Failures at RAH should not be overlooked
In just less than two weeks we will be voting to elect councillors to represent us for the next five years in our local communities.
Voting has already started ahead of polling day on May 5 with postal votes arriving and being sent away.
You may also have had politicians like myself knocking at your door hoping to talk to you about your concerns and perhaps persuade you to vote for a particular candidate – in my case the many fantastic Labour candidates we have standing who are determined to take action on the cost of living crisis we are all facing.
The fact that we are approaching May 5 does make it feel like the year is flying by, yet it is also remarkable how long ago it was since David Davis stood up in the House of Commons and told Boris Johnson ‘in the name of God, go.’
Mr Davis said this to the Prime Minister after it had become blatantly obvious that he had broken the rules he himself set in the midst of an unprecedented national crisis and now we know that he is the first sitting Prime Minister to have broken the law.
That Boris Johnson has been fined for breaking lockdown rules and yet still holds the office of Prime Minister is a real measure, not just of Boris Johnson’s arrogance but of his party’s lack of conviction and integrity to have him removed.
It is this scandalous scenario that I and my colleagues keep hearing about on the doorsteps from quite rightly outraged constituents.
People across Renfrewshire and, indeed, across the entire country can see Johnson’s government for what it is.
The actions of Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross, Tory MPs and MSPs and even local councillors and candidates defending the Prime Minister are also disgraceful, particularly after initially calling for him to go.
Yet if the Tories have shown arrogance about their conduct, the SNP are guilty of showing arrogance about their policies.
Only last week a certain SNP MSP was boasting of supposed “record” funding and staff numbers for the NHS, insisting that only his party could be trusted with the management of the health service.
Anyone who has paid attention to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and, more specifically, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, won’t recognise the positive spin Tom Arthur was putting on the situation because what they’ve seen is a hospital with an A&E department that has been struggling desperately.
Just this week it was revealed that 57.8 per cent of people attending A&E at the RAH were seen within four hours, with 611 people waiting over that government target.
That is the current reality of the SNP management of the NHS and it has been that way for a long time.
Between the PM’s refusal to go and the SNP’s refusal to acknowledge failure, it seems that both governments of this country need a message sent to them.
Johnson is living on another planet if he thinks it’s acceptable to stay in office, just as the SNP are on another planet if they think their overseeing of the NHS has been anywhere near good enough.
Your vote can show that our communities want change and will elect representatives who are on your side.