At odds with electorate?

Dear Editor In last week’s News, Tory MSP Graham Simpson inaccurately claimed the SNP underfunded the NHS when compared to South of the border, when in fact recent data, from 2014, shows Scotland spends the most per head of any UK nation, at £2187 – £159 more per person than England.

North of the border, we benefit from free prescription charges, free personal care for over 65s, and tougher performance targets, such as weekly A&E performance data, which NHS England stopped publishing last year. The most recent Scottish budget allocated an additional £500 million to health boards, bringing the health budget to over £13 billion.

His claim of “constitutional carping” from Nicola Sturgeon is ironic. A referendum we didn’t want, held by a Government Scotland didn’t elect will soon be removing us from the EU against our will. Our current democratic deficit isn’t carping, it is a serious issue his party have only worsened. As a Leave campaigner, he is completely at odds with the views of his constituents.

The story he was commenting on was to do with the NHS, yet it was he who brought up the constitution. Isn’t that constitutional carping?

It is noteworthy that, in the three months since being elected to Parliament, Mr Simpson has only submitted one motion and asked the Government two questions – hardly fulfilling the role of ‘strong opposition’ he was elected on.

Perhaps his council work is interfering with his MSP work and he should seriously reconsider his position as a councillor?

Name and address withheld