Fact Checked – My SNP MSP’s Leaftet

GM

The SNP’s Gordon MacDonald has a habit of issuing misleading leaflets and his most recent one is no exception. Let’s look at some of his claims.

 

Claim #1: The SNP Government has invested £12 billion in the NHS.
Reality: We know that in real terms the SNP have cut NHS spending, whilst in England spending has increased. Put simply, the SNP are short-changing our NHS.

barnett

Claim #2: The NHS in Scotland now employs an extra 10,000 staff.
Reality: When the SNP were elected in 2007 the NHS had 131,094 members of staff. It now has 137,727, that’s an increase of 6633 (not 10,000). Since 2009 staff numbers have increased by 1.5% in Scotland, whilst in England the increase has been over double that – 3.5%:

workforce

Labour increased NHS Scotland’s workforce by 19.5%:

total workforce

Claim #3: The SNP have invested £900 million on transport.
Reality: Duelling the A9 is great news, but has Mr MacDonald seen the state of the roads in his constituency? Major thoroughfares resemble the surface of the moon as he voted to cut the council budget.

Claim #4: The SNP have maintained 1000 extra police officers.
Reality: Mr Macdonald is proud of this flagship policy. To maintain the police numbers and balance the budget, Police Scotland must cut administrative posts and have police officers take on more paperwork. This is not new – even before Police Scotland was formed the SNP were boasting that they’d appointed “1000 new officers”, but failed to mention that half these officers took the place of 972 sacked civilian workers. Unison’s George McIrvine: Police officers being paid around £35,000 a year are now doing the jobs previously performed by civilian specialists on £25,000.

Claim #5: The SNP have built or “refurbished” 526 Schools in Scotland since 2007.
Reality: This is great, but what is happening inside them? We now have 4,000 fewer teachers in Scotland. Numeracy is falling. Literacy is falling. Worst of all, after 9 years of an SNP Government, the gap between the richest and the poorest is getting wider.

Claim #6: If elected the SNP will build 50,000 affordable homes.
Reality: Shelter Scotland say 60,000 are needed and that’s what Labour would build.

 

It’s time for change
Whilst Mr Macdonald’s leaflet contains a few misleading statements, what is not there is more interesting. It contains nothing about what Mr Macdonald has done for Edinburgh Pentlands or what the Scottish Government has done for the area.

So why is he so quiet about his record? Perhaps it’s because parts of Mr Macdonald’s constituency have the highest burglary rate in Scotland, but he has not raised a single question about Police Scotland’s performance in Holyrood? Perhaps it’s because NHS Lothian is underfunded and overstretched, but he is doing nothing?

Edinburgh Pentlands does not need a “business as usual” MSP, it needs somebody who will fight to improve public services and ensure the poorest in the constituency get a fair deal.

 

 

 

24 thoughts on “Fact Checked – My SNP MSP’s Leaftet”

  1. Rob says:
    Reply

    Quite right. What Edinburgh Pentlands needs to do is to elect a privately educated Stewarts-Melville silver-spooned Labour drone who works for his daddys business. A real man of the people.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Neil P says:
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    I matters not how many fingers you poke through the thin veil of lavvy paper that SNP ‘facts’ are printed on as the masses of ‘something for nothing’ , we hate the English, that’s no a chip but a tattie scone on ma shooder , Nicola for Queen of Scotland snp brainwashed supporters only see the figures that matter to their argument … well not so much an argument as I will just talk over you and keep saying you are wrong.
    And as for retorts like Rob there, just another who think the SNP only have ‘reel peeples that reeely care aboot us the starngaled scoats’ as candidates and members … well as in recent months we have seen Tartan Tories emerge from the SNP ranks.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Stewart Dredge says:
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    Scott knows very well that Scotland continues to spend more on health per capita than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scott Arthur and his Labour colleagues campaigned with the Tories to leave Scotland’s finances at Westminster and Labour MPs trooped through the lobbies at Westminster to support Austerity just a year ago. While we have an Austerity budget imposed on us by Westminster we will always be fighting a rear-guard action to protect Scottish services. So while English doctors and nurses are marching in the streets to defend standards while English NHS hospitals slip into crisis The SNP government is working with NHS Scotland and its staff to limit the worst excesses of Westminster cuts.
    It is significant that Scott Arthur spends his days attacking the SNP and we hardly get a mention from him about Cameron and Osbourne.

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    • DrScottThinks says:
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      Yes, that’s right. We should blame Westminster and be grateful nurses in Scotland are not on strike. You keep defending the SNP, I’ll keep defending the NHS.

      As you well know, Labour did/does not back Tory austerity. It is the SNP that implemented the Tory budget in Holyrood…. Ruth Davidson and Co were delighted.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Stewart Dredge says:

        Scoot your perverse attempts to distance Labour from its vote for the Charter for Budget Responsibility last January is perverse and laughable. Here’s what an embarrassed Labour MP Diane Abbott had to say about it: “I was hugely disappointed yesterday to see the Labour Party vote in favour of further austerity and in doing so we have done hardworking people a great disservice. Instead of simply mimicking current practices we should be offering a solid alternative through investment in public services to create real and sustainable growth.”

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      • DrScottThinks says:

        Show me where in the Charter for Budget Responsibility motion austerity or cuts are mentioned. Also, please explain why Sturgeon said her economic plan is compatible with the Charter for Budget Responsibility.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Stewart Dredge says:
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    On transport, if Labour had its way we’d still be scratching our heads about the long-term future of the Forth Road Bridge as Labour opposed the building of a New Forth Crossing. Anti-new crossing quotes from Labour politicians are legion but one of my favourite is this one from Sarah Boyack “Will he join me in condemning the suggestion from David Davidson that a new bridge should be built at the expense of the tram routes in Edinburgh? That is an outrageous suggestion.”

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      • Stewart Dredge says:

        I actually did “Laugh Out Loud” when I read that. Because the attacks from Labour were all about the idea that a New Forth Crossing was needed at all, not the specific SNP plans. Just admit Labour got it wrong and eventually had to make an ignominious U-turn and support the SNP.

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      • Stewart Dredge says:

        Malcolm Chisholm, Labour MSP: “We are reviewing the roads programme but some projects such as this one are so unacceptable we can rule them out right away.”
        Sarah Boyack, Labour MSP: ”Will he join me in condemning the suggestion from David Davidson that a new bridge should be built at the expense of the tram routes in Edinburgh? That is an outrageous suggestion.”
        George Foulkes, Labour MSP: “The cabinet secretary has just said something that is absolutely material to the rest of the debate. Last Thursday, at a briefing that I and some other members attended, engineers from his department made it clear that the existing bridge has a future that goes as far as they can see. They did not indicate any threat to or question about the length of time that it will be available.”
        I have challenged Scott Arthur before to name one structural engineer who was predicting the fault which closed the Forth Road Bridge at the end of last year. So far he has failed to do this though he still maintains his ridiculous assertion that the SNP government should have predicted it.

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      • DrScottThinks says:

        Again, Labour backed the new Forth Road Bridge scheme. It opposed earlier SNP/Tory plans (1995 & 2005). Your quotes are from 2005, Labour backed the 2007 proposal.

        Here is the SNP minister agreeing that work cancelled would have seen the part which failed replaced: https://youtu.be/j24ReASd9UY?t=6m30s

        Why did the SNP cut the FRB’s maintenance budget?
        Why did the SNP privatise the FRB’s inspection and maintenance?

        Liked by 1 person

      • Stewart Dredge says:

        Right enough, yours was early in 2014, doesn’t say NHS Scotland was performing worse than its counterparts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and says that its own figures should be treated with caution anyway……

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      • Stewart Dredge says:

        What Nuffield actually says is “The authors’ previously published analysis (using data from 1997 to 2006/07, and published by the Nuffield Trust in 2010) reported that the performance of
        the NHS in England was better than in the other countries across a range of,
        mostly efficiency, indicators. In this latest analysis, while there are few indicators
        on which a devolved country does better than England or its North East region,
        the gap has narrowed, with Scotland in particular improving its performance
        on waiting times.” So, under Labour, the NHS in England was better than in Scotland but since the 2007 the gap has closed “with Scotland in particular improving its performance
        on waiting times.”
        Still, don’t let the facts stop you from sticking the boot into the SNP.

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  7. Stewart Dredge says:
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    As for Labour’s record on housing it built…….six (yes, folks, that’s one more than five) council houses across the whole of Scotland during their last term in office.
    Of course, with an already divided party ready to lurch to the right once Corbyn is ousted in the inevitable coup, they can promise any old lies they can think of because nobody in Scotland is going to vote for them anyway. 60,000 affordable houses? Labour’s dismal record suggest otherwise!

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  8. Garth says:
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    You are really using cuticular of excellence as example as the SNP improving education…. Since its phasing in, the gap between rich and poor has widen substantially. Schools are under prepared to teach the new curriculum.
    No for a more controversial point, pass marks have actually fallen! Official figures show rises, but that’s because that pass mark for exams have fallen, I think we can all remember the scandal of higher maths. 34% pass. ~57% for A grade. Now this was only for the new higher maths (CoE) the old higher paper had roughly the same results as previous years. Now I only left school last year, and the vast majority of staff don’t like this radical change. One because you’re gambling with kids future, two it’s rather unesassary. No teacher says the old system was perfect, but it’s like having ripped wallpaper in your house; you decorate it to sort, not demolish the whole house!!

    This new system of less testing appears to be an okay idea, if move the workload away from exams too. Otherwise you’ll get students who have never sat a test, never really experienced time management, exam pressure and more important have no concept of exam technique, sitting exams. Don’t know about you, but I think that’s a bad idea…
    So when ever away says SNP have done a good job about education… No they haven’t!

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