Repulsive creature

Yesterday a certain repulsive creature (™ Piers Morgan) posted yet more tweets denigrating the Scots, something for which the creature has past form.  I won't name them, as they would clearly relish yet another mention.  How sad to feel so needy that you need to make such remarks about anyone.

The remarks in question were regarding how the nurse who has contracted Ebola has been transferred from Glasgow to London for specialist treatment.  This is being used to insult the Scots by saying that we are incapable of looking after the sick in our own country and are relying on England.  Another version of 'too wee, too poor, too stupid'.

If it were just this one individual that was making such comments we could dismiss it as just the rantings of a deranged mind.  Unfortunately there seems to be a fair amount of support for this view, judging by below the line comments on the story from various newspapers.  For example, there's this thread from the Guardian and this one from the Daily Mirror.  In them there are a vocal minority of people complaining that Scotland cannot cope with Ebola and is 'dumping' this case on England - just what you'd expect from the 'sweaties'.

Of course, the fact that the Scottish Government is simply following the agreed protocol with the UK government appears to have passed these people by.  It's not that Scotland doesn't have the facilities to deal with this case (it does), simply that the hospital in London is the one that has been designated for Ebola cases by the UK government, and in this case the UK government overrides the Scottish government, even though the NHS in Scotland has always been devolved, as Ebola is deemed a matter of UK security.  The union, after all, is still in place.

It certainly looks as though there have been failings in the screening process at Heathrow when a group of thirty health workers returned from Sierra Leone, since the nurse in question did say she felt unwell, but was cleared to fly after having her temperature taken repeatedly.  No doubt this will be investigated.

Nevertheless, this whole even has shown us that the persistent myth of Scotland being reliant on England (note that it's always England, not the rest of the UK) and being uniquely incapable of running itself is alive and well and more persistent than a hydra.  It's something we're going to have to fight very hard against if we ever hope to gain our independence.