Latest news from the Scottish Government!

Photo 01 - What was served up yesterday!

Latest news from the Scottish government!

The latest news from the Scottish Government on the Wild Fisheries Review can be viewed by clicking the link at the end of the paragraph.  There are issues that concern freshwater anglers seeking species other than Salmon. Have a read, there is a lot of stuff but if you feel able write in to the government with your views it could make a significant difference! We will formulate a response.

https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/wild-fisheries-reform-team/draft-wild-fisheries-strategy 

Salmon fishing!

Well the season is now well underway and on my travels around the Scottish Borders I see little evidence of a rush to get a fishing slot. True the water is still big but on those beats that have fished the result is best described as mediocre! Given the huge floods we have been subject to recently there will be much change in the river bed. It has been said that spawning may have been seriously affected, however we shall just have to wait and see! It’s not looking that great!

The last chance saloon!

If you have desire to join the club then you only have a few days left in which to get your renewal or new membership sorted! Go to the sidebar on this page and follow the instructions and good luck! Your membership entitles you to a boat free of charge and more importantly the camaraderie of your brother angler!

Hooligans!

Over the last few weeks we have been on the lookout for the returning Oystercatchers (Hooligans). Not a sign of them as yet, of course they could well have arrived and due to the arctic weather that seems to materialise at weekends only could well be sheltering at weekends, I know anglers do! Hopefully they will be heard soon as it's a great sign the year is moving on!

Photo 02 - The type of weather we prefer, with a ripple of course!

The wider world in my view!

Life under the Tories is not a future!

The National Health Service is a system of health care delivery the envy of the world and yet we see the Tories intent on dismantling it until there is nothing left. They call it outsourcing seeking private players entering into what should be non profit working! These private companies however are intent on one thing only increasing their profit! Hey won’t say they are privatising because the backlash would do for them but quietly they are doing just that!

There is no doubt that the health service is in crisis due to a mammoth shortfall in funds and morale among staff plummets quicker than a lead balloon! The cause of this is clear to all but the tories and probably the Puppets it is one failed restructuring after another disrupting the daily delivery of healthcare! Even now super rich posh boy Jeremy Hunt has managed the almost impossible task of forcing junior doctors into industrial action.

The man managed to do what no other part of the UK has done! Why because of an inability to understand how the health service operates! Trying to push business values into a healthcare system simply does not work! It works with cardboard boxes but cannot be transferred to people!

People who work in the health service do not work eight hour or twelve hour shifts they simply work on until it is safe to leave! Now that applies from cleaners to consultant surgeons it is part and parcel of being a healthcare provider. Of course there is no payment for this extra work the majority of staff will not even get their time back!

Hunt does not have a clue as to how a hospital runs that is quite obvious! Why else would he be forcing decent very hardworking people into industrial action! A massive amount of money is required to bring the NHS back to spec and the challenge for Hunt and his type is how to gather those funds! Another reorganisation wont cut it, things have deteriorated badly after all of their ill thought out reforms!

Since they stumbled into government they have set about dismantling everything we hold dear, they know not what the word society means! They want everything out in the hands of private contractors so their own kind can benefit and the poor suffer! There is a real fear that by the time this administration is outed there will be little left of public services!

They seem content to bungle on a massive scale hushing things up whilst crying out “doing the right thing for hardworking people!” they started spectacularly as the “Omnishambles” government and then raced rapidly in a downward direction! Lord Snooty invented the EU membership crisis to stave off an attack from UKIP and million have and will be spent as he scoots all over Europe trying to convince bemused heads of other countries that his reforms are necessary!

Quite frankly none of the heads of state seem to have a clue as to what he is seeking! He made a bold pronouncement on Monday that prison should be rehabilitative and that is indeed a correct outlook, the only problem being he has been spouting this from the first week of the Con-Dem fiasco! Yet again they promise much and deliver nothing!

But that just typifies this government spending millions if not billions on complete and utter nonsense whilst institutions such as the health service and our social services flounder! Couple that with lofty words and you have this directionless travelling circus the jesters of Europe! The problem for us as taxpayers is how long the country can withstand this level of bungling! Oh they have sold off much of the family silver in the Royal Mail and others but thats a one off scoop! Their policies if you could call them that are now coming back to bite them!

As one who has worked and used the NHS it is utterly depressing to see how much it has deteriorated in the last few years. Staff are under so much pressure they are desperate to get out, this was never the case in the past so something has changed recently.  What it boils down to is more bureaucracy more organisational change hence less continuity and less staff support!

Locally we see the local hospital in the papers on a regular basis. Occasionally it is to highlight excellence but more often it is for negative reasons due to under resourced wards, increasing workloads and plummeting staff morale! The future for the services we hold dear is anything but rosy. We are one year in with this government and already they are emulating the havoc caused by the Luftwaffe!

We are not being governed by a competent administration if anything turns out right it is by sheer chance the likelier outcome is yet another costly farce! When Lord Snooty returns home at the end of the week he will try to look exhausted but also elated by his success! We however know that absolutely nothing has been secured!

WE can opt to keep on with this charade on a revolving door basis or we can seek something better! With the Labour party in complete meltdown we are faced with a Tory government in perpetuity! For me and increasingly many like me this is my worst nightmare! 

We do have a choice and that is the same old nonsense or a new way with Scotland becoming an independent nation! I think you know which way I will be going and thankfully our number increases by the day!