I congratulate Iain Macwhirter for his superb analysis of the threat to the NHS in Scotland if Scotland fails to vote for independence (Forget the latest scare story … the real threat to our health service is a No vote, Comment, July 13).
Throughout the campaign I have stated wherever possible that, even if I disagreed with all other reasons for voting Yes, I would vote Yes to save the NHS in Scotland.
In England, the NHS is dying despite the best efforts of doctors. The Conservative element of the government is driving healthcare towards the American system. In the US, the healthcare is superb, but only for those with money. For those without, it is non-existent. American healthcare is also one of the most expensive systems in the world but also the least cost-effective; the NHS is one of the most cost-effective care systems in the world.
I also congratulate Macwhirter on his explanation of the dangers of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). TTIP seems to be an extension of the aim of US money people to control the financial world.
Dr EL Lloyd
Edinburgh
The threat to the NHS and other public services from the TTIP is very real. If this deal between the European Union and the US is agreed, it will also threaten other aspects of Scottish life, including education, as the deal offers American companies the opportunity to enter the state education sector from primary right through to university. Hard-won regulation to protect citizens is also under threat, as negotiators aim to "harmonise" European standards down to US levels. This could mean, for example, that hormone-treated beef and chlorine-washed chicken, currently banned here but legal in the US, could go on sale in Scotland.
The deal would hand multinational companies unprecedented powers over public life. It should be abandoned.
Miriam Ross
Campaigner, World Development Movement Scotland
Thank you for Iain Macwhirter's illuminating article. The NHS was initiated and founded by three doctors in Fort William in the early 1900s. People were so desperately poor in Lochaber and there were also so many terrible accidents among the men building the West Highland Railway line, the doctors banded together and requested local landowners and farmers pay the doctors and nurses to attend people and even to provide cars for them.
Eventually, Lord Beveridge took this idea up for the whole of the UK and in 1947 the bill to set up the NHS was passed, although Attlee's government had been minded not to do so, had not the plan been leaked to the press which had extolled it.
As Macwhirter points out, the big American and European chemical companies will shortly "buy into" the entire UK health system - except in Scotland if we vote Yes.
Lesley J Findlay
Fort Augustus
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