Scotland Matters Letters

The extent to which Holyrood has become irrelevant Is demonstrated by Nicola Sturgeon’s treatment of it. Instead of making her briefing about the crisis in the NHS in Scotland to our elected representatives, she chose to make it to journalists at a different venue. It begs the question: if our elected representatives are not fit to debate the crisis in the NHS -but apparently are fit to debate the constitutional issue this week – then what is the point of them? As for the NHS in Scotland, its problems were not only predictable years ago but were actually predicted. So says Lailah Peel, deputy chairwoman of the BMA in Scotland, who adds that we now face “a crisis (that is) years in the making”, and it has been developing over the years of SNP rule. In 2012, when Ms Sturgeon was health secretary, she authorised a plan to cut 3,790 jobs in the Scottish NHS, including 1,523 in nursing and midwifery. She bad already, in the same year, announced a reduction in the number of training places for nurses which, she said, would ensure “the right number of nurses and midwives for the future’ That worked out well! As recently as April 2021, campaigning for the Holyrood election, Ms Sturgeon promised a “transformational” increase in Scotland’s health budget – so transformational that the Institute for Fiscal Studies (rtes) warned that it would probably not be enough to cover rising demands on the NHS. The IFS pointed out that Ms Sturgeon’s planned financing of the NHS amounted to a real-terms rise of about 2.1%, whereas the comparable figure planned for NHS England was 3.4%. This clearly indicates that Barnett formula funds for health spending in Scotland are being partially diverted to other SNP priorities. Dr Peel of the BMA further notes that most Januarys begin… with patients on trolleys in corridors’ but “this year… winter-style queues (began) in August”, so why are crisis measures being announced as late as January? Perhaps the NHS simply has to cede precedence to allegedly much more pressing issues, such as Scottish secession and gender recognition reform. The result is that what Ms Sturgeon administered in her briefing was a belated sticking plaster when what is required for the NHS in Scotland is a tourniquet. Jill Stephenson. Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

Sir, – Nicola Sturgeon on STV News during a discussion on NHS Scotland said Humza Yousaf is the only health secretary in the UK to avoid strike action by NHS staff That must be very reassuring for patients lying on trolleys in corridors, people who can’t get the treatment they need, those being treated in ambulances and so on. She also boasted about being health secretary for nearly six years but forgot to say that she cut nursing college places. The NHS in Forth Valley region is in a desperate situation so perhaps someone could explain why two hospitals, Falkirk and Stirling, were placed on reduced services and one hospital was built to replace them_ The truth is that NHS Scotland is broken and the SNP hasn’t a clue how to fix it. Ian Balloch, Grangemouth.

Every political party in the UK, if not the entire democratic world, has always had a few rebellious non-conformists, who while taking the party line and whip most of the time, have a quirky, rebellious streak. This is a good, healthy and welcome sign of freedom of thought and of refusing to bend to the diktats of any party’s leadership. All parties, that is, except the SNP When even a former high-ranking minister and prominent nationalist such as Alex Neil can comment scathingly on the ‘clapping seals’ occupying the vast number of SNP seats, it is time surely for all of us to sit up and take notice. It was very prominent in the gender law debates and their lack of backbone was only matched by their lack of intellectual prowess. Throw a fish and they will clap enthusiastically for anything and read out their spinner-written questions religiously and ask how far they should jump. Holyrood at present is in truth a travesty of democracy. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

When the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, the SNP immediately seized on this as a major change in circumstances in order to call for another referendum on independence. The case in 2014 was largely based on income from North Sea oil and gas. Now that it is abandoning this, by the same token, is this a major change in circumstances, meaning that another referendum should not take place?
George Brown, Stirlingshire.

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