Don't let SNP and Tories use independence and immigration to distract from this life-and-death issue – Scotsman comment

GPs’ appeal to dissatisfied NHS patients to contact their MSPs is the latest sign of how bad the NHS crisis has become

The idea that any government’s first duty is to protect the lives of its citizens is usually cited as a reason to support spending on the military. And with the growing threats posed by Putin’s Russia and other authoritarian states, the UK certainly needs to look to its defences.

However, in this time of peace – in this country at least – the way our governments can best protect the lives of the people they serve is by finally taking decisive action to end the long-running, deep-rooted crisis in the National Health Service.

Rishi Sunak has sought to make immigration the defining issue of his government and now his election campaign. His flagship policy is to send a few hundred asylum seekers to Rwanda. Clearly, this is with an eye to polls showing immigration is voters’ third highest priority. But we would suggest the two highest priorities – the economy and health – are clearly much more important. ‘Stopping the boats’ will provide little consolation to someone struggling with in-work poverty and on a waiting list for medical treatment so long that they will die before getting it.

Small-boat crossings of the English Channel are a problem, but are far from the biggest ones facing the UK (Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

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In Scotland, the economy and health are, by far, voters’ highest priorities, well ahead of immigration and independence. Yet the latter continues to be the SNP’s go-to issue when appealing to their ‘base’. Independence support may be around 45-50 per cent, but it is soft. This, however, does not stop the nationalists using it in the same way as the Conservatives use immigration: to detract attention from their failings.

The latest of numerous pleas for help from the NHS comes from the Lothian Local Medical Committee, which represents GPs in the area. It has asked dissatisfied patients to “look beyond the practice and instead hold those with the power to improve matters to account” by raising complaints with their MSP.

So when politicians come to call, asking for our votes, we should remind them of their first duty – and it’s neither to sell fanciful visions of a future dreamland nor spout nationalistic rhetoric about ‘defending our borders’ from refugees. It’s a matter of life and death.