The Tories are using the NHS as a scapegoat for their failures

Sajid Javid’s claims that the NHS is “unsustainable” and needs “fundamental change” sounds suspiciously like scapegoating. The NHS has been starved of investment and funding over a decade of Tory austerity, some of which was on Javid’s watch, while he acted as health secretary and chancellor.

John Rentoul’s recent piece in The Independent suggests that further reform might be required, but any new reforms must be conditional on an unequivocal commitment to raise year-on-year funding in line with demographic and demand increases.

They would also have to reverse the deep cuts to public health and social care which are critical to preventing greater reliance on more expensive health interventions

Paul Dolan

Cheshire

Steve Barclay is talking rubbish in respect to the NHS. How dare he blame the “ageing population” as the reason our health service is in crisis.

The blame lies solely with the Conservative Party and the corruption that has consumed it. It almost makes me feel sorry for the few decent Tory politcians left, but it has gone too far. Corruption is a disease and there is no cure. Roll on the next election!

Judith Staveley

Address Supplied

The next general election will not be until 2024, yet already several current SNP MPs have indicated their intention not to stand again as candidates. It is predicted that more will follow.

Perhaps they have at last realised that their presence at Westminster is pointless. They are not there to represent their constituents, and certainly not there to represent “Scotland”. They are there to complain and agitate for their separatist cause, by asking grievance-laden questions and, from time to time, disrupting proceedings.

If I were an SNP member I would be somewhat concerned. No doubt some of these retiring MPs will seek a seat at Holyrood. It’s as if there aren’t enough internal squabbles within the SNP as it is without contests for seats and places on lists.

We mere spectators will be laying in the popcorn.

Jill Stephenson

Edinburgh

I don’t live in Mhairi Black’s constituency. I don’t live in Scotland. I’m not even Scottish. But I am devastated that parliament has lost the amazing Mhairi Black.

Black’s reasons for leaving make her decision to stand down as an MP at the next election even more devastating. She says that she is tired, but it’s the reason for that tiredness that holds the sting: toxicity.

Black is one of the most eloquent, straight-talking members of parliament I have ever seen. Every time she stood up in the House,  she would make a well-researched, well-thought-out speech that had the power to make others sit up and listen. They may not agree with her, but I would like to bet that she was admired across the floor.

But the electorate has now lost her. Because of how toxic politics has become.

Parliament urgently needs a reset button. Yes, to get rid of the toxicity, but also to return to a more respectful discourse. As an avid watcher of Prime Minister’s Questions, I now find myself switching off. No longer do we hear the answer to the opposition’s question. Or even a partial answer. We are assailed with a pre-written, rehearsed word salad that bears precisely zero relevance to the question that has been asked only seconds earlier. If we’re lucky, there’ll be a few personal insults thrown in, with a sprinkle of mockery of the party opposite.

The British public deserve better. We are living through the biggest cost of living crisis for decades, and when we turn to those we elected for answers, we see a bunch of people who seem more set on scoring political points against each other, than giving us some hope for the near future.

It seems that those who entered political life to really try to make a difference to people’s lives, the Mhairi Blacks’ of this world, have been defeated by those whose toxicity makes continuing in politics unbearable. And the losers are the British electorate.

We are now left with what seems like a carousel of (mainly men) taking the top cabinet jobs. Having a go at all departments at some point in their political careers.

Politics seems to be in as much turmoil as the whole of the UK at the moment. Something has to change. And fast.

Karen Brittain

York

When the private bank Coutts closed Nigel Farage’s account recently and as a reaction, he posted a six-minute video on Twitter claiming he was the victim of “serious political persecution” by banks because he championed Brexit.

Coutts have since explained that their decision had nothing to do with Farage’s politics, he simply fell below their minimum financial threshold. They claim to have offered Farage a regular account with NatWest (which owns Coutts) but apparently, that wasn’t good enough for the supposed “man of the people”.

The most disgusting aspect of the whole incident is that when confronted with Coutts’ decision, Farage said he considered leaving the UK.

How interesting that Farage, who built his political career promoting an anti-immigrant platform, was considering emigrating abroad to escape his financial woes. How ironic.

Sasha Simic

London