Monday 14 April 2003

Party Political Broadcasts

The Nationalists have been criticised for "crossing the line of decency" and of showing "poor taste" in their new election broadcast:
The film shows an elderly man sitting, waiting for medical treatment. He slowly gets worse until he disappears, leaving his empty chair behind.
Well, maybe it is in "poor taste" but the broadcasts of other parties need to be taken with a large pinch of salt too.

But what alternative does the SNP offer on health?

From their website:

An SNP Government will invest in NHS staff and hospitals – to drive up standards and bring down waiting lists and waiting times. The SNP will end postcode treatment – ensuring excellent clinical standards wherever you live. Much can be done with the current powers of the Scottish Parliament. Independence, however, will give us the resources to invest in a world-class health service – one that puts patients before profit.
In other words, more spending by the state and a Marxist-style demonisation of "profit". Per capita expenditure on the NHS is already higher in Scotland than in England yet surveys show greater dissatisfaction with the health service up here.

What is needed is less government spending on health and more by private individuals and an acknowledgment that profit is part of the solution not part of the problem.