Tackle 'real needs', Salmond urged

Feb 7 2013

The First Minister has been accused of planning an "independence ball" while cancer patients have to go without treatment.

Labour leader Johann Lamont levelled the charge against Alex Salmond, as she called on the SNP leader to "start addressing the real needs of Scots rather than his own game of let's pretend".

Earlier this week, the Scottish Government published preparations for Scotland's "independence day".

The same paper also set out the constitutional platform for independence. But Ms Lamont said rather than focus on that, the Government should do more to address the concerns of everyday people.

She raised the case of Ann Fisher, a mother-of-three from Greenock who suffers from cancer.

"If she lived in England she would be receiving drugs which could prolong her life," Ms Lamont claimed. "Because she lives in Scotland she doesn't get that treatment."

She hit out at Mr Salmond, and said: "Whatever the First Minister is doing, what he is certainly not doing is addressing the real needs of Scots. He'd rather play games of imagining where he might be in three years' time than face the reality of today.

"And while he pretends, the needs of Scots seeking jobs are ignored. Patients like Ann Fisher go untreated, students miss out on a college education and the First Minister prepares the seating plan for our independence ball."

On access to medicines, Mr Salmond said the health service in Scotland was dealing with the issue "in the best possible way to help the most number of people".

He also said that while Ms Lamont accused the SNP administration of being "obsessed with independence", she "invariably" asked him about that at First Minister's Questions.