Look at what the SNP have done in Scotland, for example, with prescription charges. Aware of how much the system cost to implement they did away with prescription charges entirely and actually saved money in doing so. The added side effect is that those who would have had to pay, including prt timers, zero hours contractors and those with seasonal variations in their hours now can afford to get the medicines they were previously unable to get due to excessive charges. We have an improvement to health whilst ALSO saving money!

Sadly the main UK parties have failed to even LOOK for policies like this. This and many others where the government could ‘spend to save’ in the longer term are simply avoided. In fact, for many years until just LAST WEEK the Labour Party was DEAD AGAINST the ‘free prescription charges’ idea, particularly in Scotland! Suddenly, after the conference, it’s a GOOD idea and has, finally, been adopted for England. No doubt Scottish Labour politicians will be unhappy.

The underlying reason for Labour’s failure to even look at these ideas has been, certainly in Scotland, their vitriolic hatred of SNP and anything that even comes from the SNP, even if it’s something Labour would otherwise have adopted and agreed with. The Scottish system of government was set up specifically to avoid an antagonistic government style and promote coalition governments. This has failed due to Labour’s inability to work with the largest party (SNP) and they have done their utmost to hold everything back. This has backfire spectacularly and left Labour placing fourth in Scotland in ost wards.

I’m hoping that Labour will, for once, LISTEN to the public and go ahead and adopt policies that benefit the PUBLIC rather than those who have shares in banking and finance.

When Labour remembers that it is the party of the people, for the many and not the few, it will again regain support. It may take decades to rebuild trust in Scotland however but Corbyn & McDonnel are popular, whether they can overcome the right wing PLP is another matter…