In the Guardian today:
Many of us reluctantly supported industrial action at the beginning, with a government that wasn’t listening – wanting to support junior colleagues whose pay had fallen far behind contemporaries. Now we see how divided and conflicted resident doctors are too, and we long for a resolution. We recognise that the strikes are harmful. Communication and diplomacy are skills we pride ourselves on, and politicians have never needed them more than now. Diplomacy is the way to resolve this crisis for our NHS as well.
Dr Helen Holt
Consultant physician and chair of the medical staff committee, University Hospitals Dorsethttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/15/strike-is-harming-the-nhs-and-dividing-doctors
To what extent did diplomacy by the Scottish Government in dealing with health unions avert the strikes that have harmed the NHS in England?
Scottish ministers, including Health Secretary Neil Gray, made this claim talking of “fair and open negotiations” and a “strong working relationship with trade unions” that they “never take for granted.” Then, in March 2026, Gray publicly offered to help Wes Streeting out with this.
Did the unions agree?
First, there was none of the threatening language used by Starmer and Streeting recently but, also, the Royal College of Nursing said they had a ‘good working relationship’ with the Scottish Government. There’s language you never hear in England.
The BMA in Scotland too, in January 2026, absent the views of Dr Iain Findlay whom I’m guessing the Scottish resident doctors have never heard of:
Strikes by resident doctors in Scotland due to begin on Tuesday have been suspended following a new offer on pay and contract reform. The BMA Scottish resident doctors committee recommends members accept the offer, which is the equivalent of a 9.9 per cent end-of-year pay uplift for this year and 9.4 per cent for 2026-27. SRDC chair Chris Smith (pictured above) welcomed the proposed deal, which amounts to £149m for the two years.
‘From day one of this dispute, we’ve been clear that strike action was a last resort, so we are pleased that after a period of intense negotiations we have agreed an offer which we believe now faithfully delivers on the deal we made with the Scottish Government nearly three years ago. The ultimate verdict on whether that is the case now lies with our members, but we will be recommending they accept. Our view is the substantial investment proposed continues the progress made to reverse the pay erosion resident doctors have suffered since 2008…..Ultimately, this offer is a vote of confidence in, and a signal of the vital importance of, resident doctors. It is an investment in the future of the NHS workforce and will be good for doctors, but also for patients, as we seek to recruit and retain the workforce both for today and the future. It is, in our view, a strong step on the way to achieving our shared ambition with the Scottish Government, of making Scotland the best place in the UK for doctors to train and work.’
https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/resident-doctors-suspend-strikes
Where is ‘It is, in our view, a strong step on the way to achieving our shared ambition with the Scottish Government, of making Scotland the best place in the UK for doctors to train and work.’ in the BBC Scotland reporting? It’s not.
How is UK Labour handling the same disputes in England? Around 50 days of strikes.
How are they trying to settle the dispute? From Sky News and the Independent in December 2025.
Wes Streeting accuses BMA of behaving like ‘moaning minnies’
Streeting accuses doctors’ union of trying to ‘wreck’ NHS recovery
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Talking-up Scotland 
Wes Streeting and his predecessor seem to subscribe to the Donald Trump school of diplomacy – “do what I say or I’ll throw a hissy fit!”
Doesn’t always work.
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Spot on Capella.
Liz S
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Talking of Labour……
Adam Bienkov’s BlueSky post on the latest news linked to the Peter Mandelson scandal :
“How many more people are going to have to resign for Keir Starmer’s decision to ignore the advice of every single person who told him not to appoint Peter Mandelson”?
Yes, the PM saying he was not aware that Mandelson failed vetting and who apparently was also not aware of many other things linked to Mandelson, the same Mandelson that Anas Sarwar wrote was an “old friend” of his. (where coincidentally Sarwar was also apparently not aware of these same things that were linked to Mandelson his “old friend”).
However in September 2025 Keir Starmer said three times at PMQ’s that he was apparently aware that “full due process” was followed for Mandeslon’s appointment.
The BBC wrote on their website “Taking questions from journalists following a press conference on 5 February in Hastings, Sir Keir also said that there was “security vetting carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave [Lord Mandelson] clearance for the role, and you have to go through that before you take up the post”.
However they also wrote that “Lord Mandelson was announced as the UK’s ambassador to the US in December 2024, before in-depth vetting had been carried out, and formally took up the role on 10 February 2025″.
(Also known as a shoo-in).
This is just another mess, fiasco, controversy and scandal linked to the Labour party and also to Sir Keir Starmer as their HQ leader, the same Starmer that Anas Sarwar and newspapers like The Daily Record campaigned so hard for in the 2024 UK GE.
“Change” ?
From what ?
Certainly not from all of the previous mess, fiascos, controversies and scandals that were linked to the various former Tory UK governments (plural) and their equally (too often) compromised various useless HQ leaders (also plural).
UK governments (all of them) embrace Capitalism to try to keep money in the pockets of the wealthy few (that includes themselves as individual politicians).
While some within the UK media are now apparently accusing the SNP of “коммунизм” Ha Ha…..
FGS what next, I dread to think.
Liz S
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Tangentially related, but worth noting. On Wednesday the Scotsman had an article based on Unison Scotland surveys of its members in the NHS, headlined –
“Exclusive:Survey reveals ‘shocking’ concerns over health and care staffing”.
The article is at https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/survey-reveals-shocking-concerns-over-health-and-care-staffing-6574909, and is archived at https://archive.is/23k8p.
The article refers to two surveys, one in December 2025 and the other in February 2026. Odd that they’re reporting those now!
Very unusually, the article provides survey response numbers –
2,000 for the December survey and 3,000 for the one in February.
I don’t know if you reported on those surveys at the time, but you can see the results in the article. You’ll be well aware of the NHS Scotland headcount of around 188,000, and the headcount of Unison employees in the NHS which is around 60,000.
Hence, even if all those who responded to the surveys were highly critical of our NHS, that would amount to around 4% of Unison members, or 1.3% of the NHS headcount.
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Tangentially related, but worth noting. On Wednesday the Scotsman had an article based on Unison Scotland surveys of its members in the NHS, headlined – “Exclusive:Survey reveals ‘shocking’ concerns over health and care staffing”.
The article refers to two surveys, one in December 2025 and the other in February 2026. Odd that they’re reporting those now!
Very unusually, the article provides survey response numbers – 2,000 for the December survey and 3,000 for the one in February.
I don’t know if you reported on those surveys at the time, but you can see the results in the article.
You’ll be well aware of the NHS Scotland headcount of around 188,000, and the headcount of Unison employees in the NHS which is around 60,000.
Hence, even if all those who responded to the surveys were highly critical of our NHS, that would amount to around 4% of Unison members, or 1.3% of the NHS headcount.
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The article is at https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/survey-reveals-shocking-concerns-over-health-and-care-staffing-6574909
It’s archived at https://archive.is/23k8p
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Apologies for the repeated post – I thought the anonymous post had disappeared.
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