Jamie’s recipe for love.. but why tell whole world?

Chef Jamie Oliver and wife Jools congratulated one another on 18 years of married bliss by posting soppy social media messages for all to read.

Were the lovebirds miles apart and longing to be together? Nah, he was in the garden, she was indoors watching Love Island. Now I know they probably have a garden that makes Holyrood Park look like an allotment but wasn’t Jools worth the effort of wandering inside and declaring “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH” face-toface?

Still, it was a special moment shared between man, wife and 6.4million Instagram followers.

Well, more than half of Scots haven’t keeled over at the suggestion.

Increasingly, I count myself one of them. And I don’t say that lightly. I’ve got three kids to take on holiday. Every penny’s a prisoner.

But would I free up some dough for the NHS in Scotland? Would I accept a variation of those Scottish tax-raising powers we’ve heard so much about if it was exclusively for healthcare here? A small NHS tax?

A poll last weekend found that a majority of Scots (52 per cent) would be prepared to pay more tax if it would help turn around the NHS. In fact, less than a third of the 1021 respondents said they wouldn’t. And, yeah, I could be persuaded.

Because I’m thinking about my kids, their future healthcare needs and those of the grandchildren they might gift me in a few years. Hopefully they will be born in an NHS hospital to a nation that will deliver cradle-to-grave care, free at the point of need.

Selfishly, I’m also thinking about the medical requirements I may develop while trying to enjoy such delights of advancing years.

I f a couple of new hips are necessary before I can bounce babies on my aged lap, I expect to get them.

I’m thinking about my mother and my in-laws, already older than the NHS itself.

As the service celebrates its 70th birthday, my mum will turn 80.

She has lived nearly two decades longer than her own mother thanks, in no small part, to the healthcare she has received for pretty much her entire life.

I’m also thinking about my sister, whose long i l lness exposed us to the very best and very worst of the NHS.

There were nurses who sat by her bedside helping her eat, emergency doctors who were so kind in the early hours of the morning.

There was also a 10-hour wait

The BMA are calling for urgent Government action.

Privatisation is sneaking through the back door in England with Jeremy Hunt’s plans to let commercial companies take over some health and social care services. We can’t allow that here.

So I find myself coming down on the side of those who say it’s time to stump up.

An NHS tax would not be a “cure all”, nor would it in any way absolve the SNP Government from the responsibil ity for running a tight ship of worldclass standing, attracting top staff because they’d genuinely want to work here.

That would be incumbent on them if we agree to part with more hard-earned cash.

But it is food for thought for new Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, who took over from beleaguered Shona Robison on the day we learned cancer waiting times are the worst ever.

Despite all its failings, the service retains our affection. Our support is here for her to keep or lose.

Some of us, or at least our kids, plan to be around to mark another 70 years of the NHS, cradle to grave, an asset worth every penny.