I haven’t managed to read any newspapers this morning. Helpfully, an unidentified man from a hotel scooped all copies of the Herald, the Scotsman and the Daily Mail from the shop I visited “fur the guests”.
I wonder though if it might not have been Pete Wishart or Alyn Smith, revelling in their limelight on the same sex marriage debate and taking cuttings for their scrapbook. Not often, an MEP and an MP manage to garner the headlines at an SNP conference. For the right or wrong reasons….
So still playing catch up a little, for those who missed it and who likewise haven’t managed to catch up with the papers, here were the key announcements from the Depute First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon’s speech yesterday:
- a commitment to provide all type 1 diabetes sufferers under 18 with insulin pumps by 2013
- over the next three years tripling the number of pumps available to sufferers of all ages to more than 2000
- the aim of these measures is to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes and allows them to manage their conditions more effectively and prevent complications
- reduce the waiting time for older people to be discharged from hospital from six weeks to two weeks by 2015
- a guarantee that the additional £1 billion funding for the NHS over the next three years will be spent supporting frontline patient care
- a commitment to maintain the NHS in Scotland “a public service, paid for by the public and accountable to the public – there will be no privatisation of the National Health Service in Scotland”
Continuing the conference theme of giving glimpses of what life in independent Scotland could look like, the Depute First Minister offered these commitments:
“Independence means no longer having to watch our national wealth being squandered by Westminster governments. Independence means having an economic policy suited to our needs, with increased capital investment supporting and creating jobs. Independence means having a welfare system that can tackle the scourge of child poverty. It means not having to put up with Tory policies that will consign tens of thousands of our children to a life of deprivation. Independence means deciding for ourselves whether to send our young men and women into conflict. And it means knowing that we need never, ever again be dragged into an illegal war….. And independence will mean no longer having to put up with the obscenity of Trident nuclear missiles on the river Clyde.”
No doubt there will be more, much more in this vein, from the First Minister himself when he speaks today….
#1 by rodmac on October 22, 2011 - 2:04 pm
Let me guess…You were In R.S McColls in Queen street for your papers 🙂
#2 by Jeff on October 22, 2011 - 4:57 pm
Great to get these inputs from the centre of the Conference Kate, Inverness has never felt closer.
As for the DFM’s commitments, I do have a concern. I have no doubt parents of children with diabetes will be delighted with these proposals. I know a few people with diabetes and I know what a concern it is for them and, often more so, for their families.
That said, diabetes is ballooning at the moment due to poor environment and junk food diets. Handing out pumps to people to deal with their condition is a bit too much like closing the stable door once the horse has bolted.
I’d like to see the SNP deal with prevention just as much as they deal with helping those who get sick. My belief though is that the difficult task of trying to change behaviour is too politically costly for a party trying to win a referendum in 2014/2015.
Anyway, stepping off the soapbox now, looking forward to more analysis of the weekend!
#3 by Kane Almsivi (@KAlmsivi) on October 22, 2011 - 11:32 pm
Certainly agree with Jeff that prevention is always going to be better than cure – but think that it will need to come with time. Scotland’s problem with alcohol in my mind is the nations most pressing and costly issue. I’m delighted to hear that the minimum pricing bill will be reintroduced to the parliament – one of a range of measures that will hopefully call time on this most crippling of social blights.
#4 by G. P. Walrus on October 23, 2011 - 4:55 am
The pumps are for those with Type 1 diabetes, which is not principally diet related and cannot in general be prevented.
I agree though that preventative measures against type 2 diabetes are very important.