We're just back from a weekend with the in-laws where I had the unfortunate experience of reading the Daily Mail. Several pages of Scotland-bashing at its worst.
This contemptible rag has always been discriminatory and inflammatory, with the emphasis on the last syllable. Last weekend they spent several pages whining about how NHS patients in Scotland can be prescribed drugs those in England can't. Apart from the fact that they seem to think the border somehow prevents people from each country living in the other and suffering the whims of the local NHS the articles were derogatory, factually inaccurate and divisive.
They imply that Scotland's NHS budget will increase because of the Executive's decision to prescribe these drugs. It won't. Scotland's NHS will have to find the money to fund these treatments from within their allocation. Why this becomes an excuse for such racist and unpleasant jock-bashing I can't quite comprehend. Surely, instead of bitching about how we've decided to use NHS money to save lives or improve the quality of life for some of our patients should be a cause for celebration? Or are we supposed to continue to spend the money on consultants & managers? I can see that people would be unhappy to be denied these drugs by their NHS, but that's an issue with how their MPs and local Trusts are running their local health boards, not with how Scotland is running hers.
Of course, these pathetic whinings are not printed in the Scottish version of the rag. Oh no, that might cost them readers. If they're going to have these opinions they should have the courage of their convictions and say them to our faces, not talk behind their hands. Have a mature debate about it and argue about what the real issues are, not this tripe. The more this kind of sludge is passed off as reasoned debate the more it makes the English look churlish and petulant. "If you're not playing by our rules we want our ball back." kind of thing.
Except it wasn't their ball in the first place.
This contemptible rag has always been discriminatory and inflammatory, with the emphasis on the last syllable. Last weekend they spent several pages whining about how NHS patients in Scotland can be prescribed drugs those in England can't. Apart from the fact that they seem to think the border somehow prevents people from each country living in the other and suffering the whims of the local NHS the articles were derogatory, factually inaccurate and divisive.
They imply that Scotland's NHS budget will increase because of the Executive's decision to prescribe these drugs. It won't. Scotland's NHS will have to find the money to fund these treatments from within their allocation. Why this becomes an excuse for such racist and unpleasant jock-bashing I can't quite comprehend. Surely, instead of bitching about how we've decided to use NHS money to save lives or improve the quality of life for some of our patients should be a cause for celebration? Or are we supposed to continue to spend the money on consultants & managers? I can see that people would be unhappy to be denied these drugs by their NHS, but that's an issue with how their MPs and local Trusts are running their local health boards, not with how Scotland is running hers.
Of course, these pathetic whinings are not printed in the Scottish version of the rag. Oh no, that might cost them readers. If they're going to have these opinions they should have the courage of their convictions and say them to our faces, not talk behind their hands. Have a mature debate about it and argue about what the real issues are, not this tripe. The more this kind of sludge is passed off as reasoned debate the more it makes the English look churlish and petulant. "If you're not playing by our rules we want our ball back." kind of thing.
Except it wasn't their ball in the first place.
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