To say thank fuck for Nicola Sturgeon

[Chippednailvarnish]

I can't stand her anti English stance, but at least one political leader is doing something for the refugees...

And from what I can see on this thread it is people who actually are seeing the outcomes that are speaking up...not the ones sitting reading the paper thinking 'gosh that's good' with no cause to think any different until they need to deal with Police Scotland or the NHS for anything more than a repeat prescription for paracetamol ...

Dealt with both Police Scotland and the NHS in the last year- NHS many times- and have recieved a generally really good service.

My contempt for Nicola Sturgeon was confirmed a few short weeks ago when she said that Stephen House had her full backing.
That would be Stephen House who announced his resignation about 10 days ago then.

My experience differs.

I'm very happy with ds' education and have been on/chaired School Boards/Parent Councils at both primary and secondary level - very mixed demographic (high proportions of FSM and EAL) so not a nice comfortable middle-class enclave.

In work I have done with the NHS (both clinicians and managers), in England they look with envy at the Scottish NHS.

Ok.
So, my experience isn't relevant because:
My ds has SEN
SEN are 'better provided for than 20 years ago' (not here)
'nice middle class enclave' - no, I live next to one and my kids have been to school there and in the area of deprivation I now live in.
Both schools were rubbish.
Our local High School - 'high performing'.
Disproportionate number of suicides amongst kids doing 'so well' though.
The Police Scotland officer who raped and abused women and young people for so many years who just got his sentence reduced as he had been judged 'a pillar of the community'?
And don't get me started on rural Policing and rural drugs and how they go 'hand in hand' around here.
The 'Yes' posters/signs STILL up in houses/fields and the anti-English stance.
The waste of money spent putting all the fecking signs in Gaelic, still?
And St Nic zooming around in her helicopter telling the rest of the world how they should be fixing their problems?

Who said your experience isn't relevant ?

I said my experience differs

I only mentioned that the schools I've been involved with are not nice middle class enclaves because I've seen positive experiences discounted by some MNers purely on that basis.

I'm sorry you've experienced such problems. My friends with SEN kids (mostly autistic/ASD) have had mixed experience, on balance positive but have had challenges along the way the taxi service on the other hand

ClearBlueWater... It's not that your experience isn't relevant, of course it is and what your DS is getting isn't good enough and yes the Scottish government aren't doing enough to ensure that pupils with ASNs are supported.

But, my DS is now out of the school system, he has AS, a speech disorder, dyslexia and motor control issues...he started school before the ASL act and CfE and provision before those was not just bad and patchy, but horrendous everywhere.

So my experience is that while it's still nowhere near adequate yet, it has improved.

My experiences...
Police Scotland - we used to have a local station - if you lost something etc you went in and asked. When I started having problems with my neighbour from hell I went in and talked to them - let's just say they knew him and his reputation. I didn't want to cause upset ...didn't want to make an official report etc just keep them in the picture as to what was going on. So when (or if) I did really need to take action they could help - and they did. It became a cycle, minor harassment that escalated, at a certain point - usually when I was getting too scared to go out the house - they came and talked to him and he stopped for a few months.
Then I had to go through Police Scotland. They insisted I couldn't just log the new (minor) incident. They had to send someone out...which they did. They didn't know the background, they listened to what he said and decided it was minor and 50:50. And they told him that. And the minor things started increasing - felt there was no point reporting them - felt completely abandoned (in tears a lot of the time) and started trying to move. (He died suddenly which solved the problem).

More minor I needed to speak to lost property in local city - had to call 101 and they put me through to the station - I got the answerphone - sorry we are too busy to answer now, try again later. I did - same rigmarole to get the same message ...on the 10th attempt over a number of days and times I gave up and went into the station....(I'd phoned them directly before and if you kept trying every 10 mins or so you would get through)

NHS ...20+ yrs ago I had what was likely to be a few blood clots, an undiagnosed PE and then definitely a massive DVT. I may or may not have a blood disorder. A mystery. A mess.

If I have any symptom that could be a DVT/PE I have to get it checked out - happens every few years or so. So I have experience of this in many hospitals - I can't judge if things are just as bad in England now but they weren't.
I can compare Scotland, same hospital over the last 15 yrs. And they have been very good - fast scans, seem the right people - a definite negative (which with my history I really need) within hours.
That is until last summer (not winter, no norovirus etc). I phoned NHS direct - they sent me to an OOH for a ?DVT - standard.
I was seen by a nurse ...who said it definitely was and gave me a blood thinning injection. Told me to go to emergency medical unit the next day. Have been there before - but this is the first time I have seen it that bad and the same every day I was there. It really was 'the NHS at breaking point'. No bed or even trolley for someone they thought was going to go into coronary arrest.
Got seen by a doctor - said I needed a scan but they only had a quota of 3 per day so she didn't have any for 4 days (over weekend). I went back for it and said actually I would be better speaking to haematology/vascular first - the veins in my leg are damaged and abnormal. They said they'd get someone, but then did the scan anyway, was told it looked like I had a partial DVT. I would need to go back the next day to talk to vascular and start warfarin. I went back - got the warfarin and asked about vascular - they said they'd get onto it...vascular never turned up - I felt I couldn't push it cos they were so obviously drowning. (And I will normally speak up -it was just too awful)
I waited for a vascular appt for 5 months...I had to phone 3 times...consultant fantastic (just taken early retirement - thinks he is going to lose his pension if he stays any longer), he said scan in EMU was pointless. Arranged a scan by the right department - took 5 months (discovered my previous 'reference scan' had been lost) - so a year after this started -after a year on warfarin and more or less weekly testing - I sat with a consultant who said - we think you probably didn't have a DVT - obviously in the circumstances we can't be certain - we really don't know. If you did you would now be on lifelong warfarin...if you didn't the risk of taking warfarin is higher than the risk of a DVT...so what would you like to do now?

My friend has now been waiting one YEAR for hearing aids with NHS Scotland. Attached is the ever growing pothole in our street. You can see where it has previously been patched...

pretty I agree that you didn't say my experience isn't relevant.
(sorry if it came across that way?)

I think that all our different experiences are equally relevant.

Which is why it is difficult to see posts saying that there are no issues with Education under the SNP (are there are well documented nationwide concerns) or the NHS under the SNP, when again there are well documented concerns.

Again, I am not saying that any particular person is posting 'this way' but there seems to be a huge resistance amongst some SNP supporters, to give credence and respect to the stories of those 'on the ground' who have had really bad experiences.

Equally, I know it is not 'all bad' and certainly there are real problems in England too.
I wouldn't criticise NS for her appearance. We all get the face we were 'given' as it were.
My only exception to this is George Osborne who I (quite unreasonably) itch to slap whenever I see him

tabularasa

I appreciate what you are saying and I also appreciate that you have a longer experience than me as well.

My HUGE concern is:

IF it is acknowledged to be a 'postcode lottery' re decent provision for basics in Scotland which affects all of us in one (or more) ways or another

WHY is the SNP making it harder for those on the 'raw end' to complain and get justice done rather than easier?

It is very clear to me that something is badly wrong, educationally, in my area. Yes, I can move. Only that will disrupt ds HUGELY (and my other child) and I will lose the security of my house, H's job wont move, so family will live separately blah blah.

OR I should be able to stay and 'do something about it'. Only I have consulted really high up and been told that there 'isn't the legal framework that there needs to be'. The SPSO has no teeth. The Independent Adjudication system isn't legally binding. My local CAB is closed. My local jobcentre consists of security guards and not much else. My local library is barely open. and so it goes on. Doesn't encourage your 'average joe' to be able to access info and stand up for themselves.

I want NS / the SNP to stop fannying around and put in some legislation that will help ordinary Scots with problems get solutions via the effete bodies that are supposed to help.

But some of that will involve criticism of, eg, CfE, Police Scotland etc so it is never going to happen. Pigs might fly and all that.

ShineyDave and his cronies are exactly the same, btw, but NS (like Blair) was supposed to be 'different', 'inclusive' / 'listening to the people'.
And it's all bollocks.

I don't think it is officially acknowledged to be a postcode lottery, it is of course...but admit it? No.

Like I said, it isn't good enough - there has been stuff like mediation and rights for parents to request assessments where before if your child didn't qualify for a record of needs then you just had to be grateful if they got any support at all.

What they do need to now do is make sure things actually work rather than being there in principal, which is where I think they've fallen down.

It HAS to be a postcode lottery.

Just look at the posts here.

Some folk have had awful experiences (in more than one area) and some have had good ones. We are all telling our truths.
And the truth is - it is hugely variable and hugely unaccountable.

But yes, there MUST be accountability, otherwise NS / SNP is just like all the other politicians (only worse, imo, as they have highjacked 'Scottishness' too).

As bad as they are at least Westminster can be held to account (expenses scandals etc) there is no-one able to do that in Scotland - there is no system of oversight and people are held to the party line and are scared to speak out. Lack of challenge and oversight is the main issue. That's why there is all this palaver over the BBC, so they have yet another possible avenue of challenge closed off.

Smoke and Mirrors and absolute rule.

Starting to feel like we are living in North Korea.

I typed mine before reading Clearwaters post - great minds and all that...

Has there ever been a time when everyone was 100% happy with the NHS/state education/the police, because I don't remember it!

Well that's the disconcerting thing about most SNP supporters lightbulb. They will not utter or allow others to utter a single word of criticism against the SNP government. It's normal to have some gripes. I keep half expecting some of them to break into "everything is awesome"

I think North Korea is a slight exaggeration.

However, there is something to be said for accountability and endless targets. Its all well and good saying "we guarantee everyone will get an Op within 3 months of consultation and wait no longer than 4 hours in A&E", when the consultation is half way across the country 8 months after the initial GP appointment and you wait 3.5hr in A&E to be asessed, only to be left in a waiting room for another 3 before actually seeing a doctor/ starting treatment.

Thats the kind of smoke and mirrors that really pisses me off and I think every party is just as guilty. I'd rather they had actual targets. How many children left Primary without basic numberacy skills 5 years ago, how many now, and how many in X years time?

No one is going to be happy with everything all the time, but it would be good to see what "1000 more police officers on the street" and "1000 more midwives" actually equates to in real terms.

If right now we are failing miserably in Education, I want to know how bad it is and how much its going to cost to fix it. And then I want to know how much extra I can pay via council tax, income tax or wether it can come from another budget. I genuinely don't understand this fear of slight rises in taxation to pay for things that people really care about such as the NHS and Education, but perhaps I'm in the minority there and it would be political suicide.

I've got a new one from today's meeting.

Currently there are 8 community justice authorities in Scotland with a combined budget of circa )2million. They've overseen a huge reduction in reoffending rates and some tremendous work on partnerships and pathways.

They're being disbanded. Community planning partnership have to take on the role. And the budget? It's going to a new national org which may or may not be an inspectorate/regulator...

While the cpps look like they will need to include the current work in their existing budget where they can.

No one is sure because there are no real answers although this is to be fully implemented in 18 months. It's the usual piss up in a brewery and when reoffending rates rise the blame will go to local authorities as the CPP leads.

There are things I don't agree with the SNP Government. For example, I reluctantly agree with nuclear power - unless and until we reduce our power consumption and/or develop realistic alternatives, it is an unpleasant necessity.

I have strong reservations about the state guardian role. I see the thinking behind it, but as someone who avoided HVs while ds dropped down the centiles from the 91st to under the curves in the 1st 7 weeks of me breastfeeding him (although he was still happy, healthy and alert), I'd have hated to come across an ignorant one who might have decided I was harming him by continuing to exclusively breastfeed .

I wish that the SNP had stronger opposition - it's not good for a party - any party - not to have decent opposition to challenge them and make them justify their actions.

I can understand their frustration with income tax raising powers. Under the new powers coming in (from the 2012 Scotland Act), they can indeed increase income tax - but they have to do it by the same amount on each tax band, which would be very regressive (ie if they want to put 2p onto the higher rate, they also have to put 2p onto basic rate). So I don't see them making use of those powers.

And FWIW, I am happy to pay extra tax.

And I already pay a shedload council tax, being Band G in Glasgow City Council ????

I pay £27 a year less than you PB and I would be happy to pay more but not for it to go on more stupid stuff like free prescriptions for people who are happy to pay. I've tried to pay for a prescription, it's not possible unless it is something you can buy off prescription - which I have done where possible.

I cannot believe how cheap Glasgow council tax is! I just had a nosy and we are band E and it's £500 less in Glasgow. We only pay £100 less than you.

Totally irrelevant to the thread but wow.

Hold on - I don't think Glasgow includes water in the published rates. I'll stop looking at rightmove

Hate how she tells the world what the people of Scotland want -

NO, you liar, I don't want millions more wind farms destroying what was some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, NO I don't want to spend forever scoring points over the English, NO I don't want the submarine base in the Clyde to close --- Get real woman here in Scotland we have no industry to speak of but buying extortionate Spanish wind turbines and paying through the nose subsidies for them is not doing anyone than you Madam Scotland is Going Green Regardless of the Cost fool any favours.

Can't wait til next elections.