Yes Scotland’s NHS scares and lies strategy

The Yes campaign has borrowed one of New Labour’s best tricks, and not in a good way.

The Yes campaign has borrowed one of New Labour’s best tricks, and not in a good way

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the latest turn of the independence referendum shows it to be true, as the Yes campaign has borrowed one of New Labour’s best tricks.

Those of us with long memories will recall various by-election campaigns in Tony Blair’s spell as leader of the opposition when Peter Mandelson would run a last-week leaflet bearing the headline ‘One Week To Save Our NHS/Hospitals’ etc.

This would appeal to the natural concerns of the local public who would then turn out to defeat the hapless Tory candidate who would be left shaking their head in bewilderment.

The Yes Campaign is now playing the same game, but with an important difference: where the New Labour case was based on genuine concerns, the Nationalists are spreading a pack of lies.

A further difference is that Labour was genuinely concerned about the future of the NHS, and later acted by doubling and tripling spending on the NHS and building a new generation of modern hi-tech hospitals.

In contrast, the interest of the Yes campaign in the Scottish NHS is solely to use it as part of its programme of attempting frighten people into voting for independence.

At the heart of the Yes Scotland NHS Scares And Lies Strategy are two assertions which are bare-faced lies of the highest order.

Big NHS Lie No. 1 is that the Scottish NHS is vulnerable to health policy decisions made in England.

The Truth is of course that for decades, the Scottish NHS has been run from Scotland by Scots, first through the Home & Health Department and now as a fully devolved service under the direct control and responsibility of the Scottish Government. The Truth is therefore that no decision made in Westminster can impact on the Scottish NHS.

Big NHS Lie No. 2 is that structural reforms of the NHS in the rest of UK can reduce the block grant available in Scotland, e.g., if parts of the NHS in England and Wales are privatised, the cash available (calculated by the Barnett Formula) would go down.

The Truth of this story is that even in the highly unlikely event of most or all of NHS treatment in England and Wales being privatised, it would still be paid for by the taxpayer. The Truth is that the bill for the NHS would not go down and so neither would the proportion allocated to Scotland.

There are two calculations behind the Yes Scotland NHS Scares and Lies Strategy.

The first is the knowledge that the usual drift of opinion in referendum campaigns is towards the status quo, and only exceptions are when the voters are convinced that only the change proposal can protect those things which they value. (The best examples are those of countries like Sweden and Austria joining the European Union in the belief that membership would protect their economies and social fabric better than isolation.)

So Yes needs to put fear into the voters to have any chance at all of winning in September. Hence the lies about threats to the Scottish NHS.

The second calculation is that they recall the way in which in 2011 Holyrood election the SNP took protest votes (overwhelmingly from Liberal Democrats) in the final weeks of the campaign. This time the party in the firing line is Scottish Labour, as the founders and saviours of the NHS – Scotland’s true party of the NHS.

So Yes needs to support its NHS Scotland Scares And Lies Strategy with a parallel onslaught of lies about the Labour Party’s record in office since 1997.

This of course ignores The Truth of Labour’s achievements of 10 years continuous growth, The Truth of highest-ever levels of employment, The Truth of rising living standards across all social and economic groups, The Truth of radical reductions in child and pensioner poverty, The Truth of big improvements in education and childcare, the UK’s largest ever programme of schools building, The Truth of improved maternity rights and statutory paternity rights, The Truth of the first ever Minimum Wage, The Truth of full employment rights for part-time workers, and The Truth of civil partnerships.

And, of course, in health matters it ignores The Truth that the NHS under Labour enjoyed its lowest waiting times and highest level of satisfaction ever, and embarked on the largest ever programme of hospital building, and The Truth that the Labour Scottish government took such bold steps as the early introduction of the smoking ban and the nationalisation of the Royal Jubilee Hospital.

It also neglects The Truth that Labour wrote off Glasgow’s housing debt, making possible the massive investment which has transformed the city’s social housing stock and made history of the old health hazards of damp and avoidable fuel poverty.

And it dismisses The Truth that devolutionto Scotland, delivered by Labour according to the wishes of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, absolutely guarantees that the NHS in Scotland remains a matter for the people of Scotland.

Pretty soon, Yes Scotland will put out the Mandelsonian message ‘x weeks/days to Save Scotland’s NHS’. However, voters are being asked to vote Yes on the basis of the Yes Scotland NHS Scares And Lies Strategy.

This is a proposition which is much more serious than a mere carelessness with the truth, or a little bit of tweaking it for a bye-election. It is an invitation to start a new state on a prospectus of lies.

There can be no doubt that Scots should all choose the rational truth instead, and vote No.

Peter Russell blogs at Planet Pedro!

173 Responses to “Yes Scotland’s NHS scares and lies strategy”

  1. Arthur

    Why do you think the Tories are privatising the English NHS? Because they know that they’ll end up paying less money for it. They’ll say it’s the result of efficiencies, but we all know that the English NHS will become a shadow of its former self. Less money spent on the English NHS, will mean a reduction in the amount paid back to Scotland through the Barnet formula. I can see this – I know you can see this – why are you against us wanting to keep our NHS? We have an opportunity in Scotland that you don’t have, and I’m sorry that you don’t have it, but I’m not going to martyr my children’s future for a futile gesture of solidarity.

  2. John

    I would like to congratulate the author for this excellent article.

    It may also be worthwhile to add following facts:

    Despite Scotland spending £172 per capita more for its NHS than England (2012, source: National Audit Office)…

    1. Waiting times for most hospital procedures are longer in Scotland than in England (2012, source: National Audit Office)

    2. The five-year survival rate after cancer diagnosis is substantially higher in England than in Scotland

    Scotland female: 45%
    Scotland male: 36%

    English female: 59%
    English male: 49%

    (Source; Cancer Research UK)

    3. Life expectancy at birth has increased faster in England than in Scotland since devolution, adding another 4 months to the gap (whereas it should be easier to close the gap than to widen it, given the same access to medical and health advances)

    Life expectancy at birth comparison between 1998-2000 and 2010 – 2012:

    England: 77.79 yrs –> 81.11 yrs : + 3.32 years
    Scotland: 75.60 yrs –> 78.63 yrs : + 3.03 years

    Source: ONS & GRO for Scotland

    Conclusion:

    The SNP’s central claim that Holyroad governance is better, is clearly false when it comes to health and the NHS. The reason they make so much noise about the English NHS has all to do with covering up their own underperformance. Finally, their publications are carefully crafted to hide this underperformance. For instance on cancer survival rates, all the Scottish Government is willing to show is progress over time, but it avoids any benchmarking. Fortunately there is Cancer Research UK which shows to what extent the Scottish government lets down its own cancer patients.

    Before anybody makes the claim the SNP’s health underperformance is due to higher poverty levels in Scotland: The Gini Coefficient for Scotland is 31 and for the UK it is 34, which means less income inequality in Scotland than in the UK, and hence also less poverty, considering GDP / person is practically the same for the UK and Scotland. Interesting to note is that, for all the drivel from the SNP about social fairness, they have not been able to reduce Scotland’s Gini coefficient (i.e. reduce income inequality), whereas the UK has improved marginally on this.

    It is a pity this story about the SNP’s underperformance on healthcare is not covered at all in the press. Looking at the huge difference in care for cancer patients, it is our democratic duty to spread this story. The SNP should be held accountable.

  3. John Ruddy

    Yet, as we on the left constantly say, privatisation doesnt work, and private sector providers dont provide value for money – theres even some evidence for that. So, given that is the view of the left, the trade unions etc, why should we fear privatisation of the English NHS? It will clearly cost them more, meaning more money for Scotland!

  4. Arthur

    Well done John John with the selective statistics. Can I throw in a couple of random numbers from the same publication? Scotland has 80 GPs per 100,00 compared to England’s 70, and Scotland has only seen a 9% increase in the number of emergency admissions since 2001 compared to England’s 28% increase. What does this prove? Not much. What does your post prove? You don’t like the SNP. But the thing is John, we’re not voting for the SNP in this referendum. I know you don’t like it, but we’re voting for a new way of doing things. Proportional representation. No House of Lords. No Nuclear weapons. Stuff that we’ve talked about for decades, but never seem to have managed to do. Well, Scotland has a chance to do this, in one fell swoop. Why are you attacking us for this? Are you so bitter that you’ll deny us our chance to get out of this mess? I wish we could take you with us, but we can’t. The only reason that we can do this is because Scotland is a nation. Other than that, there’s no difference between us – we have the same hopes and aspirations, fears and foibles. But we can escape. Please don’t hold us back. You could even move up here – you’d be more than welcome.

  5. Arthur

    What? Of course it won’t provide value for money. Of course it will mean that the same services will cost more. But the point is the Tories won’t pay extra. All that will happen is that they will pay less for it and the NHS will provide a reduced service. That’s the whole point. Or are you saying we should privatise the NHS? That seems to be the logic of your argument. Does the Labour party support privatisation of the NHS?

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