Operation Damp Squid; SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon uses SNP Westminster election launch to drum up fear about the NHS being privatised, there is also a hallow attempt about stopping Brexit, the SNP have shown they are scared, scared about how their vote share keeps falling, the NHS gimmick is a ruse, opposition parties need to call them out

Dear All

It maybe Friday, it maybe the SNP’s election launch, but scaremongering takes centre stage as Nicola Sturgeon pledges that the SNP want to put a bill before Westminster to protect the NHS from trade deals with foreign nations, saying it is “not for sale at any price”. So, the question is protection from whom?

The UK Government

The Americans

The Man on the moon

To be real for the sake of clarity, no UK mainstream political party with any sense of self preservation would privatise the NHS. The health service is so much a part of the national psyche that even a hint of privatization would be political suicide. And strong supporters of the NHS exist in every party; it is a crown jewel of the UK which says who we are. You need help, you get help. You would have also thought that since health is devolved in Scotland why would the SNP care about the health service in the rest of the UK?

They don’t care, never did, I see this bill as a ruse, a ruse in part to make a case for Nicola Sturgeon to get into the leader’s debates on television  by presenting the SNP as UK party rather than a regional party.

Why haven’t we heard about the NHS Protection Bill before now, after all, it is nearly 3 years and half years since the EU Referendum took place! Clearly, it doesn’t take a lot of time to construct a bill of this sort. There is even a mechanism in the House of Commons called the 10 minute rule Bill procedure which can be used. So, why have they sat on this, because the SNP is all about short term gimmicks and vision, a like a set of stones to leapfrog across a pond in the hope of not getting their feet wet.

A simple ruse!

As I have mentioned before, any SNP manifesto pledges are utterly meaningless. If you want to know why, you just have to look at the BBC parliament channel and see how the SNP act at Westminster. In a recent exchange in the House of Commons when SNP leader Ian Blackford got to his feet, more or less the entire House rose and left. The parliamentarians of other parties have no time for the SNP. Even the leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg did a runner, turning to bow on the way out the door. When the only SNP noise is grievance and petty games, people want to switch off, or in this case, show their opponents a clear pair of heels.

This scaremongering proposed Bill is plainly electioneering, attempt to rally the troops and votes, and given the SNP vote share is dropping in elections, fear is the SNP’s instrument of choice. You have seen this before, campaign on an issue that doesn’t exist, that way they don’t have to do any work beyond sound bites. This is a paper campaign, a cheap and squalid nasty little trick which is designed to deceive Scottish voters.

Given that Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have said the NHS is not at risk from any future UK-US trade deal. You already know that the SNP paper campaign can go nowhere. You might find like many promises by SNP politicians that the scaremongering Bill will simply disappear post election. One interesting thing; is that at some level, Nicola Sturgeon and her crew are acknowledging that the UK is leaving the EU. Another acknowledgement appears to be that the SNP already suspect what the outcome of the UK election will be and who will be sitting in Number 10 after it.

Donald Trump isn’t a fool which is why he stated the NHS is not “up for grabs” in any trade deal.

In the world of mixed messages, partly created by political inbreeding Sturgeon said:

“A vote for the SNP is a vote to escape Brexit and to give people in Scotland the chance to choose a better future as an independent country so we never have to worry about our NHS being sold off by a Westminster government. The NHS in Scotland is run in Scotland, for Scotland and under the SNP it will always be in public hands. Our NHS is not for sale at any price. And while the Scottish Parliament has control of health policy, we cannot currently stop Westminster signing away that protection in a trade deal, or entering agreements that dramatically push up drug prices or risk our public services, including the NHS”.

There is so much verbal rubbish in her statement, but let’s explain it. Nicola Sturgeon won’t be getting a Section 30 order from Westminster, so her babbling about wanting an independent Scotland is all about increasing her longevity as SNP leader.

It’s all about the Scottish FM roubles!

The next statement is also meaningless because parties change; remember the SNP went from anti Nato to pro Nato. This is therefore a worthless promise by Nicola Sturgeon; no one who is a future leader will be bound to any of her promises. Her third pitch is to again return to fear, just in case the suckers she is targeting don’t get the first two imaginary points to sink in well enough.

Sturgeon added:

“Boris Johnson has been very clear about his desire for a post-Brexit trade deal with Donald Trump – and no-one should underestimate the threat which that poses. So in order to deal with that immediate threat from the Tories’ post-Brexit plans, the SNP will bring forward a Bill that would protect the NHS across the whole of the UK from ever being harmed by a Tory-Trump trade deal. Our NHS is there to care for and protect us – now it’s our turn to stand up and protect the NHS.”

Once the UK leaves the EU, the UK will be doing trade deals with the EU, America and the rest of the world…… for our benefit. And, when those benefits start to roll in, Nicola Sturgeon will see her indy dream well and truly sunk.

Finally, at today’s launch was Alyn Smith, MEP who is a candidate standing in Stirling, he knows the writing is on the wall hence he is attempt to bail out of the EU for safer shores at Westminster. Ironically, at today’s SNP launch, he is photographed despite a sign saying ‘Stop Brexit’, obviously he places no faith in that particular campaign idea hence the attempt to jump ship to Westminster. As I told him at a BBC radio show, time to prepare for EU unemployment, after squirming about he is effectively acknowledging the jig’s up!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University