It sounds good – especially the claim he’ll restore the NHS at any cost – but what’s the truth behind the Scottish Labour leader’s promises?
This Writer reckons we should be cautious about supporting Anas Sarwar because – like his counterparts in Westminster, he is taking inspiration from the far right.
In their case, it is in emulating Reform UK’s policy on immigration; in his it is proposing a new Department of Government Efficiency like (the unelected) Elon Musk’s agency in the United States – an organisation dedicated to cutting the size of the state.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
(We know that cutting the number of government workers or so-called “red tape” – the bureaucratic procedures they follow that keep us safe from bad practices and/or crime – doesn’t work because of the state of the UK as a whole since David Cameron did the same between 2010 and 2015.)
If he’ll emulate the American system on that, what does this suggest about Sarwar’s plans for the NHS?
He says that if he becomes Scottish First Minister, he’ll end a “growing culture of bureaucracy” and reduce the number of health boards to provide “fewer chief executives and more doctors”, which sounds good – but will it actually improve efficiency, or worsen it?
He says he’ll declare “a national waiting times emergency” to solve a problem caused by the Tories when they were in government in England (the national government provides funding for the devolved governments, meaning it can starve services if it so pleases). But declaring an emergency isn’t solving a problem. What would he actually do?
And will it involve private health companies – the like of which have blighted the English NHS with their profiteering and (in some cases) incompetence since they were allowed in by Andrew Lansley in 2012?
It seems he wants to bring nuclear energy back to Scotland, claiming it is “clean” (it isn’t; nuclear waste is radioactive for 10,000 years, and burying it deep in the ground is not a good answer to the problems it creates).
He wants to get Scotland building, to end the country’s housing crisis – but how is he going to do that? And is he planning to use out-of-date information to decide where houses should go, like his counterparts in London, with possibly disastrous results?
The devil is in the detail – and there aren’t enough details in this speech.
Perhaps politicians should be made to provide policy documents in support of such performances, explaining just how they propose to provide the services they propose?
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The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
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What’s the truth behind the Scottish Labour leader’s promises?
It sounds good – especially the claim he’ll restore the NHS at any cost – but what’s the truth behind the Scottish Labour leader’s promises?
This Writer reckons we should be cautious about supporting Anas Sarwar because – like his counterparts in Westminster, he is taking inspiration from the far right.
In their case, it is in emulating Reform UK’s policy on immigration; in his it is proposing a new Department of Government Efficiency like (the unelected) Elon Musk’s agency in the United States – an organisation dedicated to cutting the size of the state.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
(We know that cutting the number of government workers or so-called “red tape” – the bureaucratic procedures they follow that keep us safe from bad practices and/or crime – doesn’t work because of the state of the UK as a whole since David Cameron did the same between 2010 and 2015.)
If he’ll emulate the American system on that, what does this suggest about Sarwar’s plans for the NHS?
He says that if he becomes Scottish First Minister, he’ll end a “growing culture of bureaucracy” and reduce the number of health boards to provide “fewer chief executives and more doctors”, which sounds good – but will it actually improve efficiency, or worsen it?
He says he’ll declare “a national waiting times emergency” to solve a problem caused by the Tories when they were in government in England (the national government provides funding for the devolved governments, meaning it can starve services if it so pleases). But declaring an emergency isn’t solving a problem. What would he actually do?
And will it involve private health companies – the like of which have blighted the English NHS with their profiteering and (in some cases) incompetence since they were allowed in by Andrew Lansley in 2012?
It seems he wants to bring nuclear energy back to Scotland, claiming it is “clean” (it isn’t; nuclear waste is radioactive for 10,000 years, and burying it deep in the ground is not a good answer to the problems it creates).
He wants to get Scotland building, to end the country’s housing crisis – but how is he going to do that? And is he planning to use out-of-date information to decide where houses should go, like his counterparts in London, with possibly disastrous results?
The devil is in the detail – and there aren’t enough details in this speech.
Perhaps politicians should be made to provide policy documents in support of such performances, explaining just how they propose to provide the services they propose?
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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