The Cup, BGT, Susan Boyle and Council Elections

Some days are just absolute nightmares for door to door. Yesterday was one. The Scottish Cup final was on between Rangers and Falkirk from 3-5pm. Then at 6.45pm, Britain's Got Talent was on, with Susan Boyle as the firm Scottish favourite to win. That went on until 8.30pm, with the results announced at 9.30pm. Noone in their right mind would knock on a door at either of those times, so I only managed a couple of hours round doors yesterday and it resembled the Marie Celeste; only the gardeners were out in force.

Anyway, with the rest of the nation I sat down and watched BGT and like the good person I am, I used my vote. I was shocked when Susan Boyle got beaten, although Diversity were terrific and did deserve to win on the night. But it was the voting figures that caught my attention.

18 million people watched the show last night. Of that 18 million, only 4million actually voted. That works out at 22% of the vote, which is the predicted turnout rate for the Euro elections. Are people so scunnered with politicians at the moment, that they won't vote, not even for Susie Boyle? It's a sobering thought. Judging by the number of rubber ears that I'm getting at the mo, it might even dip below 20%. We'll see on Thursday, but it's at times like these that I think of countries that don't have a democracy. All we have to do to change things here, is go to a polling booth and put an X in a different box. In other countries, protest means jail and death. Politics is badly in need of change in this country, but it's only going to happen if people get up and fight for it, instead of giving up and not voting at all. It's a hard won right. We should use it with care.

Wot about the GPs? A Guide to the GP Contract.

About two years ago, Harthill became the centre of the media world in Scotland; or at least, the medical media world. A GP practice had dissolved due to a disagreement between the partners and NHS Lanarkshire had put out the tender on an APMS contract (Alternative Provider of Medical Services). Basically what this meant was, that not only could GPs apply to run the practice, but private companies could also apply and they did not even need to be health companies. As long as they maintained at least one GP in the practice, they could run it. The company that applied was Serco, which is a utilties company. Had they succeeded, the likely scenario would have been this;

1. Hollow out the practice. They are only legally required to have one GP; replace the others with nurse practitioners.

2. Bring in a pharmaceutical company. Pharmaceutical companies are always looking to promote their brands of drugs and pay big bucks to practices willing to promote sales. In Harthill's case, this was Astra Zeneca.

3. Slim down the patient list. A large number of elderly, chronically ill, or disabled is not good for profits. Appeal to the worried well, who are easy to look after and who do not eat into the shareholder profits.

Fortunately, Serco did not succeed. My own group, the Scottish Health Campaign Network and others got wind of it and we headed them off at the pass. But these companies have not gone away. They have been doing this down in England and even Richard Branson has been trying to get in on the act.

One of the difficulties in closing this loophole is European law. If a GP practice is small and is worth less than a certain value, then it does not need to be put out to open tender. If it is bigger and goes above a certain value, then it does need to be put out to open tender under European contract law. Guess what's happening. GP practices are merging and are coming together under one roof in big health centres. What's the next move? That's anyone's guess. But this battle is not over and I expect another attempt at a takeover in the next couple of years. Everyone needs to be alert to this, because primary care makes up 90% of the NHS and if this goes ahead, it will be the end of the NHS as we know it. If I am elected, it is something I will keep a very close eye on and oppose where necessary.

If you're a GP and reading this, try not to have nightmares..

The Perils of Campaigning

Last Friday, I spent the morning putting up posters in the Main St in Coatbridge. Today I walked through the street and they had all been taken down. But I'm not unhappy about that. Firstly, it means that someone is running scared of me. Secondly, the person that did it, was dumb enough to do it in an area that has CCTV.If the person that did this gives me the posters back in the next two days, I might not pursue it. If you don't, I will pursue it. You have been warned..

Once More Unto the Breach..

Some of you may have already picked this up via the North Lanarkshire Council website and Votewise, but if you haven't, there's a council by-election in my ward and I'm running in it. I brushed the dust off the rosettes and cable ties today and started the campaigning in earnest today.

Why am I running? A number of reasons. Health is not going away as an issue and there are big things happening right now, which will affect us for the next generation. Depending on which way things fall,it will either be very much better or very much worse. I'll be talking about these things in the next few days. Secondly, there are a lot of things happening in our area right now that are going to be extremely bad for public health. At the moment our council are attempting to build a school on an old town dump,they have allowed a company to dig an enormous hole in another dump at the top of town and it is open to the sky and they have just passed a planning application for an incinerator in Greengairs, just beside the super dump that the Scottish Environmental Protection Ageny is never away from. Basically, things are rubbish in Coatbridge, both metaphorically and literally, and it needs to change.

But there's a deeper reason for this. It is time for a new way of doing politics in this country. We are seeing the same old tired faces, the same names, seats passing from father to son. Politics needs re-invigorated with some fresh blood and fresh ideas. Politicians need to have to do more to hold onto their seats; they should not be a sinecure for the party on high to bestow on loyal members. We have proportional representation in Scotland; give it time and local politics should be like Australia's, where local councillors tend to be independents rather than party animals. I'm in the minority just now, but in ten, fifteen years people like me will be the norm. We will compete. We will go round doors. We will know the people in our area. And we will be directly accountable to them; our loyalties will not be split between party and constituents. That's the future and it's time to embrace it.

She Must Be Mad (2)

Yep, wrote another letter to the Herald and it was published today. You can read it here. It's all about why we should not introduce an assisted dying law..

Swine Flew?

Everyone else has written about swine flu this week. I feel a reluctance to do so, really because we're at the eye of the storm here in Monklands and there's actually very little indication that there's much going on. Half of Monklands hospital has been cordoned off, there are taxi drivers going round with face masks and Dettol sprays and the local papers for once have had some decent news; it's not every day that a potential pandemic comes to your front door. But apart from that, we are not in the grip of fear. We are not panicking. Maybe we're just a little slow, but it all seems rather unreal.

My head tells me that the government are right to prepare. Since the introduction of xenotransplantation, (using animal parts for transplant in humans), there has been a debate about whether we will become more susceptible to animal disease. It was also part of the debate of the hybrid embryo bill, where scientists would be deriving stem cell lines from animal/human hybrids. But at the moment, there is a grey calm hanging over everything and Monklands is taking its place in the media sun with a phlegmatic shrug.

I just hope this post does not turn out to be like the postcard a Russian sent his relatives in Britain in October 1917;

'There's been some trouble in the streets, but there's nothing to worry about.'

Indeed.

Oops, I just sneezed...