Playing Politics

I should begin by confessing that Jim Murphy is not a chap I have a great deal of time for. I`m sure that in person he is perfectly convivial but some of his actions as Scottish Secretary have left a lot to be desired. Today he reinforced my opinion of him by starting to play politics over Swine Flu.

Cabinet Secretary for Health Nicola Sturgeon announced recently that in order to try and stop the worst effects of the Swine Flu outbreak that there will be a programme of vaccination for every man woman and child in Scotland to try and protect them from the disease.

On Sunday Sturgeon was interview by Glenn Campbell. During the interview she said that this vaccination programme would cost in the region of £100m. She explained that the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations were working together to ask HM Treasury to release the necessary cash from their contingency funds. These contingency funds being held for just this sort of reason and were used to address things such as the foot and mouth outbreak.

Asked what would happen if that contingency money was not forthcoming Sturgeon explained that she would find the cash as the vaccination programme is necessary.

Jim Murphy has announced today that no such contingency funding will be made available. He said that "Where I disagree, is that Scotland should have additional money over and above anywhere else in the United Kingdom. The health service in Scotland has to be treated in the same way as the health service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. I think Nicola's got to be careful that she isn't seen to be playing politics with this issue. I don't think she intends to but I think there's an element of that creeping in."

There are a few things to pick apart here. There is no suggestion that Scotland should be treated differently – the case has been put jointly by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations. By that same token the English NHS will be planning a similar vaccination programme and I would suspect would also welcome support from contingency funding.

At no point has Nicola cried foul, rather she has said if the funds aren`t forthcoming that she will find a way. In all of this only Murphy has politicised the situation while the Health Ministers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have got on with their jobs to stop Swine Flu spreading and causing significant health problems for thousands (if not millions).