Rather less admirably, today she takes part in a Daily Mail Tory hate fest against Dr Philippa Whitford MP, whom the Mail accuses of being on the make becasue, over Christmas she did a few days work at her local hospital while fellow surgeons were unable to work, because of ill-heath, I believe. (Staff illness is something that would be avoidable even if Ms Baillie were cabinet secretary for health. No one wants a sick surgeon wielding a knife over them and regulations on this are pretty strict.)
Prior to being an MSP, Ms Baillie was employed in administration work with East Dunbartonshire Council and Strathkelvin District Council. She may therefore be unaware that medical doctors and surgeons are require to keep their skills honed in order that they may be able to continue to work in their speciality.
It seems not to have occurred to the Mail that, had Dr Whitford not been prepared to take these shifts, there is a real possibility that sick women might have had to have their operations postponed. Presumably then they could have counted upon Ms Baillie to roundly condemn the government for cancelling operations.
Stuart Campbell covered this very fully with his customary competence this morning, and of course we can't add anything to that. Nonetheless, such was our contempt for the article that we just couldn't let the subject go with out expressing our disgust.
The fact that Dr Whitford claimed a salary for operating is seen as a issue. That that salary is some £50+ per hour was seen as a further issue. But surely that is what surgeons earn. We seem to remember that Ms Baillie's erstwhile colleague, Mr Straw, demanded far more for using his influence, whilst a member of another place. The Editor of the Daily Mail wouldn't get out of bed for that kind of money.
We wonder, incidentally, if a Labour government in Edinburgh would slash top doctors' salaries?
No, thought not.
By all means oppose, Jackie. By all means have a go at what you see as inadequacies in the Scottish government's programme and how they implement it. It is far from perfect and we need good opposition.
But this isn't good opposition.
This is you being crass, cheap and nasty. SNP bad no matter what they do, because they have our salaries and our positions, eh?
Update: I've just seen this blog from Craig Dalzell, who knows Philippa Whitford personally.
Tris
ReplyDeletesnpBad no more no less nuff said
Yep, like you say Niko.
DeleteWorse is the fact the DM contacted the good Dr who explained that she'd worked 3days to cover for a colleague...
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Philippa is necessarily a career politician. She may well want to go back to medicine one day, so regardless of need, she is obliged to practise her trade. in order to remain registered.
DeleteThen,as you say, she was asked to cover for a colleague who was sick.
Not sure, but I'm guessing that had she said no, they might have been obliged to cancel these operations.
She got paid. For doing a vital job that 99.9% of the population couldn't do.
I see that Stuart has just highlighted an inside page story about George Kerevan adn a scandalised Tory MSP who is disgusted that Mr and Mrs Kerevan earn less than he does....or so it would seem. Otherwise he's just a puffed up bad of wind.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-bargain-of-evil/
SNP bad, even when they are doing good.
I find Ms Baillie to be the most odious individual I have ever had the misfortune to come across. Since I started paying attention I find her lying as repulsive as her wachling around like a beached whale, and her pseudo accent makes my skin crawl every time she opens her mouth
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine how she ever managed to get people to vote for her in the first place, there again people do make mistakes and can have the wool pulled over their eyes, for them to vote for her repeatedly is beyond my comprehension
And I really do not care if anyone thinks my feelings about this immoral character are not PC
Thanks for saying what I was thinking
DeleteGot to admit, I can;t stand her either, but I'm trying not to be personal about this. She lies and she does it in a superior accent no doubt picked up at her private school.
DeleteIt's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Ms Baillie may need to return to her admin management positions after the election in May.
She is lucky that she has not had to prove to her professional body that she has continued to practice her skills.
She has lied her head off for years, but this one is below the belt, and although it would probably go down well with its intended readership, the average Daily Mail reader, it having got wider audience, because of social media, will almost certainly go down like a lead balloon.
No one expects PC behaviour on Munguin's Republic, you know that Fairforfochen.
:)
I suspect she will be top of the list in West Scotland, so we won't be rid of her for a while. And maybe when Kezia resigns she could be leader - and never off the MOT.
DeleteAnyway, that picture 1 on soppy Sunday there. The resemblance is beyond uncanny.
Are they doing that now? Double standing. I know other parties do it, but I thought Labour didn't.
DeleteOh well, I suppose we can live with her a bit longer. Most of the time she's more comedy than anything else.
I think I'd be lynched if I put her up on Soppy Sunday!!
forchen
DeleteYou not like our jackie then eh !
Niko, does Jackie, like Jackie?
DeleteAfter this stupendous gaff, a little less perhaps.
LOL. Do you like oor Jackie, Niko?
DeleteNiko
DeleteDoes it show that much?
I always try to see good in people failing that I try to find an excuse for them but Ms Baillie defies all my best efforts and I like myself a little less for falling down on my own standards, no doubt I'll recover from that She, Ms Baillie is beyond redemption
Look for the silver lining fairfor.
DeleteBut some people are just clouds!
The Daily Hiel and the Slab mouth piece, are below contempt.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite remarkable. They have never been good newspapers, but now they aren't newspapers at all. They are just anti SNP magazines.
DeleteThe Heil is aimed at its moronic converts.
DeleteYet: headlines can subliminally affect the little old lady pushing her trolley past the dead tree press offerings at her local TESCO/supermarket of your choice.
However, that demographic is dwindling...
Especially, if you cover it up with the National.
DeleteLarge grin.
DeleteI have an image of a typical Daily Mail reader. Pursed lips, seriously wrinkled face and badly dyed hair.
DeleteYou're right though Conan. They don't need to sell the papers for this rubbish to be read...or at leas the headline.
But I think that those of us who are not devotees probably just laugh a most of it.
It certainly doesn't, for all their efforts, seem to yield any benefits in the polls.
Of course covering it up with the National is always an option Jim! :) It is less dangerous than setting fire to it !
Scotland, and to a much lesser extent England, are quite politically savvy compared to the moronic fucks that will vote Trump in as the next president of the USA.
DeleteNow that is media manipulation.
Can you imagine the idiotic nonsense that will pass between Trump and Johnson?
DeleteIts shocking that people are still prepared to vote for her. On a more positive note when im in the shops i like to place a few copies of the national over the record its amazing how many people stop to read an alternative headline! Think ill be covering up the mail aswell...
ReplyDeleteI hear that the History professor Jill Stephenson does it the other way round. You'll have to follow her around the supermarkets.
DeleteIf history professors go around trying to distort what people get to know, I'm not sure I feel quite the same about history any more.
Hah. What we perceive as 'history' is the propaganda of the victors Tris.
DeleteOf course, Conan, as I know to my cost.
DeleteI was naive enough to believe what they taught us at school.
Personally, I do not think that any MP should have a second job, or in the case of Salmond, holding 2 seats in separate parliaments. Did Curran not try the same trick?
ReplyDeleteHowever, I make an exception when it comes to the NHS (or charities), especially as I have very close family members reliant on the NHS at present.
But it doesn't help if, as the Daily Bavarian states, that senior SNP figures say things that turn out to be not exactly correct. There's been a wee bit much of that lately. The media will simply pounce on stuff like that. Every new SNP MP is having their background thoroughly investigated, so there will likely be some more crap flung, and some of it may stick.
About time some got flung back - Gideon does nicely with his bank. People need reminding of this, considering how he lauded the peanuts Google paid in tax as a "victory".
zog
Anon
DeleteI think you will find when P. Wishart made his remarks re 2nd jobs it was about 4months prior to the GE it was perfectly true at that time
Any statement can be made to fit any context true or not
Zog: I'm inclined to agree that one job is enough...although we know that being an MP, and ONLY an MP is a part time job. They've told us so.
DeleteAfter all David Cameron is an MP, and he is also prime minister. The two may be related, but don't have the same duties.
People like Salmond and Johnson hold positions in two legislatures, because they are changing jobs, and for a short period I think that that's OK. There's not a sensible alternative. In the past some people were in 2 or more parliaments at the same time, on an ongoing basis. Mrs Robinson, in NI, was an MP, AM and local councillor before she resigned when they caught her in bed with a teenage son of an old friend, when she had been ranting about others' sexual perversions... and the sanctity of marriage.
In the case of medical people, they have to keep their hand in to keep their skills up to date if they wish to return to their original profession. Again, I think that that's OK. Well, it has to be, becasue unless you're a career politician, in a safe seat, you may need to use your skills again, or you'll have IDS on your case doing his best to kill you off! I think you have to do that if you are a legal person too.
The bloke who cuts hair sometimes on a Saturday...why not? People talk a lot when they are getting their hair cut. An MP can learn a lot from that.
I don't think people should be MPs and company directors.
The whole press is out to 'do' for the SNP because they see them as a threat to their comfortable corrupt existence. Every little thing is blown up in to front page stories. People bought houses and did them up 10 years ago... front page spread because the guy was a wee bit aspirational long before he was an MP... just like other people
Ho hum, we can't do anything about it. It's the British Establishment trying to protect themselves. They just have to try to destroy us or we might wreck it for them.
I think you're right there Fairfor...
Deletetris and the others
ReplyDeleteYour response to Ms Baillie is almost Pavlovian one
mention of the lady and you all turn into snarling
loonies venom dripping from yer nasty tongues.
I only wish you could get a stinky bomb like
our Ms Baillie I'd go down the the Dog and Duck
spy on tris and the others through pub window and when
you wuz all sitting quietly supping yer real ale in the snug.
tris smoking his pipe9bit like Gandalf ) conan sitting by the open fire in his saltire underpants nothing else just his wee stained saltire pants yuk !
drinking jack Daniels and coke...
And I'd roll in the Baillie stinky bomb and retire to the Public Bar
and watch you lot go raving mentalist at the smell of Baillie until
the Polis comes and nicks the lot of youse...
commiserations to the young pc who has to manhandle conan and his mucky pants into the riot van
Niko matey... I think you should write books.
DeleteThat was extremely descriptive.
What with that and your burgeoning talent for the French language, (les bêtes noires) you could go a long way in Edinburgh literary circles.
I can even imagine MOST of what you were writing there...although Conan's apparel is a bit beyond my imagination...and the idea of Baillie in any form close up and personal is a little too much for a delicate disposition such as mine.
Still you've got to admit, Baillie has sunk into the silt on this one.
Dear Niko
DeleteI would never ingest such a vile cocktail as ''Jack Daniels and coke'', nor would I ever wear underpants.
Thankyou.
Where's my invite, Niko? Black rum and Guinness, with a chaser of holy water to ward of Bailie.
DeleteYeah, Jack Daniels and coke... eeeeeek.
DeleteImagine being left out of that exciting night out, Jim!!
With regard to the other slanderous comment in the Daily Mail regarding George Kerevan, I don't need to comment as Wings has done it's usual excellent deconstruction.It is,however, interesting to note that Kerevans' predecessor.Fiona O'Donnel.claimed £139,000 in expenses on top of her MPs' salary.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Stuart does a pretty good evisceration, don't you think, Anon?
DeleteAnd his link leaves the wee Tory bloke without a name!
Maybe the Mail would like to do its job and tell us the whole story.
Or maybe not...
Tris
ReplyDeleteShe is a loathsome creature, pure and simple. I try not to be personal with politicians in calling names but she is in there with Cameron, Carmichael, Osbourne and IDS. I can't believe anyone in their right mind would ever vote for her, is she s list MSP? Either that or people are mad, she is poison of the worst kind.
Bruce
NO she's a constituency member< Bruce. I can't imagine why folk would vote for her except that it used to be that in certain areas Labour could put up a cabbage and win.
DeleteI suppose the 'Daily Cheerful' could have written an article about an MP having the physical and mental capacity to save lives actually doing that....
ReplyDeleteWell the 'Daily Cheerful' might tell the story a tad differently from 'News from Bavaria - 1936 edition'.
This is what I can;t understand. They should rejoice that someone was there to stand in for sick colleagues when people with cancer were waiting for ops.
DeleteMakes no sense to do anything other than be thankful.
This is what I can;t understand. They should rejoice that someone was there to stand in for sick colleagues when people with cancer were waiting for ops.
DeleteMakes no sense to do anything other than be thankful.
Being extremely PC I do not think that I would be talking about her physical appearance if I were to say that she is the ugly face of Scottish Labour....
ReplyDeleteTris and his pipe? I like it! The less said about Conan in his leather briefs the better! I only put that in to reassure Niko that someone actually reads his nonsense!
PC? Is that Privy Councillor, or Public Convenience (is there a difference) or are you a personal computer, or Pétula Clark?
DeleteThere's a tad too much being said about my pipe if you don't mind.