With only 2 days left, support Talking-up Scotland's work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method - John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421
Professor John Robertson OBA
By Liz S
The Sunday Herald front page…..
“In a bleakly pessimistic interview , Chair of the British Medical Association Scotland Dr Iain Kennedy reveals all on the disturbing crisis currently engulfing our health system”.
“pessimistic” is a constant with Sr Iain Kennedy on the Scottish NHS service…..in fact has he ever said anything positive about our Scottish NHS and our Scottish government ?
“our health system”….is that only “ours” (Scotland’s) or is there also a “disturbing crisis engulfing the health system” elsewhere in the UK…….????
The suggestion or rather the direct accusation tends to give the impression that it is apparently, according to Dr Iain Kennedy, only the “NHS in Scotland” that “is dying before our eyes”………meanwhile what is happening elsewhere within the UK……..in Wales, NI and also in England………are their NHS “systems” worthy of optimism as they are to be assumed to all be thriving as other UK health systems ?
Well apparently they are not thriving and so not worthy of optimism……and context and comparison is everything…..see previous articles on TUS in respect to various poor performances within the NHS in Wales and England in comparison to Scotland’s better performing NHS services…….
So just as the BBC in Scotland have a list of #SNPBAD commentators on speed dial then so does some of the press in Scotland (as in those who publish here but are not owned by media companies based in Scotland) …..
All we ever see are the same names that keep coming up time and time again as “critics” of both Scotland and of the Scottish government….who as the same names, are then always seen by the media as being reliable, as a source, in their constant doomsday predictions in respect to Scotland, and also their ultimate conclusions being ones that always blame the SNP …..that is where all blame and responsibility is solely down to the SNP as the Scottish government……
Apparently none of them seem to want to acknowledge that Scotland has a devolved government that does not have full powers, full control of all monies and so , as a devolved government , they are then often negatively impacted (hindered) by poor decisions on public services and reduced funding via various UK governments.
If Labour , when they were formerly the official opposition , declared that the Tory UK government’s poor decisions and lack of funding of the NHS then greatly impacted the Welsh Labour devolved Government’s NHS service …….then why did (does) that not also apply to our Scottish devolved government’s NHS service as governed by the SNP…. who as a Scottish devolved government were also subject to these same Tory UK government poor decisions and lack of funding on the NHS ?
So Scotland with a devolved government that has limited powers and financial restrictions …..they are then working in a way that prohibits real progress being made in their country, Scotland….but that is never ever to be considered as noteworthy as part of the critique of the same “Some Critics say”….or some of those same critics specifically named…. who then always conclude that within the UK it is only #ScotlandThatIsS**** and the #SNPWhoAreBad…..????
In fact people like Dr Iain Kennedy and others , as critics, seem to speak about and write about our Scottish public services as if Scotland and our Scottish government were working as an independent country with all of the levers that other governments within independent countries have available to them………..
Mind you some of the public in Scotland also sometimes fail to recognise the limitations our Scottish governments has to work under…..and so they too , as a public, often speak as if Scotland was the same as other independent countries within the world….
They also fail , as a public, to highlight that we are subject to UK government’s reserved powers that then forces our own government in Scotland to try to mitigate much of the damage being done by decisions being made elsewhere within the UK by another government (UK one)….as in our government having to implement a succession of mitigation exercises in order to soften the blow for some people within Scotland……..as in to lessen the impact on their lives (unfortunately that then uses up valuable funds and resources…..as our Scottish government is then forced to adopt a ‘Rob Peter to pay Paul’ strategy…..because of an action done or a decision made by a UK government).
Every time I hear any criticism of our Scottish government or any comparisons being made between Scotland and Europe.…. I never hear those who are making those criticisms and those comparisons then also highlight the fact that Scotland is connected to the UK , that is…. Scotland is a part of the UK ….so then Scotland is , many a time , at the mercy of the UK State overruling our Scottish government…….while countries within Europe are NOT subject to this UK State interference.
So we are , as a country, subject to UK government’s reserved powers and as such we are also not in receipt of all of the money that is available to other (independent) countries in the world (including those in Europe) …..that is also a glaring omission made by the media within the UK and also within Scotland………and it is also one that UK parties, for obvious reasons , fail to note as well.
It is extremely pertinent and very significant as a factor but it is greatly diminished as being relevant whenever we read articles like this one in The Herald….and also others that are very similar in tone and theme…….. that are via the same named sources like Dr Iain Kennedy whom the BBC in Scotland also promotes as a regular ‘contact’….as part of their ongoing #SNPBAD campaign………
The SNP are far from perfect (however what UK political party in opposition to them is perfect within the UK ?)
But let’s have some honesty here ….the SNP as the Scottish government , must try to constantly function within the UK State with one hand tied behind their backs….and so they must also contend with a succession of hostile UK governments who do their best to try to hinder the SNP as the Scottish government……with obstacles like…….
The UK Internal Market …….which is just a UK State con that has been over promoted and so used as a weapon against Scotland since Brexit, as a way for the UK government to take away more powers and more decisions from the Scottish government……now I wonder does Dr Kennedy have an opinion on that ?
We see various pro UK opposition parties within Scotland who are propped up and so promoted by their respective HQ’s down South……and so the UK media (both here in Scotland and also elsewhere in the UK) also do their bit for the UK State and so then they are also are doing their bit for the various UK HQ political parties…..in their undermining the SNP as a party and also as the Scottish government in a onslaught of negative press against both the SNP as a party and as a Scottish government……….
It’s blatant, yet it is , and always will be, an ongoing campaign where the desired ultimate conclusion is one , that they, the UK media and UK State politicians, all hope will end with the SNP being destroyed as a party ..and so then they (wrongly) assume that Scottish independence will then also be destroyed……… and then they also (wrongly) assume that the UK State status quo can just keep plodding on …..unchallenged…….. once again…..
Both the UK media and UK politicians have always (intentionally) refused to acknowledge that the YES movement in Scotland is not only about the SNP…….
The SNP are seen by many as (currently) being the vehicle by which we can politically win our independence (though some others within Scotland beg to differ , but let’s see this from a widespread Scottish public’s perspective ….the same Scottish public who are not greatly engaged in politics…. but they are very aware of the SNP and their assumed Raison d’être being Scottish independence…. ) ……….
So then the rest of the world (with rogue exceptions) will formally accept and so acknowledge us as an independent country if we do win our independence with a legitimate vote as in referendum…….
A legitimate and justified vote that is now being refused as a viable option by various UK governments…….. who very much fear (know) that their time and their UK State’s time is finally up ……that is for Scotland still wanting to ‘remain’ within their dysfunctional, most unstable and totally politically corrupt UK State………..
(To include what is clearly also a politically corrupt and politically compromised UK State media pumping out their UK State political propaganda against Scotland to stop it voting for independence)………….
So just as the UK State is supported by UK political parties and so they are seen as the various political vehicles with which the UK State depends upon for it’s sustainability…….to help maintain the UK State’s… status quo….
That then means we will always hear in the “news where we are” and also read these kind of sensationalist front page headlines sourced from the likes of Dr Iain Kennedy in papers like The Herald…..
Dr Kennedy , who as an individual , has been known to be a tad non impartial against the SNP………..and has also been noted as being a tad too silent upon other political parties with his supposed ‘professional’ critique ………..
Like for example when Rachel Reeves , the Labour government’s Chancellor , in a past Labour budget, increased NI Employer contributions , and then there was an article about:
“Doctors in the Highlands fear increased National Insurance (NI) costs could close some practices”
(But it was not Dr Iain Kennedy who raised this as a significant issue for the Scottish NHS services or who regarded it as a reason to be “pessimistic” and also as being “disturbing” and so potentially could lead to a “crisis” in our “NHS systems”…as it was the Deputy Chair of BMA Scotland who raised it as a issue for “Doctors in the Higlands”…so was Dr Kennedy on holiday and so unavailable for comment on this ?).
Honestly the UK State media (and others) must think that everyone within Scotland are all , as voters, gullible idiots…. to buy into their UK State media propaganda………
I think many of us all now know why they, as a UK State media, choose to only promote certain narratives while ignoring others (as in those other ones that do all of the real damage to Scotland and that are generated from elsewhere…….as in from another government within the UK who sit in another parliament within the UK…..as in the UK government(s) who sit in WM).
Ducking sick of it all TBH…….FFS media ….give it a rest…..as you are driving us all Mad…that’s the real story here ….. as a constant………’Biased UK State media drives people mad’…..(hence why their publication figures are on a downward spiral)…………
Apologies yet again for long comment………..it’s hard to be concise when there is so so so much to criticise ………that is ….it is hard for me to be concise…..Ha Ha
Liz S
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
GLAD TO HEAR ALL unionist are sick of living in scotland
AT LEAST WHEN TRUE SCOTS GET TO CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE
PEOPLE LIKE “THIS PERSON” WILL BE A BRIT LIVING IN ENGERLAND
LikeLike
When a public service in the UK is devolved and the same service has over a decade or more declined into crisis in England where it is the responsibility of the all powerful Westminster government – a crisis widely attributed to under-funding/under-investment in the face of rising demand – how on earth can dependent devolved governments with very limited fiscal levers in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh do more than deliver at most a marginally better performing public service? The NHS is a key case in point.
The incoming Starmer government commissioned a review of the state of NHS England from Lord Darzi: it reported last September. Dr Kennedy’s BMA colleague, its chair of Council, issued a press statement on September 11 in response: ‘Lord Darzi’s NHS review a ‘deeply sobering’ assessment of a ‘severely’ broken NHS, says BMA’.
See: https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/lord-darzis-nhs-review-a-deeply-sobering-assessment-of-a-severely-broken-nhs-says-bma
‘Responding to Lord Ara Darzi’s independent investigation of the NHS in England, Professor Philip Banfield, BMA council chair, said:
“The previous government gaslit doctors and refused to acknowledge the damage caused by years of underinvestment. The BMA has tirelessly spoken out about the challenges our health service faces, particularly regarding staff shortages, so one might expect that Lord Darzi’s review, which echoes many of the Association’s concerns, would be met with a sense of relief—finally, someone understands. While the findings are unsurprising, seeing this report so clearly call attention to just how broken our beloved NHS has become, with the devastating impact on our patients, is deeply sobering. (my emphasis)
“It’s no secret that the newly elected government inherited an NHS widely wrecked from year upon year of relative underinvestment – especially in general practice. ..” (The BMA fails to acknowledge Darzi’s further emphasis on shortfalls in capital investment.)
The BMA statement adds: “The country is getting sicker, with the most disadvantaged disproportionately affected; in parallel, we need investment in social care, public health and illness prevention to reverse the stark health inequalities outlined in the report..”
And: “…. an honest conversation with the public about what money goes where, what will and will not be provided, and what will be rationed until additional resources are made available, is imperative.”
Notwithstanding his catalogue of NHS England’s failings due a complex of reasons but substantially caused by Tory austerity – “The 2010s were the most austere decade since the NHS was
founded” – Darzi writes this of NHS England:
“Despite the challenges, the NHS’s vital signs remain strong. The NHS has extraordinary depth of clinical talent, and our clinicians are widely admired for their skill and the strength of their clinical reasoning. Our staff in roles at every level are bound by a deep and abiding belief in NHS values and there is a shared passion and determination to make the NHS better for our patients. They are the beating heart of the NHS. Despite the massive gap in capital investment, the NHS has more resources than ever before, even if there is an urgent need to boost productivity.”
The tone is rather different from the BMA’s Dr Kennedy with his NHS Scotland ‘is now dying before our eyes’! To paraphrase the BMA’s chair on the Darzi report: a senior representative of the BMA gaslights Scotland’s electorate and refuses to acknowledge the damage caused to the NHS in Scotland and across the whole of the UK by Westminster governments’ austerity and their underinvestment in NHS England.
But Darzi cautions: “It has taken more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so improving it will take time. Waiting times can and must improve quickly. But it will take years rather than months to get the health service back to peak performance. I have no doubt that significant progress will be possible, but it is unlikely that waiting lists can be cleared and other performance standards restored in one parliamentary term.” But all the while, NHS Scotland will have died?
LikeLiked by 2 people