Scottish independence: Alex Salmond defends Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as Holyrood erupts over SNP hidden waiting lists under Sturgeon, Anne Fisher still waiting for drug, Ipilimumab

Dear All

When the SNP came to power in 2007, health was pushed to the front as a flagship SNP Policy.

Nicola Sturgeon was put in charge of the brief; in certain areas standards were raised on issues such has hospital infections.

In the years that followed many believed that Nicola Sturgeon was running a tight ship, but the ship rather than being slick was more of a rusting tramp steamer with an SNP spin covering over the lack of substance and competence.

Today is a watershed moment in the SNP Government’s history and proof that my suggestion that Alex Salmond should send SNP Ministers back to their desks was 100% correct.

George Laird right again?

Well yes, always right, it’s a gift.

Another thing I said; was it was a mistake to appoint Nicola Sturgeon as independence minister.

George Laird right again.

Alex Salmond has launched Operation Save Nicola Sturgeon as he was forced to deal with failings in the NHS, he admitted “failings and faults” after a damning watchdog’s report prompted fresh concerns over the unfolding scandal of waiting time fiddles.

Remember how much political capital was made by the SNP over Labour’s hidden waiting lists?

Well, seems that Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has a few of her own to explain away as thousands of patients were removed from NHS waiting lists across Scotland.

It is time that Alex Salmond sent Nicola Sturgeon back to health to clear up her mess made on her watch, his weak leadership is now a problem for the SNP as government is now effectively paralysed by inactivity and lack of vision.

The reasons that thousands of patients suffered under Nicola Sturgeon’s watch was that they were deemed “socially unavailable” when they could not make appointments.

In a show of remarkably weak political judgment, Alex Salmond tried to justify incompetence by saying that there were hidden waiting lists affected to 33% of patients under the last Labour/Liberal Democrat administration.

The defence is that ‘we are just as incompetent’ as others is no defence at all!

On the attack with facts, Labour leader Johann Lamont said that Nicola Sturgeon, the previous health minister, was told in 2011 that only 3% of patients were waiting more than 9 weeks for treatment when the actual figure was 23%.

Lamont added:

“She knew what was happening did she not have the wit to notice that waiting lists were being falsified, or did it simply fit her purpose?”

Now, the SNP Government will swing into action rallying to protect Nicola Sturgeon burning public money to spin away incompetence at the helm, but not a single penny will be available to get dying mum, Anne Fisher who desperately needs the drug, Ipilimumab.

The SNP now do not have a flagship policy in this term of Government.

For opposition parties who tried for years to discredit Nicola Sturgeon, today is the day that her credibility has suffered serious political damage..... SNP hidden waiting lists.

She should return to health, fix her mess and get Anne Fisher who desperately needs the drug, Ipilimumab, the help she and her family expected.

Remember she said her nationalism was based on social justice?

What a joke!

Time for a quote by Alex Salmond:

“My problem is that I have too many talented people and not enough Cabinet positions”!

Tell that to the Fisher family children as they see their mother suffer each day caused by a SNP Government that has become stupid, ignorant, cruel and uncaring of the most vulnerable in society.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University