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”
John
It reflects poorly on SNP supporters to continuously misrepresent reality. This seems to be the common thread of this independence debate.
1. The Tories never said that they would not reorganise the NHS, in fact their Election Manifesto set it out quite clearly: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8617433.stm
2. Edward Heath was in favour of some form of devolution, and committed the Conservative Party to this in 1968. In 1975 he was replaced as Conservative Party leader by Margaret Thatcher, who made is clear fairly rapidly she opposed Scottish devolution. When Scotland voted in the Scottish Devolution referendum in 1979 it was fully aware of this. Nevertheless the “yes side” did not obtain the 40% of the electorate, which had been set as the hurdle (by a Scotsman by the way)
The original point I made was about the Scottish NHS underperforming the English NHS by the most commonly used output parameters, and that being a reason why the SNP is trying to blur the debate. You have not delivered any proper counterargument regarding this scandalous underperformance. You then argued that I should distinguish between independence and SNP. I explained that this is not possible because the SNP decided to mix an entire set of policies into the independence proposal, which in fact have nothing to do with the independence debate. Again, you did not deliver any valid counterargument to this.
John
Why do you not make that point then to your buddies in the SNP and the no-campaign? When they decided to put an entire set of specific policies into the White Paper, which frankly have nothing to do with independence, they blurred the debate. You can’t have it both ways: get people to vote yes because they want free childcare and then say to the no-voters, who like me are concerned about the economic consequences of all these unfunded promises, that we should forget about these ancillary promises.
I do agree with you that the independence proposition should have been about the big constitutional question, our identity, our role in the world, etc, but it is the SNP and yes-campaign who decided not to go down this path. Joanne Lamont has been explaining this very clearly at multiple occasions. You can’t now blame no-voters for the White Paper and the continuous flood of SNP referendum promises.
Arthur
The Tories did say they wouldn’t reorganise the NHS – http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/pre-election-pledges-tories-are-trying-wipe-internet. It might not have been in their manifesto, but they did say it as part of their campaign.
The Tories said they would deliver a better Scottish assembly if we voted No: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4d7c56e6-58b8-11e1-b9c6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz38NX02Dwl
These things are easily found with a quick search on the internet.
I see your original point – fair enough, there are problems with the Scottish NHS. I think you are only using this as a stick to beat the Yes vote with though, not to discuss the points made in the article.
Regarding the article, the Scottish NHS is vulnerable to funding changes at Westminster. The current administration is carrying on down a path of reform that will remove funding from the English NHS. They will call it an improvement, but it won’t be. The consequence will be less funding for the Scottish NHS.
Stop defending the Tories.
Arthur
I’m not here to defend the SNP. Are you going to defend your buddies in UKIP, the BNP and the Conservatives? Perhaps you should listen to some of the other voices in the Yes camp? The Jimmy Reid foundation, RIP, the Greens, or the SSP? If you keep concentrating on the SNP, then you only have yourself to blame about being misinformed.
The independence debate is not about identity, it’s about governance. What is the No camps view about Scotland’s role in the world? From where I sit it seems to be “shut up and let Westminster do the talking”. I don’t like what Westminster says to the world.
JReilly
I’m sorry but you Labour people just dont get it.If there is a No vote the Tories will be in power for ever because Labour will not be able to count on Scottish votes.I’m a Labour voter but voting Yes for Scotland not SNP.If its a Yes vote Labour could be Independent Scotlands govt.And please dont mention scare stories as the better together campaign have put plenty of them out ranging from roaming charges to transplants,all proved to be wrong.