There has been a lot of loose talk about referendums (referenda, to show that five years of Latin at school didn't got entirely to waste).

A date of 2010 has been floated for the latest SNP bid. There will be a white paper issued in the first 100 days of the SNP administration promising to abolish the 1707 Act of Union but retaining the 1603 Union of the Crowns.

The eventual referendum in 2010 will cost seven million quid.

Another example of the SNP throwing money at a problem that doesn't exist. It will be your money. Do you want this sort of waste?

If anyone at party HQ was on the ball, they would realise that this sort of expense isn't necessary.

Last time I checked, we are still a parliamentary democracy. That is unless we have slipped into the Blair dictatorship while I wasn't looking. I'd keep an eye open. Could happen. If you start seeming troop movements anywhere south of the border, pass along the word.

In a parliamentary democracy, the parliament rules with the consent of the people.

If 51% of voters cast their ballots for Independence candidates on May 3rd, the electorate has withdrawn its consent to parlimentary rule from Westminster.

End of story.

Scotland is a Free and Independent Nation on May 4th.

No need for white papers on the subject or special votes costing £7 million or constitutional experts getting their knickers in a twist.

It is curious that Alec wants to keep his Westminster seat and the 1603 Union of the Crowns. Seems to me that he is thinking about nicking into Buckingham Palace for tea with Her Majesty as First Minister. He could even make the move to Prime Minister of Scotland and be on a par with Tony.

I'm sure he fancies that.

Its no wonder nobody in SNP HQ understands the principles of democracy. The SNP isn't a democratic organisation. Ask Campbell Martin. Ask Margo MacDonald. Ask John Johnstone. They will give you chapter and verse. Campbell will even sell you a copy of his book on the subject.

Ask Angus Nicolson, the SNP leader of the Stornoway Council who was expelled last week for questioning SNP policy.

Vote Scottish Jacobite on May 3rd.

The last time I saw Alec Salmond was about 11 o'clock in Queen Street Station, Glasgow after Scotland beat France at Hampden. I wouldn't say he was pissed, but he was half-cut.

The glow of the reflected glory was emphasised by the blue and white war paint on his face and the lipstick on his collar.

He was on the tele first thing the next morning and I must say strong coffee works wonders. He looked sharp and bushy tailed and was able to talk in complete sentences. Mind you for all I know, the programme could have been pre-recorded.

I had forgotten about the incident until the SNP decided to provide some background on his curious decision a few years back to give up the leadership of the SNP and move to Westminster.

It seems that he had developed a tendancy to keel over and was concerned that it would happen while he was on public display.

Booze affects different folk in different ways. Some throw up, some just fall asleep. Keeling over is one of the more dramatic signals that you have had enough.

The SNP spin is that this was a result of a back problem. Aye right.

If only Charles Kennedy's minders had had the foresight to put out a press release that he was suffering from malaria, that attack of the cold sweats at the Lib-Dem Conference would have generated sympathy instead of the night of the long knives.

Vote Scottish Jacobite on May 3rd

It was different in my day.

Nowadays at closing time, the streets are littered with lads and ladettes staggering about and puking over one another.

In my day, the pubs shut at nine or half nine and suddenly all of the hard men, the pocket heroes were lurching about outside challenging all comers. Full of piss and vinegar and ready to take on the world.

When that didn't happen, they would go home and beat up on the wife or the weans.

Alec Salmond is a throwback to that forgotten era. The world has moved on, he needs to sober up and get a life.

Intoxicated by the very thought of political power and with the fiver he got from Brian Souter fresh spent at the local bar, he has outlined his plans for the first 100 days.

He has broadcast his intent in the media.

Cum Oan... Is it a fight yiz is wantin?

100 days of bruising battles in Westminster.

Help stamp out domestic abuse.

If you are in an abusive domestic situation the thing to do is walk away.

Further violence isn't going to solve anything. Seek counselling, keep your dignity, walk out, get a life.

Vote Scottish Jacobite on May 3rd and end 300 years of abuse!

I know. Its the political season and you see the initial B and you are thinking, "Here we go again".

No. The BMA stands for The British Medical Association. You were thinking of that Nazi lot in England.

As far as I know, the BMA has nothing to do with the Nazis.

I was going through the Scotsman yesterday and I came across a news flash that the BMA were having their health hustings last night in Edinburgh.

If you're not familiar with the concept, this is where the professionals get together with the politicians, have some wine and cheese, a bit of chit chat, there are some speeches and everybody feels better about things. The great and the good have rubbed shoulders, got a bit of a buzz going. That's that sorted for another four years.

I thought I must have lost my invitation. I had a look through the pile of bills but nothing with an Edinburgh postmark.

I got on the phone to their office in Edinburgh and explained to Gail their PR person that the invite had got lost in the mail.

A' wisnae on the list. Can you imagine?

I telt her that a' hadnae ony thing on last night and could drop by for a bevy or two.

Nae chance.

This do was restricted to the officially approved list of politicians. Labour, the Lib-Dems, the Torys and the SNP.

For a body which should be concerned about the state of things since most of them work for the NHS, this is a curious choice.

Let's step back and have a look at the state of the NHS in Scotland.

In 1991 the European Parliament passed the European Working Time Directive.

Starting in 2004, this would restrict the number of hours doctors could work. In practical terms, they would be working about a third less hours than they had been. A good move since the last thing you want is someone standing over you with a sharp knife who is tired and dead on his feet.

If doctors are going to be working a third less hours, if you are a government, you can do one of two things.

You can increase the productivity of the NHS by a third.

Or you can train more doctors to increase the medical staff by a third.

If you are going to go down the training route, you had better get your skates on since it takes a while to take a school leaver and turn them into a medical professional trusted to make life and death decisions.

You will recall that 1991 was the end of the Thatcher era, onto the Major decline. 1997 brought New Labour then we got a devolved Parliament with a Labour/Lib-Dem coalition in power since.

So the Tory's, New Labour and the Lib-Dems have all had the chance to seize the nettle and deal with the problem.

Did they?

In 2003, twelve years after the Working Time Directive was passed, the Scottish Executive had a brief awakening from their collective coma, decided that there might be a problem and formed a Committee.

The Committee reported back after a year. Yes, there is a problem.

Brilliant!

The Executive formed another Committee to decide what to do about it.

After another year, they reported back.

We need to train more doctors.

They recommended that admissions to Scottish medical schools be increased by 10% a year starting in 2006. Medical students at St Andrews who were sent to Manchester for their clinical training should be trained in Dundee instead. That way there was a slightly better chance that they would stay in Scotland to work.

The Executive agreed to the Committee recommendations.

St Andrews students are being trained in Dundee but as far as I know nothing else has happened.

Increasing medical school enrollment is the right thing fourteen years too late. By the time the new students graduate and can do useful work, Andy Kerr and the rest of the Executive will be pushing zimmers and enjoying free personal care.

Back to the productivity issue.

The NHS is world class in productivity, a surprising statement I know. Given the limited resources they have to work with the staff work wonders. However there are ways to increase productivity even within an efficient organisation such as the NHS.

If you centralise service delivery, there are immediate though limited gains in productivity.

Say you have two local hospitals each with a ward with patients needing overnight supervision. This will take a doctor in each hospital on the night shift.

Centralise services, close the two local hospitals, move the patients into a bigger ward in the mega hospital and you can do the overnight supervision with a single doctor.

A dramatic 100% increase in productivity.

This has been the driving force behind local hospital closures throughout Scotland over the past six years.

The productivity gains are limited. The NHS gains but the public is the loser. Centralisation is a form of stealth tax. Patients, their friends and relatives bear the costs of travelling to the centralised hospital.

I was willing to get on the bus last night to go to Edinburgh explain all of this to the BMA. But they didn't want to know.

In this country, only the Tory's, New Labour, the Lib-Dems and the SNP are allowed to have views on Health Policy and the NHS.

As we have already seen, the Tory's, New Labour and the Lib-Dems are responsible for the current mess. What they have to contribute to any discussion on health issues is beyond me.

What do the SNP know about health?

Not a lot as it turns out.

There big plan is to have legally enforced waiting times. This is daft.

For starters, this shows that they have no idea of the problems in the NHS. These problems aren't going to be solved by getting lawyers involved. The last thing we need is one branch of the government suing another over non-performance in the NHS.

Pass all of the laws you want, unless you do something in the clinics and on the wards, its not going to happen.

Wee Alec seems to be into his banty cock phase. He should sober up and get real.

At the weekend he was taking on Westminster in his first hundred days in power. Dream on Alex.

So last night we had a nice little soiree in Edinburgh where a bunch of folk who don't understand the problem made polite conversation with the folks who should.

The BMA is the doctors professional body. Its members along with the various Royal Colleges run the show.

Professional bodies are self regulating. Which opens up another whole can of worms. Do they act in the public interest or do they have a vested interest?

The Royal Colleges are extremly powerful bodies since they certify that doctors training is adequate and up to standard

Last year, the Royal College of Surgeons refused to certify the A & E Department at St Johns Hospital in Livingston and it was closed.

In the States, the body that is equivalent to the BMA is the AMA or the American Medical Association. They use their power to restrict admission to American Medical Schools.

Why?

If you train too many doctors, doctors salaries will fall.

I was on the Faculty of Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland, Oregon.

In recent years, there have been over 2000 applications for just over 100 places in the first year Medical class.

1,900 bright qualified kids who want to train, be educated and go out and help heal are being denied the chance because the AMA is more concerned about their members lifestyle and income.

Self-regulation can work if it is used responsibly.

Do the Scottish Royal Colleges know what is going on?

It doesn't look like it from what I can see.

In recent years, we have had a spate of closures of Maternity Units in Scotland followed by a series of closures of A & E Departments.

Both have been because of a shortage of Anaesthetists.

The training and certification of Anaesthetists is covered by the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Some of their meeting minutes are on the internet.

From their meetings in September 2005 and January 2006, it is clear that they haven't a clue. They don't know how many anaesthetists are working in Scotland. They have a vague idea but their numbers don't jibe with the Executive's data.

This was in 2005/2006 long after Maternity Units in the Vale of Leven and elsewhere were closed because of a shortage of Anaesthetists.

You would think this would be the number one priority of an Executive concerned about this central issue in Scottish health care delivery.

It was certainly a pressing issue in Wick where Maternity services were under threat. The recommendation from the Consultant was that services be moved to Inverness. Wick is 110 miles from Inverness and the 110 miles include a stretch with snow gates which is closed frequently in winter. Did the Consultant take this into account?

The Consultant flew in. Collected the consultation fee and flew out again.

Maybe I'm being hyper critical. Maybe the Executive and the Royal College were working feverishly behind the scenes to come up with a solution?

From the minutes of 6th September:-
"Item 7 Board Matters
d) Meeting with new CMO (Chief Medical Officer)
There had been no development on arranging a meeting with the new CMO. It had been requested that he be allowed to settle in before meeting with the Board Group."

In 2005 there were no meetings to discuss the situation between the two responsible parties because the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland was settling in.

If he wasn't concerned about this problem, what was he doing?

Should we trust the Royal College of Anaesthetists to look after our interests?

You might find another of the minutes amusing.

"Item 8 Reports from Committees and other groups
f) SASM (Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality) The issue of Freedom of Information Act was discussed. Professor Teasdale had written to the CMO (Chief Medical Officer) requesting the exemption of SASM data from inclusion under this act as mis-interpretation of this data could have huge implications for clinical audit. It is possible that funding for SASM would come under the auspices of SIGN. Information owned by a charitable organization is not subject to the regulation under the Freedom of Information Act."

A word for the good folks at the Royal College of Anaesthetists - If you are going to do something this stupid, don't brag about it by posting it on the internet.

The Royal College of Anaesthetists are colluding with the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland to hide information on their mistakes from public scrutiny.

This is the same bunch who have just closed down Maternity and A & E Departments throughout Scotland.

The Labour representative at last night's do in Edinburgh was Andy Kerr.

Shortly after Andy took over as Health Minister he wrote off a £100 million debt at Argyll and Clyde NHS Trust, dissolved the Trust and added the bits to Greater Glasgow and Highland.

At the time Jackie Baillie and John McFall were having a series of meetings on the health situation in Dunbartonshire. I was at the one in Helensburgh and asked what had happened to the money.

Jackie Baillie said it didn't matter since Andy had taken care of it.

A doctor from Oban thought that there might have been a problem with the per capita payments which over time added up to a substantial debt in the Trust.

Vivian Dance who had been on the Trust Board thought there were some murky goings on in Inverclyde.

Three folk who should have been in a position to know. Three different answers.

I suggested to the BMA PR person that the membership might want to ask Andy where he has the money stashed.

The BMA do was on video on the internet. I meant to watch it but I fell asleep on the sofa after my tea.

Seems to happen quite a lot these days. But at my age, what do you expect.

Vote Scottish Jacobite on May 3rd