Why the NHS makes a powerful case for Scotland to stay in the UK – Willie Rennie

As nationalists try to demonise the UK, unionists should celebrate its achievements, like the NHS, writes Willie Rennie.

A district nurse gives an insulin injection to a patient in 1949 (Picture: Queens Nursing Institute/Edinburgh University Library)

The case for Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom is strong and it has been reinforced with evidence from the Brexit process that breaking up long-term economic partnerships is painful.

In a rare bout of frankness, the SNP have confessed how difficult it would be to break up the United Kingdom. Their own Growth Commission says that Scotland would have cuts to public services. It would have no control over its currency and an economy prone to greater volatility.

These are the hard facts based on the SNP’s own admissions. But to win people over on the positive case for the United Kingdom, we need to appeal to our common values, compassion and sense of fairness.

We need to talk about the best features of the United Kingdom because we have a lot to celebrate.

Everyone who wants to keep our country together must be loud and proud about the UK’s greatest achievement – the NHS. We won the economic argument in 2014, now we need to win the argument about how caring and compassionate the people of the United Kingdom have been and continue to be.

No other country in the world has created such a much-loved and valued health service. It shows what the United Kingdom can do and will continue to do.

In comparison with the healthcare systems of ten other countries from Australia to Canada to France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, the NHS was found to be the most impressive overall by the Commonwealth Fund in 2017.

Reform of UK required

The NHS is not just a monument, it’s a vital service whose funding base is stronger by virtue of being part of a wider pool of resources. If funding in Scotland, or the North East, or anywhere else in the UK dips, this doesn’t throw the future of the NHS into doubt.

Rather, as a UK family, our nations and regions support one another to ensure smooth and stable funding for this most precious asset and the millions of citizens who rely on it day in, day out.

We should not allow those who want to break up our country to demonise the United Kingdom, so we should be putting the best of our country at the heart of our campaign.

We’ve forged it together. We grew it together. We’re all equally proud of it. The NHS shows what the United Kingdom can do.

The United Kingdom is not broken but its constitution definitely is.

I want reform, always have, and it is possible because we have done so much already: parliaments and assemblies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, elected Mayors in England, voting reform, change to the House of Lords. So it can be done, but we need more.

I actually believe that there may be sufficient powers at Holyrood to share risk and reward, to allow Scotland to make its own decisions on health, education, crime, a £3 billion welfare budget, as well as the power to raise a majority of its own budget. That’s what we achieved with the Smith Commission. Of course, other changes can and should happen too but the big wins are with the reform of the whole of the United Kingdom.

A collective groan

The big constitutional changes we need are UK-wide reforms. That includes an elected second chamber rather than the unelected House of Lords; a written constitution; a proportional voting system that ends the ability of the Conservatives, or any party, to run the government with the support of less than half the country; and a federal structure to the UK that ensures true respect and fairness between the different parliaments and assembles with the abolition of the Westminster veto on issues of a common interest. These reforms would help make the UK constitution reflective of the modern country that we are.

The best way to win on independence is to continue to win the case that people have had enough of all the arguments and don’t want more. Constitutional infighting eats up airtime, stops companies making progress and drains public services.

The collective groan is thunderous when Nicola Sturgeon talks of another referendum.

So many people have seen the turmoil with Brexit. That breaking up is hard to do. Breaking up a partnership of 40 years has been chaotic, they can just imagine the difficulties of breaking a 300-year-old partnership. We need to work hard to put that case.

I will do everything I can to deprive the nationalists of a majority, which would take any wind out of their independence sails.

That means focusing on the domestic agenda whilst the SNP endlessly address the constitutional demand. When we have rusting ferries in Greenock with no passengers. A sick kids hospital in Edinburgh with no sick kids. An energy company with no energy customers. School testing with no support. Buses with no passengers. A by-pass and hospitals in the North East over budget. Nurseries closing and teachers chopped when the nursery sector is supposed to be expanding. And a closure on that bridge hailed by the government as the bridge that would never close. When we have all of those things, surely now is the time to shift the focus to getting the basics right.

Alex Salmond won his majority in 2011 with the mantra – team, vision, record. Now the team is weak. The vision is tired. And the record is shocking.

Willie Rennie is MSP for North East Fife and leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats