UNFORTUNATELY for the people of England, the chickens that hatched as a result of the the Tory and LibDem coalition’s Health and Social Care Act 2012 reorganising the health service in England have come home to roost only a few weeks before the General Election.
The voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland no doubt are aware that the funds allocated to the block grants by the UK Government to their devolved parliaments are based on the ring-fenced funding allocated by the UK Government to the equivalent services in England.
READ MORE: What the BBC does when news about the Tory-damaged NHS surfaces
The health service in Scotland is performing better than in England because funding in the block grant is not ring-fenced so the devolved parliaments can spend proportionately more on health services than is spent in England, through prioritising the health service at the cost of other services.
As austerity has been applied across the board in England to all services – police, fire, education, local authorities, transport etc – it is only a matter of time before the devolved parliaments are no longer able to switch funds between services to cover the deficiencies that are now becoming visible in the health service England.
Fortunately the voters in Scotland still have the opportunity to begin the process of ridding Scotland of Westminster Tory governments once and for all in the December election.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
I UNDERSTAND Brian Kelly’s letter, Media are suddenly quiet about Scottish NHS figures (Letters, November 15), but do not agree with his the conclusion.
I believe that the Scottish Government’s commitment to the NHS is absolute whereas the Westminster Tory government wants to privatise health care in England. What better way of achieving their aim than by gradually running down the NHS so that people become scunnered and have little choice but to move towards private medicine. Alas, those who cannot afford private medicine will just have to go to the wall!
READ MORE: Media are suddenly quiet about Scottish NHS figures
At every opportunity the Unionist MSPs in Holyrood rubbish the achievements of our NHS staff. I wonder if their constant carping will encourage staff to vote for any of the three Unionist parties – I doubt it!
If the people in England want their NHS to be privatised that is their right, which I respect, but please do not drag Scotland down into that hellhole.
Thomas L Inglis
Fintry
BORIS Johnson has said that if the Scottish Government cannot do better with the health service it will be taken out of their care. Who will take the English NHS out of their care given the desperate state it is in?
Mary Taylor
via email
THE recent inconclusive election in Spain delivered one major beneficiary, but it was not Pedro Sanchez, the Socialist prime minister. Mr Sanchez hoped a fourth poll in as many years might finally deliver him the numbers to break a debilitating deadlock in parliament.
Instead, the Socialist Workers’ party emerged as the largest party once again, but lost three seats and must enter yet more tortured negotiations with other parties in order to find a way to govern.
The real celebrations of Sunday evening took place at the headquarters of Vox, a far-right nationalist party. Vox increased its share of the vote to 15.1%, won 52 seats and became the third-biggest party in Spain.
Until very recently, Spain appeared immune to the right-wing populism that gained ground in other European countries following the 2008 crash. But the rapid rise of Vox is testimony to the way in which events in Catalonia have contributed to an alarming rightwards shift in Spanish politics.
Much of Vox’s rhetoric draws from a familiar populist right playbook: lurid scaremongering in relation to immigrants, Islamophobia and condemnations of “gender ideology” allegedly imposed on society by a progressive dictatorship.
Congratulatory messages for Vox from Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini and Geert Wilders should now concentrate minds. The cordon sanitaire protecting Spanish politics from the far right has been well and truly breached and the spotlight is on the other parties to address this.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
ANYONE like to give me odds on whether or not the departure of Evo Morales was engineered by the CIA?
Isn’t it an amazing coincidence that whenever a South American country elects a left-wing government and it starts to improve the lot of the lower income groups, a revolution/military coup sweeps it away?
The only one which survived this “coincidence” was Cuba, in spite of many and various attempts both military and economic. Just sayin’.....
Barry Stewart
Blantyre
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