change for the country.”
Yes indeed it was an “opportunity to vote for change last year” in the UK GE, unfortunately that was NOT what the country or rather the UK State got.
All that has happened since the GE is that the UK State now have a continuity government with Labour, who as the new UK government are indistinguishable from the old Tory UK government. (actually , if we are being honest her, they, Labour, are worse than the Tories).
Now it seems , looking at the polls with subsequent different elections, some voters may make another mistake in who they vote for and whom they assume will be better (but will not be) in that some may vote for Reform UK candidates.
That is not as a result of them, Reform UK, being better it is as a result of Labour and the Tories and also others in pro UK parties all being proven worse whenever they gain any power.
It is also because both the Tories and Labour have adopted the same disgusting rhetoric as Reform UK which then legitimises their, Reform UK’s, (non) arguments, as have the media too.
Who , as a media, have also (over) indulged Reform UK with an excessive amount of publicity and promotion in publicising their fake arguments , their othering of those who are most vulnerable and so are those in need of refuge (as in the Refugees and Immigrants) and also their false representation of the EU.
I do hope that many more people in England vote for a better political alternative, which would be The Green Party , also in subsequent elections in Wales hopefully more people will vote for Plaid Cymru and obviously in Scotland I hope more people will vote for the SNP.
Unfortunately with a politically compromised media within the UK , both mainstream and rogue media, we will see that neither The Green party in England, Plaid Cymru in Wales nor the SNP in Scotland will get the same ‘air time’ or positivity as the more right wing parties within the UK like Labour, the Tories and Reform UK currently do.
I do hope those voters who are not compromised (brainwashed) by both mainstream and rogue propaganda then make the best choice for them and their families with their votes in all future elections.
Which will then send a message to those who have already failed them , Labour and the Tories, and also to those who they know would most certainly fail them in the future, as in Reform UK (and also Labour and Tories too).
Vote SNP in 2026 to show them all that we in Scotland prefer success as an alternative to all of their political Pro UK failures .
Hope over Hate , every time.
Liz S
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This week’s Barrhead News has a man from Newquay who has driven 500 miles, stayed overnight, to a dentist in Paisley for treatment having given up on his local NHS!
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Surely the proof positive that there’s no shortage of dentists in Scotland is the Labour MPs/MSPs themselves?
Without regular dental care, they’d have no teeth.
Without teeth, they’d be unable to lie through them the way they do on a daily basis.
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Got my 6 month check up email from my local dentist in Anniesland.
Sent from Outlook for Androidhttps://aka.ms/AAb9ysg
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