Photo: Ben Cawthra/ London News Pictures
Only two ‘Scots’ MPs have personal income from private health companies, Liam Fox and Malcom Rifkind, but a staggering 68 English MPs, almost entirely Tories, have investments in health companies making serious money out of NHS England.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/selling-nhs-profit-full-list-4646154
In year 2015/16 NHS England spent £7 billion on private services. NHS Scotland spent £78.5 million. So, with 10 times the population to care for, NHS England spent nearly 100 times as much on private care. In 2016/17, NHS Scotland spending on private care fell again, to £72 million. The NHS figure for 2016/17 is not available but is expected to have risen even further. Good news for those Tory MPs.
https://stv.tv/news/politics/1402987-nhs-spending-on-private-health-care-falls-year-on-year/
Making things even worse, those private care providers rated as inadequate by NHS England inspectors, typically spent 4.2% more per patient than those rated good. Where did that extra money go? To the shareholders who are often English (and 2 Scots) Tory MPS.
https://www.bma.org.uk/collective-voice/influence/key-negotiations/nhs-funding/privatisation-report
How do Scottish Tory MSPs feel about this? Conservative shadow health secretary Miles Briggs said:
‘Listening to the SNP you would think private healthcare was an evil that isn’t welcome in Scotland. Yet now we see it spends millions every month using it to help out the NHS.’
https://stv.tv/news/politics/1402987-nhs-spending-on-private-health-care-falls-year-on-year/
Bad SNP – not wasting enough money on poor private health care companies and their shareholders!
Footnote: Liam Fox and Malcom Rifkind. Today’s competition is to describe them in as many adjectives as you like.
Talking-up Scotland 
Hi John, Hi all. These are very interesting figures that you have found. They demonstrate, in very stark fashion, the different philosophies at work north and south of the border. 2 peoples separated by a common language and increasingly divergent philosophies of governance and public services as old Winnie Churchill might have put it.
Interesting to see so many Tory MPs ‘getting on with the day job’ of filching the public purse.
Hope you don’t mind me sharing this piece from the beeb Jockland site – it is hidden away in the Aberdeen + N.E. Scotland section but might be of wider interest? It involves another Tory cooncillor ‘getting on with the day job’ (literally – working abroad by the way!) and, therefore, arranging to have himself (uniquely) removed from any council committees (see below):
Aberdeen councillor Brett Hunt defends working abroad
• 3 hours ago
• From the section NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland
An Aberdeen councillor has insisted he is still able to carry out his duties despite increasing commitments to his job overseas.
Conservative Brett Hunt was elected to the Bridge of Don ward in May.
He later resigned as vice-chair of the communities, housing and infrastructure committee.
Mr Hunt said: “I have been working in the oil and gas industry for the last five years, and made no secret of that during the election campaign.”
He has attended all three full council meetings since he was elected in May, but is now the only one of the 45 councillors not to have a position on any of the council’s committees.
Mr Hunt works in the oil and gas industry for an American company with premises in Aberdeen.
He has since been promoted to general manager, and is understood to travel between the Middle East, Europe, Russia and Africa.
BBC Scotland understands he will be working abroad for the foreseeable future, but will be back in Aberdeen for periods of time.
In June, another Conservative councillor on Aberdeen City Council was criticised after refusing to resign when he took up a place as a regional list member in the Scottish Parliament.
Tom Mason did resign as depute Provost, (more accurately – was ‘shamed’ into resigning) but kept on his role as councillor for Midstocket and Rosemount.
At the time SNP group leader on Aberdeen City Council Stephen Flynn described the decision as “outrageous” and called for an immediate by-election.
Mr Flynn said of Mr Hunt: “He should apologise to the people of Bridge of Don and make sure he puts the people of Aberdeen first.” (a novel idea for a Tory one would suspect?)
He said attending three meetings was not an achievement and that Mr Hunt had shown “disregard” for his role.
Ian Yuill, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats on Aberdeen City Council, said: “I’m disappointed to learn that a second Conservative councillor is not playing a full part in the work of Aberdeen City Council.
“The Conservative, Labour and Independent councillors who control the city council have already changed council meeting arrangements to accommodate Tom Mason being in Edinburgh for most of the week attending the Scottish Parliament.
“Will they now be changing meeting arrangements again to fit with Councillor Hunt’s commitments overseas?”
The political make-up of Aberdeen City Council is currently finely-balanced.
It is run by a Conservative, Labour, Independent coalition, with the administration having the support of 23 of the 45 elected members. (NOTE: 1 of those ‘Independents’ was actually elected as a Lib. Dem. and changed her politics a matter of hours post-election when offered a Cooncil post in the Better Together administration).
Tory cooncillors Hunt and Mason receive a pretty handsome shilling for being elected Aberdeen City cooncillors – but decided they can’t let their cooncil duties get in the way of their more profitable employment. Fine – so resign from the cooncil and let the electors elect representatives who can and will attend to the duties they are (welll) paid to carry out.
Seems simple to me – Can’t think why the Colonel hasn’t issued the decree? Couldn’t be because she worries that the voters will choose SNP representatives in any by-elections and take control of Aberdeen City Council could it?
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Thanks Ludo. Interesting stuff indeed.
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Health is a sector in which a number of former new Labour cabinet ministers made careers post-Government, e.g. Mr Alan Millburn. New Labour continued the Thatcher/Major policies of ‘marketising’ aspects of the public sector.
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No surprise that wee Malky should favour private health care as it was frequently reported in the Telegraph,no less, several years ago that he was in favour of Cash for Access. As for foxy Mike no comment is necessary.
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My comment would not be printable and might ruin my keyboard
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Just another example of the Tories long term objective of Privatising the NHS. MPs lining up to invest in Private Health Companies.
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Didn’t see any Labour in the list but one or two Liberals there.
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Hi John et al – the MSM and Beeb have been having fun trying to scare the natives this weekend by running stories about Police Scotland. I’ve no idea what might have been happening within the organisation – but suspect that the Police Scotland set-up (PIRC and the Scottish Police Authority etc) will have a better chance of identifying and addressing issues than would have been the case when a handful of britnat cooncillors on (significant) expenses were the sum total of public supervision of the Service.
Some figures I noticed (and copied) on Friday 24/11/17 in the local newspaper bit of the West of Scotland Beeb Jockland website don’t seem to have appeared anywhere widely (leastways I haven’t seen them anywwhere else – I think I copied them from a piece from a Renfrewshire paper – can’t recall its name). These are 6 month figures (interim figures) which Police Scotland released as indicators – and the Police Scotland spokesperson explains they are not yet ‘official stats’. They are interesting however – and to my mind are not indicative of a Service in distress – or showing any lack of clarity about pursuing its identified objectives – no matter how much the britnat parties’ north british accounting units and the running dog britnat media wants to portray Police Scotland in this light. See the figures below and make your own minds up:
The number of murders and serious assaults reported to police in Scotland have fallen but sexual crimes have increased, new figures show.
The latest Police Scotland data reveals between April 1 and September 30 this year there were 26 murders – five fewer than the same period in 2016 – representing a 16% drop. Serious assaults fell 2% from 2,088 to 2,046.
Sexual crimes rose 6.1% to 5,961 from 5,569 in the same period year on year, which the force credited to increasing confidence among victims to report incidents.
Overall 126,954 crimes were recorded between April and September, 3.9% higher than the 122,088 recorded over the same six months in 2016.
Attempted murders rose from 115 to 122 – a 6% increase – while the number of robberies, including assaults with intent to rob, also increased from 712 to 817 – a 14.7% jump.
The number of homes broken into dropped 7.4% to 3,672 from 3,967.
Total crimes of dishonesty such as theft and housebreaking increased by 4.6% from 57,067 to 59,698 however.
Fatal road deaths fell by more than a quarter (28.9%) from 107 to 76.
Police said the statistics are “management information” and not official statistics but are “intended to address questions about current crime levels across the country”.
Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick said: “This management information shows that through the dedication and professionalism of our officers and staff, working together with local communities and partners, we can see significant results in tackling crime across Scotland.
“The increase in reporting of sexual crimes is important in reflecting increased victim confidence. We encourage all victims to come forward to allow us to put in place necessary support with our partners whilst we carry out thorough investigations.
“It is also good to see the significant fall in housebreaking across the country. This crime can be devastating for victims and through a range of initiatives and public awareness campaigns we have seen real results in prevention and reduction.
“We also continue to work with our partners on education and enforcement activities to make our roads safer, which has resulted in a welcome reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured.”
The britnat political parties and MSM have a clear agenda in undermining public confidence in Scotland’s Public Service provision. They won’t succeed. The Scottish Public have access to info from non-britnat MSM sources such as John’s blog – and the narrative can no longer be absolutely controlled in the way that the Westminster/Whitehall elites were so addicted to doing.
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Thanks for this Ludo.
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All that is required are the words “Disgraced MP” before their names. EG Liam Fox’s full title is “Disgraced MP Liam Fox”, and so on. Please note that these titles should always be used when referring to either or both.
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