WHY aren’t opposition parties asking Boris Johnson the right questions about the NHS?
From early in David Cameron’s government the Tories have tried to privatise the NHS, wanting to implement their most cherished mantra “everything in the private sector is better than the public sector”.
Much of the NHS in England is now privatised (the formation of GP Commissioning Groups was the infrastructure for privatisation which would have been extended in that direction if Cameron hadn’t taken cold feet) and the Tories believe that as long as treatment is free at the point of patient interface it really doesn’t matter how it’s delivered.
READ MORE: FM warns of Johnson's threat to NHS as General Election looms
This may be so for an initial period, before the electorate discovers the big profits that private health care companies can make from taxpayers’ money. With the right majority in the House of Commons it is only a step from privatisation under the NHS banner to charging people for the services. That is the stage when the big American insurance companies step in and taxes are lowered for those who can afford to jump the queue anyway.
Mr Johnson’s response that the NHS will not be part of any trade deal with the USA is totally meaningless, but he is quite happy to let the controversy rage around drugs because it distracts from the bigger goal.
If a sharper person led Her Majesty’s Opposition, Johnson would be stumbling over his microphone by now.
Mike Underwood
Linlithgow
I SPENT 20 years in London, giving birth to two children and ferrying them back and forth to A&E for their childhood accidents. Six years ago I moved to Edinburgh and did the same with a third child.
I can categorically state that the NHS in Scotland is five-star in comparison to that in London, both in terms of the attitude of the medical staff and the timely delivery of care.
Last month in New York I visited a friend recovering from a road accident. She lives in the upper east side of Manhattan and is a doctor herself, so has the very best US insurance. I was shocked by the rehabilitation hospital where I visited her: the badly maintained building, the smell, and the poorly paid and ill-trained staff. It is a total lie that US healthcare is a good model to follow.
The NHS in England is already undermined and being sold off bit by bit. We must do all we can to protect our NHS in Scotland. Those who criticise it just do not know how badly off they could be with a privatised healthcare system which is driven by greed not by need.
Jean Fraser
Edinburgh
I DO understand that The National from time to time mischievously publishes a piece of correspondence to stimulate debate and get us all going. Such I imagine is the offering from W Kenneth Gunn in yesterdays’ Sunday National.
As I struggled through a list of the huge faults of Scotland which have little to do with the SNP being laid at the door of the SNP, which of course has at this particular moment in our history very pressing and important matters on its mind, I rather wondered why he had not referenced the failure of the SNP to put a cap or a plug on Vesuvius.
READ MORE: There is little democracy in the regional-based councils in Scotland
His finals sentence said it all. An independent Scotland would be “unsustainable in the EU”. You know, like Denmark, the Republic of Ireland, Finland, Lithuania etc etc. On what grounds I can’t imagine, except perhaps some of us can’t actually think.
I’ll be very polite. He’s a complete Frances.
David McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll
THERE is an election on ... who would guess? The terrorist attack in London on Friday has been jumped on by most political parties. Both Labour and Tories are accusing each other of using this terrible incident to make political points.
They wouldn’t do that, would they? The Labour and Tories in Scotland wouldn’t use the deaths of two young children in 2017 to attack the Scottish Government over the new Queen Elizabeth hospital in Glasgow?
And the politicians wonder why the public are totally disgusted with their behaviour! Is it any wonder that the support for the two main Unionist parties is at rock bottom?
Jim McGregor
Kirkintilloch
WHY does the north-east fishing community believe that their interests will be best served by voting Tory?
A Johnson-led government would use our fishing rights to negotiate trading agreements at the expense of Scottish fishermen.
In the unlikely event that non-UK vessels were banned from our waters, the EU would impose a 40% levy on imported fish which would not only prove prohibitive to the north-east fishing industry but have a crippling effect on the west coast shellfish industry.
Surely it makes better sense for an independent Scotland to be in a position to fight the corner for all Scottish fishing interests as a member of the EU?
R Pitcairn
Bridge of Ericht
THE slogan “Get Brexit Done” is probably the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the British public. Brexit negotiations will only start after “Brexit is Done” and will last for years.
The only real change on “Brexit Done” day will be to slip the leash on bankers, financiers, hedge fund managers et al to begin the carve-up of British institutions and standards, including the NHS, food and medicine.
Robert G Clark
Gorebridge
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