Another day, another Spectator article alleging a Scottish Government ‘record of failure.’ Actual details of that failure – or the context of comparison – are just as scarce and vague as usual however, with the two spectator journalists who wrote it apparently blaming ‘secrecy’. So let’s help them out. Because the truth is out there. Links to all claims, of course.
FERRIES!
- The Spectator: Two ferries, £137m over budget and delayed for years.
Tories:
£83M payout for the ferries and Eurotunnel fiasco. Ferries that aren’t just delayed, they’re cancelled.
£300M over budget (est) on one submarine’s maintenance in Plymouth. Delayed for years.
£2.3B over budget aircraft carrier program. Delayed years. £6.4B is latest estimate. Aircraft for the carriers costing £10.5B. Also over budget, downgraded and delayed.
Under construction Type 31 Destroyers will also be hundreds of millions over budget.
The National Audit Office reports that not a single big project of the £166.6B MoD program will be on budget and on time. It’ll clearly take a lot more than two Spectator journalists to get to the bottom of that cost but Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey says ‘at least £13bn has been wasted in taxpayers’ money since 2010′ (by the Tory MoD).
Verdict: SNP 1 Tories 0. But how about infrastructure projects?
Building Bridges
Boris’ bridge to NI. The study of the fantasy throw away suggestion cost £900K.
Boris London Garden Bridge. Failed project cost £53m.
The Queensferry Crossing was built on schedule and within budget by the SNP Government.
Trains
HS2: truncated, massively over budget, behind schedule. It won’t ever get to Scotland, under the Tories.
Borders Railway: on time and on budget. A success story set to be extended.
NHS
‘Numerous metrics point to the conclusion that Scotland has the worst health service within the UK’.- James & Michael in the Spectator.
‘Numerous metrics’. But not one named by the lads. Well here’s some they obviously missed.
| Infant mortality in Scotland and England, Prof Danny Dorling.
The BBC data journalism unit’s last investigation into NHS time based targets, comparing results across the UK.
Scottish A&E waiting times are consistently shorter than in England. It has had the best record in the UK since September 2015. Even, as a Covid winter hit hard, when the BBC was leading with ‘Scottish A&E waiting times worst on record’ they were still better than in England’s hospitals. If admitted Scottish patients have more hospital beds (per person) available to them than in England.
Scottish NHS staff aren’t just clapped, they’re much better paid and happier in their work than English NHS staff. Neither they nor the families visiting have to pay for parking. They do in England.
Scotland has the highest number of GP’s in the UK (ph) meaning less pressure on doctors and better access for patients. Part of a 20% increase in NHS staff (25k) since 2007.
Scotland has more qualified nurses and midwives (ph) than the rest of the UK.
Eye tests are free in Scotland, not in England. Dentistry is free for U26s in Scotland, not in England.
In England it’s expensive to be sick. Even low paid and part time workers have to pay for their prescriptions. This has led to people not taking their medication with adverse effects on their health and for society. Not in Scotland, where prescription charges were scrapped in 2011. And even the Scottish Tories have now dropped their opposition to free prescriptions.
The Pandemic
The stronger NHS together with much clearer, consistent, messaging and faster rollout of the vaccine helped Scotland achieve the lowest covid deaths in Britain.
Crime
Society
The vulnerable
Seems like the SNP should challenge the Tories and their press cheerleaders to a record-off.
The SNP… ‘Have some of this!‘
The Tories… ‘Umm, …this is all we could come up with.‘
Obviously none of this is to suggest there are no issues and mistakes in Scotland. Nobody is suggesting that. Merely it is a response to the constant, critical, repetition of the vague ‘SNP record’ soundbite by Unionists who are following, whether they know it or not, the leaked Tory ‘Union Unit’ strategy to reduce support for independence by, basically, changing the subject to ‘record’ regardless of the hypocrisy.
Ironically, they only succeed in showing that, if anyone needs to ‘concentrate on the day job’ – it’s them.
PS If you read about the better provision of public services in Scotland compared to England and conclude it’s an illustration of Scotland getting a good deal from the Union you should do a little bit more comparison- with the public spending in our independent neighbours like Norway and Iceland. It’ll knock your socks off. But that’s for another post.
