The Lib Dems Take the High Road to England

The Scots are two peoples. There are those who stay and those who leave. For most of them, the high road to England is the natural departure point and as I write this I reflect that of my family, three of us have stayed and three of us have left. It's only natural - after the Union of Crowns and Union of Parliaments,all power worth a damn went to England. Those wishing to better themselves all took the road to England and for this England is envied and despised in turn; envied for the opportunity it offers, but despised for beggaring Scotland of its brightest and best. Even Bonnie Prince Charlie could not resist its lure; he did not stop at chasing the English out of Scotland, but set his sights on London. One wonders what would have happened if he had contented himself with the Scottish Crown instead of pursuing the English one as well.

In 1999, things changed. We got a parliament of our own. At the time it was disparaged as 'the wee pretendy Parliament' and 'a parish council' by the likes of Billy Connelly, but it was a shift. For the first time in 300 years, the Scots had a say over their own government. It was limited, some of the politicians weren't great (the talent had gone to Westminster as usual)but it did things.The different views on the health service, free personal care and the way that Holyrood ran itself; all these started to slowly but surely snap the leading strings between Scotland and England. We looked on bewildered at the expenses carry on in Westminster. In Scotland, all MSPs expenses go online and their interests. David McLetchie had to resign over taxi fares fraudulently claimed. In Westminster, MPs were quite happily handing out dosh for clearing out moats and building tennis courts. Henry McLeish's status as First Minister did not protect him from being called to account over the rent of his constituency office. It's not perfect but Holyrood does think and run differently from Westminster.

So why am I rabbiting on? Well, this week another change took place. The Lib Dems united themselves with the Conservatives, and unless Nick Clegg is really stupid, did so in the sure and certain knowledge that the Lib Dems in Scotland will be completely wiped out for this in the Holyrood elections next year. In all the possibilities that I had considered for the outcome of a hung parliament, I never once considered a Lib/Con pact. And I didn't, because in Scotland it would be absolutely unthinkable, political suicide. We do allow the SNP and the Conservatives to vote together on issues and bargain; but a formal pact would be completely out of the question.

I can see it from the Lib Dem point of view. No matter who they aligned themselves with, they would lose voters. Gordon Brown was discredited as a leader and any alliance with Labour would dissolve within a few months as a result. They wanted to be sure that they would get a PR referendum through before this happened, and the only way of doing that was to align themselves with the Conservatives, who are united. But ideologically, the Lib Dems have now gone to the right and there is a gaping hole on the left wing of the political spectrum in England. Labour went that way with Tony Blair in 1997; now the Lib Dems have followed.

This move has consolidated a general train of thought in Scotland; that the only truly left wing party in Scotland is the SNP. Many voters who are not inclined to nationalism are turning to the SNP because it represents the socialism that Labour used to offer. And in that respect we have been leaving England for a while. But with this move, England has left us. The past couple of days have had a quality of unreality about them as we watch at a distance and wonder where we go now.

Westminster feels old and tired and far away. And those of us who care about the NHS are asking ourselves whether the moment has come to cut loose and leave the English NHS to sort itself out. There isn't a single political party in England that we can vote for to help it; all we can do is to vote to save our own. How sad that an institution that was the vision of a Scot, given political shape by a Welshman and implemented by the English, should be on the ropes. And how ironic that three of Scotland's sons who took the high road to England; Blair, Brown and Cameron, should usher in the beginning of the end of the Union that they espoused.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.

This is the end of the Union coming. And I thought I wouldn't care, but I do.

Sometimes

So, the phoney war is over. The doors have been knocked, the babies kissed, the hands shook, the leaflets posted and all the campaigners will be heading home for a good nights sleep before their vigil at the polls. There are a number of things that can happen tomorrow.

1.) It could be the last time that we have a FPTP poll; we could be switching to PR.

2) The BNP and UKIP could win their first seats.

3) The Tories could win, signalling the start of a break up of the UK. Nothing will boost the SNP in next year's Holyrood elections like a Tory win.

4) The SNP and Plaid Cymru might hold the balance of power and we might see some sensible policies on health (no privatisation) and PFI (get rid of it).

5)We could have a Lib Lab pact and have a fairly non -descript government for a couple of years, followed by a PR election. This would be the equivalent of a huge enema for Westminster and would get politics, real politics moving in the way it has in Scotland instead of all the yah boo rubbish.

The butterflies are fluttering above the path and depending on which one we tread on, we will end up at a different destination. There isn't that much in it.

In all of this I have been reflecting on the importance of hope in politics. Hope isn't the dream of fools - it's the very stuff of politics. It's the determination that you will get to a particular destination regardless of the difficulties. And it's about doing all the small things, seemingly insignificant in themselves, that lead there.

Tomorrow we need to do that small insignificant thing. We need to vote. We need to choose our direction as a nation because if we don't do it, rough men will choose it for us. And we need to have that quality of hope to do it. Outcomes aren't inevitable. Bad doesn't always have to triumph. Sometimes things do happen for the best. Sheelagh Pugh sums it up in her poem 'Sometimes'


Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.


May it happen for you and the country tomorrow.

Oh, My, Gawd...

I'm speechless..

The Spoon Theory

It's strange how you convince yourself that you have a broad view of things, that you have a wide and eclectic range of friends and that you have an appreciation of every angle in healthcare. And then a new planet swims into your ken.

I was putting on some patient blogs tonight, courtesy of Benefit Scrounging Scum's blogroll and I came across this essay called 'The Spoon Theory'. I have a feeling that it is probably as popular as 'Footprints' is in the religious community, or Kipling's 'If' is in British poetry, but it's completely new to me. I felt like a very small person standing in a very big world reading it. You should read it too.

Another Update

Now, just in case you guys think that I've run out of steam and have thrown in the towel already, to mix my metaphors, I haven't. I've been working my way through some paramedic and nurse blogs tonight; it's just that the blog rolls that I grabbed were very out of date. It made me reflect on my own blog and how many of the links have fallen into disuse. I really need to refresh.

I've run into a lot of American blogs. I really don't want to make a rod for my own back, but I think that I'm going to create an American page as well. This is an important time for US health and it wouldn't be bad to have a snapshot of how it's progressing (or not). And the final thing that convinced me that an American page would be a good idea was this blog, 'Storyteller Doc'

Some blogs make it because they post early and often. Some make it by raging against the machine in colourful vitriol. And some, like this blog, make it because they are quite simply beautiful to read.

More tomorrow.

Mediblog Update 12.10am

Whew!

Do you ever wish you'd never started something? It's 12.10am and I've just finished doing the outline for Mediblog UK and Mediblog Student UK. It's all been a bit of an eye opener.

First, I realise how many blogs I don't know about. I suppose that there's only so many blogs you can look at a day and so many that you'll like, but it's a bit of a surprise. The prize for the most eclectic taste in blogs must go to Angry Medic; I started on the student section of his list; there was about fifty odd on that alone and I haven't even begun on the other sections. *Groan*

Secondly, a lot of blogs have gone defunct. I'm thinking about creating an archive for some of the better ones, like Dr Rant and Dr Crippen. It doesn't seem right that they should just disappear into cyberspace.

Thirdly, I think I've found a vocation. There's something intensely satisfying about seeing the blogroll operating and the activity that's going on all the time in the blogosphere. But maybe I'm just boring..

Favourite blog name of the day? It's got to be 'Extremely Lonely Medical Student'. At the moment it's standing all on its own at 'E' and I'm loathe to put anything with it, it seems so appropriate. One is the loneliest number..

Right, to bed. More blogging and dragging and dropping tomorrow..

Whither Medi Bloggers? Try Here..

Since NHS Blog Doctor retired two weeks ago, there has been a discussion as to where medi bloggers go next and whether it's worth it. There have been discussions as to how many of us there are, and how we make the government sit up and pay attention.

My own reaction to Dr Crippen's retiral was one of guilt. He was the one you could always rely on to post every day, to give informed comment and splendid vitriol that didn't just go near the bone, but sawed right through it. And we sat back and let him get on with it. If we didn't blog, we knew he would. And he would say it far better than any of us. His retiral is like the sudden death of a healthy rumbustious uncle; the one that drinks and smokes and makes the riske jokes and always has the word 'dreadful' attached to his name by prudish aunties. It feels like the day you wake up and all the heat has gone out of the summer.

We all need to try harder now and I have started a new blog in response to some of the questions getting raised. I've been thinking about it for a while and it's based on a model used by other groups on the web. I've called it Mediblog UK and you can find it here.

It's a fairly simple set up. You send me links to medi blogs that you like, and I put them on this site, together with a blog feed. It means we can see at a glance how many sites are active. As soon as you post you go to the top of the blog feed. This way people will become aware of blogs they normally wouldn't know about or read. It means info gets round more quickly and it also means that if several people blog on the same subject, you can get a variety of angles.

I'm going to work on this for the next wee while and refine it. In the meantime, if you want on this, or know a blog that should be here, send it to me and it will be added. It's time to gird our loins and stick together...