Defence Secretary John Reid today joined a protest against hospital cutbacks in his own constituency. The former health secretary joined thousands of locals who formed a human chain near Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, amid fears it maylose its accident and emergency unit. Labour MSPs Elaine Smith, Karen Whitefield and Cathie Craigie
spearheaded the "Hands Around Monklands'' event, which was also joined by Labour MP Tom Brown. Organisers say about 2,000 people turned out and joined hands just after 10am to form a massive human chain. Red flags were also draped from the windows of the hospital insupport of the protest. Mr Reid said that the campaign had the "total and overwhelming''support of the Monklands community. He said: "There is no question in anyone's mind here about the feeling of ordinary people. This is not organised. It's not the normal political or trade union demonstration. This is just ordinary, non-political people who know how much accident and emergency means to this area. The local round table is here, the councillors are here, community representatives as well as MPs."As David Coleman would say: "Quite remarkable!" I bet Patricia Hewitt will be impressed. It demonstrates just how out of touch Cabinet Ministers have become with the reality of what their policies mean to ordinary people. And he no doubt thinks his constituents will be impressed by him turning up. What a bloody hypocrite.
8 comments:
Err. Devolution - you rmember that don't you Iain?
Err anonymous. Scotland = Scottish-led Labour; Westminster = Scottish-led Labour; John Reid is subset of Scottish Labour.
Therefore: article = yet more valid evidence of hypocritical Labour rule.
Yes, Health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Executive.
But even so, it shows the mess that the relationship between Labour at Westminster and Labour at Holyrood is in.
Please tell me that there is a photo of this.
They may have devolution in Scotland but they still have Labour in charge.
It worked for the Liberal Democrats at Dumfermline, when they pretended that they were the opposition, in Scotland!
John Reid had no qualms about screwing the English hospitals when he was in charge of the English NHS, even though he is a Scottish MP.
HOME RULE FOR ENGLAND - SITTING ON THE FENCE IS NO LONGER AN OPITION
Iain, as the comments above have hinted, this issue is nothing to do with Patricia Hewitt as it's a Scottish hospital.
During the Hartlepool by-election one of the Labour leaflets carried a petition to "Save our Hospital!"
The first signatory was pictured putting his name to it - one Health Secretary John Reid.
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