Fury as new hospital is too amazing
The Daily Mail evidently decided the first headline wasn’t mad enough.
First and second versions here.
We can’t help but be reminded of George Foulkes’ infamous 2008 complaint that the SNP were improving public services “deliberately”, the evil fiends. The Mail seems to be genuinely upset that the Scottish Government has chosen to spend some of its fixed, deficit-free budget on a spanky new state-of-the-art hospital for the people of Glasgow rather than, we don’t know, a giant anti-immigrant laser or something.
(Not until a long way down the article are we told that the SGUH replaces four existing hospitals, and it’s not mentioned at all that the cost of building the new one has been or will be partly offset by selling their land.)
Weirdly, the paper then goes on to contrast the mega-facility with privately-run NHS hospitals in England, which have suffered financial catastrophes under commercial management, wrapping the whole piece off with outraged quotes from an unnamed UKIP spokesman bleating on about the Scots being subsidy junkies as usual.
We haven’t been able to find the story in the Mail’s print edition. We suspect the reason is that readers in Scotland will go “A top-of-the-range new hospital courtesy of the Scottish Government, brilliant”, while English readers would think “Lucky Scots, having their NHS kept in public hands and still being able to do this” – two reactions which don’t serve the Mail’s anti-SNP, pro-privatisation agenda.
But that does rather cast a question over what it’s doing on the website. We suspect, like most of the rest of the media, that the SNP’s continuing stratospheric poll numbers have simply driven them mad.
Lol what astonishes me – and I’m sure I’m not alone – is that second headline equating a HOSPITAL with the giant planet killing super-structure that spread terror through the known universe in Lucas’ movies.
That is a truly mind-bending piece of writing.
The Farce Is With Them.
I made the mistake of scrolling down to read some comments….*shudder*. DM seems to be paper of choice for Kippers…?
NHS Scotland ‘Death Star’ destroys PFI rebel base to everyone’s amusement.
We seem to be getting the line of SNP bad nearly every day from the MSM. It’s getting a little boring to be honest. And anyway someone with half a brain will find out for themself from other media the real stories about the election. We can only hope they do!
..”have simply driven them mad”.
*coffee spews*
*laughs uncontrollably*
It looks far more like a CPU cooling fan assembly.
Mind you, that’s no awfy catchy as a phrase is it?
“That’s no moon, that’s a hospital”
I really hope the nurses have to wear stormtrooper outfits and even for minor surgical procedures you get to float in the foetal position in a regeneration tank for a week, bathed in life giving fluids.
Saw this on Reporting Scotland last night, they made sure they got a few of the protesters dissatisfied with the Parking facilities in on the act.
My wife works for NHS Scotland and has been shown round the new hospital. She and another friend who is a consultant there say it’s wonderful! The consultant can’t wait to practise there! Only the DM is following Bradford of the BBC Scotland’s nickname of a George Lucas creation. I have heard it called, “The Starship Enterprise” but that is altogether too positive and affectionate for people like Bradford and the DM to report. Well done the Scottish Government and congratulations to the people of Glasgow and indeed Scotland in getting this new and truly marvellous facility!!
This was on Reporting Scotland last night, of coarse they put in a few protesters dissatisfied with the parking facilities just for balance.
Horrible story here about Jim Murphy
link to psa.ac.uk
I’m shocked that they didn’t somehow try to suggest it was some type of bribe, or ‘thank you’ to Glasgow for voting Yes.
Also,how dare we try to improve the life expectancy of all those nasty SNP voters, not whilst lots of upstanding Tory voters in middle-England are dying during their 3-week wait a GP appointment.
Was disappointed that an op scheduled for tomorrow had been postponed ( not nhs Scotland’s fault) it means that I will be treated at this super duper new facility. Thank you Scottish Government whether you are doing it on purpose it matters not, you are improving people’s life.
@James
From what I understand the term ‘Death Star’ was coined in Glasgow as a knickname for the place due to it’s size/shape. The Mail have just picked up on it, it’s not their invention.
ah can see this being a messy DIVORCE, we care in Scotland about our people, Rather the death star than 20 mins of a train trip with HS2
Vile nasty SNP got all those robots on zero hour contracts
@Major Bloodnok
Aha! we have outed you. You sir are an amphibian. You must be to have such a permeable skin that you an absorb nutrients through it. Mammalian embryos are still no bigger than the unfertilised egg (but with many more cells in that small space) when they plug themselves into the uterine wall, so inefficient such a process is.
Also if you tried this the bacteria on your skin would infect the nutrient bath and make it all cloudy and smelly in very short order.
Also current best medical postsurgical practice is to get patients up and weight-bearing ASAP. Form an orderly queue next to the ward cross trainer.
They omit to say the cost was alleviated by freeing up Yorkhill and Western Infirmary site for sale.
Anyone know how the opening was reported on theBBC or STV? I don’t watch them now, cancelled licence.
Yeah, I’ll try and contain my outrage that the evil Scottish Government are looking after their electorate. 😀 LOL
that the SNP’s continuing poll numbers have simply driven them mad.
When it comes to my country’s sovereignty and the rights of its people I’m not convinced cynicism is the best weapon when faced with the state’s army of anti-democratic spinners of lies. There ought to be a limit to nefarious behaviour beyond which serial liars can be rounded up and tossed into Journalist Rehab for a reasonable term.
@Muscleguy
“Waiter, MORE FLIES IN MY SOUP!”
Ref the Hospital, Where is the PFI contract? Slab will shout!, there MUST be one!
Piss off says the SNP! Yes!
Copy, the new Forth Bridge LOL!
@Major Bloodnok 11:10am
You mean, a bit like this:
link to youtube.com
WARNING: not suitable for people with language sensitivities
Well worth trying to get last nights Eleanor Bradford piece up..her face is tripping her throughout and punters euphoria is a joy to see.
Where did that awful term “Death Star” come from? To refer to a building, designed to help seriously ill people, and make them as safe and comfortable as possible, as a “Death Star” is a tad insensitive.
Can you imagine people’s feelings if their seriously ill relative is taken to the “Death Star” for treatment. What kind of treatment would you get in a Death Star?
Termination?
I like the way they highlight the “helicopter pad” as if to say, it’s so super luxurious it’s even got a helicopter pad like you’d find on some billionaire’s yacht or on the lawns of a Malibu mansion.
A hospital with a helicopter pad! Is there no end to Scotland’s rampant debauched self indulgence?
Back in my day we ‘ad to wheel the patients in by ‘orse and cart and bandage them up wi’ leaves n newspapers, etc, etc.
They press seem so keen to point out the helicopter pad!
No mention of the fact that many a walker, climber or tourist will be grateful of it being there if they or a loved one has an accident and requires emergency treatment.
As has been the case under the Southern General this new facility replaces. Plus it should be pointed out they don’t exclusively treat only Scots here.
‘You have failed me for the last time, Scottish Government.’
The Daily Mail as we know has multiple personalities, English, Scottish, and on line editions. None of them is nice. They exist to raise the blood pressure of their readers and I suppose most if not all of us will find at least one article where we will nod our head in agreement.
At the end of the day they are there to make money and if they prostitute their craft in the process so be it, remember the shareholder always comes first.
I now regard the Mail as the Katie Hopkins of the print and internet world, an irritating itch best ignored if possible as scratching it only makes it worse.
My hope and prayer is that the MSM and an awful lot of unionist politicians will have to think of a different narrative when Friday of next week dawns.
Major:
That would be a Bacta Tank.
(The Star Wars nerd in me just couldn’t let it be left as a “rejuvenation tank”. Sorry)
Here we go again, Southerners just don’t get Glasgow’s dry humour, do they and the Fail is the worst.
Auld Rock
Quite apart from the obvious angle of demonising the SNP and Scotland in one article, (thus saving trees, and they should be ashamed of using so many to print the tripe they do) this also sends the subliminal message to the outraged lower orders in the rUK that they are not worthy of such luxury. So after the “natural parties of government” (old quote from Maggie, slightly altered) have disinfected Westminster from the odious Scots, they, the lower orders of rUK won’t get above themselves by expecting anything like this being built for their benefit in their communities.
The mantra they are wanting to instil in people’s heads is, “We are not worthy.”
I don’t think they have been driven mad by the poll figures alone. I think that the limited freedom of decision making offered by devolution has struck fear into their hearts on seeing what a well run Social Democracy could deliver right on their doorstep.
This new state of the art hospital illustrates the abject social failure of their preferred economic system.
The poor souls are more to be pitied than scolded.
I’m not sure how valid the name is, but it was attributed to locals who have a propensity to give colloquial names to structure around Glasgow. Squinty Bridge, Armadillo etc.
I’m sure it wasn’t meant as a direct comparison to the killer planet and is down partly to its star shape and partly down to the shear scale of it.
You can almost picture the unionist media brain storming sessions with them foaming at the mouth,
‘The most ‘dangerous women’ in Britain seems to be obsessed with improving the lives of Scottish people, why does she not just grind them into the ground like we do.’
I really don’t know why we haven’t gone on attack more about labour/tory PFI scam.
Not to jump the Gun, but what fun in the Scottish parliamentary elections in 2016, showing what a SNP Scotland is capable of, or should we point this out now, perhaps the English would like a Party to help in Westminster that actually delivers? what would you Like a fantastic hospital, or a weapon of indiscriminate mass destruction of the entire planet, that is the real Death Star!
Karmanaut @ 11.36 said:
“Back in my day we ‘ad to wheel the patients in by ‘orse and cart and bandage them up wi’ leaves n newspapers, etc, etc.”
Luxury – you had it easy.
In my day we had to send for the shaman, then pay him in blood and by giving him first conjugal rights on the oldest unmarried female in the family.
BTW and o/T – I do like Newnest.scot’s description of “Bistophobia” – a fear of falling-off the gravy train.
Borders General Hospital at Melrose has a helicopter pad. OK it’s the grass area in from of the main door but helicopters are used and can be seen arriving when driving along the by pass. Maybe Bradford could come down to the Borders and have another fit. I can just hear her saying, ” This kind of service is being delivered all over Scotland and they’re doing it deliberately!
Only in scotland could we not take ourselves seriously enough to nickname a hospital the death star, to go with the armadillo! LOVE IT
shock horror hospital built on time ,state of the art all mod cons ,under budget a unionist numpty states it was terrible all that lovely money to be scammed and we were not allowed anywhere near it bahh we could have added lots to the cost and made it late it would have been a nice little earner for us SNP BAD.
There is a massive and complex investment package for the new hospital. It’s not all from public money anyway – some bits are competitively won from big medical charities and foundations, some is UK infrastructure money, and some (as already pointed out) is from the sale of the sites of the other hospitals.
In other words, funding this whole development has been a challenge which the Scottish Government and NHS Glasgow and Clyde have pulled off spectacularly. There has also been a lot of collaboration work between the NHS, Glasgow University and industry – biomed companies.
It’s a total success story. And a lot of the funding wouldn’t have been won if the work happening in Glasgow (medical research etc) was not world class.
£1 Billion is a significant sum to spend on a new hospital. Thank goodness the building is paid off and owned by the Scottish NHS. Scots are not paying city speculators large sums of money and interest monthly as is the case with PFI projects in England. Scots taxes are going into direct patient care,
£3.5 Billion was spent on Barts and the London Trust to rebuild some of the existing buildings. Each month for the next twenty five plus years the Trust will have fork out money to city speculators who funded PFI projects. This money has created a gap that has result in staff cuts and direct impacts on patient care.
PFI was set up by the great leader, saviour of the universe, bungler brown.
PFI was avoided by three fine Scots just doing their jobs, Mr Salmond, Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney, ably assisted by their party, putting Scotland first.
This and many other reasons Scots have turned against labour. labour seek the westminster crown above all else and will sell Scots down the river to achieve it. Scotland should not be run just to keep douglas alexander and jim murphy in high profile jobs that will see them elevated to the lords.
Nor should labour be permitted to weaponise the NHS, especially in Scotland, when their actions have done so much to damage it for short term electoral gain
A question often asked of labour, how far down the barrel will they stoop and scoop?
The Mail is just another failing low IQ tabloid after all.
Just treat it as you would the hysterical babbling of a racist bigoted lunatic desperate for attention.
Nobody really gives a shit about the tabloid’s ranting any more.
Nobody trusts them and rightly so.
Very few will even admit to reading them for fear of being ridiculed.
The pitiful fools reduced to ‘writing’ for tabloids like the Mail have to do so knowing they will be laughed at and scorned behind their backs and to their face.
They are nothing more than the paid-for mouthpieces and propagandists servicing Press Barons like the non-dom tax dodger Rothermere.
“Haud on” says Jackie Baillie.
“I told Newsnight several times the SNP were cutting funding in the NHS. I thought we were working together on the UTurn an NHS crisis stories”.
If nothing else, it proves DM hacks use Reporting Scotland as a source.
It was Eleanor Bradford who used the term ‘Death Star’ to describe the hospital on RS yesterday (all three broadcasts) – although she claimed Glasgow folk have given it than name.
Also curious about the single ‘comment’ on the first edition, but 911 for the second, which was published two hours later.
Bet there’s no abuse or insulting remarks among them !
Thing is the Southern General always had a helicopter pad…f***in idiots…they’re mad ah tell ya, mad capn.
@Steven Stewart
Yeah, that’s the one, although I was basing mine more on the lager maturation vats at Tennents brewery.
Andrew McLean says:
28 April, 2015 at 11:48 am
or should we point this out now, perhaps the English would like a Party to help in Westminster that actually delivers? what would you Like a fantastic hospital, or a weapon of indiscriminate mass destruction of the entire planet, that is the real Death Star!
Sadly, judging from the media, the English always want to level down, when faced with such a choice. I don’t know why.
Re helicopter pads: there’s one at Ayr Hospital too.
Surely any hospital with sufficient space will have one; where else is an air ambulance supposed to land?
Eric D says:
28 April, 2015 at 11:58 am
If nothing else, it proves DM hacks use Reporting Scotland as a source.
It was Eleanor Bradford who used the term ‘Death Star’ to describe the hospital on RS yesterday (all three broadcasts) – although she claimed Glasgow folk have given it than name.
Sounds like the BBC are pushing this awful name. If it originally came about from the Glasgow dark humour, fair enough. However, it does seem a tad insensitive for the BBC to keep plugging it so aggressively.
The BBC has decided it will be called “The Death Star”
“Eleanor – make it so!”
Mis-Reporting Scotland concentrated more on the fantastic new facility in Glasgow being nicknamed The Death Star by… well, they didn’t say who has been using that sobriquet, just that ‘locals’ had given it that name (Really?).
The ‘report’ said that Glaswegians had the peculiarity of giving nicknames to certain Glasgow constructions, for example, The Armadillo for The Clyde Auditorium and The Squinty Bridge for The Clyde Arc road bridge.
Yet, they didn’t actually show anybody on screen who used this Death Star nickname or who were even aware of it. Odd, to say the least.
Ergo, the Daily Mail jump on this so-called “Death Star” nickname supplied by BBC Scotland – it gives them multiple excuses to slander, smear, degrade and lie about Scotland, Scots, the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon.
Know your enemy/enemies.
It is a fabulous success story, and its absolutely beyond me how anyone, anywhere, can say otherwise. We all know someone, or know personally the difference good medical facilities make to health,treatment etc. I was in the old Southern visiting decades ago, and remember my horror at the delapidation then.
Remember during the referendum, the SNP wanted to write education and access to free healthcare into a new constitution, which is why I never understand the critics who say they aren’t left wing!
Thought the ‘Death Star’ was spherical?
Not heard anyone here call it the death star. Inaccessible, yes, because of worries about how folk are supposed to get across the river when it is in full operation. But never death star. Spoke to a lot of people about this hospital last year when I was in and out of hospital a bit. Worries about getting there were the one major practical concern, coupled with regret about the closure of local and well loved hospitals, only to be expected.
Apart from there always having been a helicopter pad, it’s vital in the central belt, where critical travel time would be saved by an airlift, rather than negotiate the bloody gridlock of Glasgow environs.
It’s also minutes from a lot of hill walking country by air.
I have a good feeling about this.
And, the best thing about it – It’s not a Private Hospital its an NHS Hospital.
give it time to make it to print …. I’m sure my Mum will tell me!
@Dalriata
“The ‘report’ said that Glaswegians had the peculiarity of giving nicknames to certain Glasgow constructions, for example, The Armadillo for The Clyde Auditorium and The Squinty Bridge for The Clyde Arc road bridge.”
“Pathetic Quay”?
Ooh maybe someone should tell them that it was also finished under budget. The vision of the Mail’s head exploding is really rather joyful for such a violent act. Apologies if someone later uses this to show how violent your readership is.
Speaking as a NHS employee and someone who has spent a good amount of my time over the last few years working on this project I find the way the BBC presented it as shameful.
I’d never heard of the nickname of the ‘Death Star’ until I heard GMS yesterday morning and I know my colleagues hadn’t either. I suspect this nickname may have originated from Eleanor Bradford in an attempt to smear positive news
For what its worth the hospital has way more thats new than just a cinema and robots. It is genuinely an impressive site and its all bought and paid for without the need for PFI.
I reckon the Home Counties will be up in arms over this.
They are to short sighted, and stupid to realise Scotland more than pays its way,
they will be raging.
Independence is coming. WooHoo.
Gary
Looks more like something Labour have lost – a compass – a moral compass.
Sssh! dinna tell Gordo.
The BBC did throw in a few negatives, including the nickname that-they-themselves-had-created.
Brailsford seemed to imply that this super amazing hospital was a particular requirement for Glasgow as the people living nearby are all, well, you know. My thoughts on that little drop of poison from her are unprintable.
Shamans! Shamans!
Bloody spoiled toffs never had it so good wi’ your shamans and your air ‘elicopter pads.
Back when a were a lad we ‘ad to fling patients at Glasgow hospitals using huge catapults and we just hope they’d ‘it the roof an not bounce off.
Rev.Stu has thankfully greatly increased our awareness to recognise malicious nonsense when we see it. I suspect the stupid “death star” label came directly from those who oppose anything and everything our SNP government achieves.
These clowns are so eaten by envy and rabid hatred their political demise cannot come soon enough. When Professor Tom Devine and Alex Massie were asked recently about the potential Labour wipe-out in Scotland, Mr Massie agreed it would be significant but not complete to which Professor Devine immediately spun around and responded “Yet!”
[…] The Daily Mail evidently decided the first headline wasn’t mad enough. […]
Cost of new state-of-the-art hospital built in Glasgow, Scotland and completed in 2015 (on time) and dedicated to saving lives… approximately 1 billion pounds.
Cost of new state-of-the-art Trident nuclear weapons system sited 25 miles from Glasgow, Scotland and due to start in late 2016 (the first submarine is due to enter service in 2028) and dedicated to killing as many people as possible… approximately 100 billion pounds.
Strange…no mention of the hundreds of billions of pounds worth of English infrastructure projects ongoing and in the pipeline paid for by Scottish taxpayers with absolutely zero benefit to us.
Sorry for going Off Topic. Harriet Harman and her wee pink bus visiting a nursery today. talking with one of the workers there. the workers name Nicola Sturgeon. That name is Everywhere just now. Who is She.
@Chic McGregor
“Pathetic Quay”
LOL! Funnily enough, they didn’t mention that one!
The “Death Star” Hospital name came from Eleanor Bradford at BBC QT – no-one else.
Googled it yesterday and the first reference was from our BBC Scotland Health correspondent and then the DR and then the Mail followed.
Par for the course for our dear Eleanor – me thinks.
A simple question – How many of these locals had access to aerial photographs which show the four pointed star shape?
Of course these locals might all be helicopter pilots who have free access to the helipad on the roof?
Did she really think the Death Star name is going to catch on?
E.g. “I am just of down to the “Death Star” to see my critically ill friend”
Ah I see what’s happened here. Government builds thing. Patients treated; doctors, nurses and countless others find employment en masse. The end is nigh.
Sigh…can we just get this over with? The City of London Red And Blue Party are long out of ideas. It’s just inane ranting now. Dunno if I can take another week and a half of this utter pish.
Eleanor tells the nation…not much but… Oh! The car parks too wee in the ‘death star’ which is too big:
link to bbc.co.uk
I’m sure Westminster was given the Death Star nickname by Alex or one of us CyberNatRats before the referendum. So Bradford has not got the intelligence to use an original negative name.
It would be far, far more appropriate to call the BBC building at Pacific Quay The Death Star!
Yes, ‘Pathetic Quay’ is good, but calling it The Death Star would be such wonderful schadenfreude and a right GIRFUYz to BBC Scotland.
We could start a new phrase. Why so glum. you look like Ealoner Bradford.
Kevin Maguire, (stalking the corridors of power). Daily Mirror Senior political writer, Monday 27 April 2015.
Crisis? What crisis? Tories lose the plot.
Wretched Tories sound like they are plotting a coup.
Cameron possesses no god-given right to be Premier, so deluded conservatives should stop threatening parliamentary democracy.
Thw PM will be whoever-Cameron or Miliband commands the Commons with no constitutional requirement for him to be the leader of the largest party.
The Tories have a misplaced sense of entitlement and behave as if they own No10.
Cons screaming about a Labour-SNP pact are simply throwing another dead cat onto the table, in order to divert attention away from the Grim Reaper’s scythe that’s swinging Dave’s way.
So there it is. The Rev Stuart’s understanding confirmed correct. This surely puts the “Largest Party” statement continously advanced by Murphy in the bin where it belongs.
Hardly think anyone, even dark Glasgow humour, would call a hospital, The Death Star.
Bradford seems to be another female harpie like Jackie and Kay(e).
Where does the BBC dig them up from?
I think we should call the New Hospital – “Queen Nicola’s”.
I am sure that Eleanor would approve.
🙂
Many people refer to BBC Scotland as “Pravda Quay”, an word play on the site of its HQ building at Pacific Quay, Glasgow and a reference to its employees’ objective professionalism. Presumably BBC Scotland is going to start publicly referring to itself as such in its news bulletins as it is also in popular usage with the locals.
The BBC try to talk down the Scottish Government at every opportunity. They explicitly try to talk down ScotNHS. Eleanor Bradford seems to be at the centre of this negative campaign.
Really does make you wonder who first coined the description Death Star?! It may be natural folk humour … or it might be more sinister. I wouldn’t like to say for sure!
In any case, what idiot would use such a name AFTER the hospital has opened and is taking in patients!?
Socrates MacSporran says:
28 April, 2015 at 11:49 am
“Bistophobia” – a fear of falling-off the gravy train.
Because its worth repeating over and over again to any of the current Labour MP’s in Scotland
#thetruthwillsetscotlandfree
Daily Mail link to English story online
Just in case it’s not been posted yet! Absoutely amazing!
J
It’s brilliant. There’s no doubt the Soo Gen was past it but I’m still a wee bit sad to see Yorkhill and the Western go, they were so much a part of life for Pertick folk like me. I was initially a bit worried about how folks would get to A & E, for example but then I remembered that Glasgow’s not really that big. :}
Apologies it’s the Print edition that the story can’t be found – ignore the last one from me!
J
In the early 80s I can remember people calling Dundee’s Ninewell’s hospital “The Death Star”. Apart from the gallows humour I think people still have the tendency to give this name to big and futuristic looking buildings with helipads on the top.
Meanwhile Wookiepedia tells that the term we should be attributing is “medical frigate”.
Regards Bradford disgraceful suggestion that the new Hospital is nick named (by her) the ‘Death Star’ is just a measure of how out of touch the BBC really are at Pathetic Quay
Bradford did everything to play down the new facility
I also noticed that the BBC in general didn’t even bother to report the opening of the new hospital on the network news, despite the fact that its the most advanced in Europe
Bradfords inane suggestion that the ‘locals’ named it the ‘Death Star’ due to its star shape, just doesnt hold up as you would have to be hovering above the building to actually see that.
I think the hospital is more in tune with the Hospital Star Ship Pasteur from Star Trek – so prefer #USSPasteur – Its advanced, it saves people and improves people and its a class far ahead
Re ‘Death Star’
Helen Puttock, health correspondent on The Herald, was the first person to publicise this name for it. She used it in an article in the Heraldbseveral weeks ago.
I commented on its use in the on-line article but of course the comment did not make it past the ‘moderators’.
Clearly Ms Bradford storied it up for use on just such an occasion as the official opening.
I was a patient in Ninewells this year. I can honestly say that the people of Dundee hold that hospital in very high esteem. So many spontaneously told me how good it is, it was very moving.
Never heard anyone call it the death star. Not one person. Didn’t hear any criticism either, except for the fact that it is big and not well signposted so people often get lost when they first visit.
I don’t recognise the negative account of our hospitals I seem to see regularly in the papers. Long wait at A&E at the Western, certainly: but that was after they established I was not top priority compared to others much worse off. Nice if they had more facilities and more staff: but in the reality I could not see any cause for complaint, much less any “crisis”
Anecdotal I know: but better than the sub anecdote drivel I see in the press, to my mind
Death Star? Head start on healthcare more like.
@Auld Rock says: 28 April, 2015 at 11:40 am:
“Here we go again, Southerners just don’t get Glasgow’s dry humour, do they and the Fail is the worst.”
I see some credence given to the claim the vile name is attributed to the evil bugeyed Bradford woman.
Dear Eleanor Bradford, Dear Jackie Bird, Dear Kay with an (e), what’s the common-denominator of this gorgeous group of harpies?
They’re all less than comfortable with the SNP/Scottish Government.
But, what’s to become of them when the sh** hits the fan – will they become pragmatic personages and rise above it all?
Will they be scarred psychologically and seek out the same travel adviser as Michelle Mone and Lard Digby Jones?
Or, perhaps will they find help and succour at the very oddly named ‘Death Star’* – new state of the art – non PFI – success story – hospital, which is very close to Pathetic Quay? *(Who could possibly have called a hospital ‘Death Star’ – yet still be considered sane?)
You know Pathetic Quay? – That huge BBC building, which was built with licence payers’ money – then sold to the highest bidder – then leased back to the BBC, using licence payers’ money to pay the rent – and God only knows where the cash raised from the sale went – or the taxes thereby avoided – a pretty kool piece of fancy footwork!
Yes, dear old Auntie BBC and her dear old employees / contracted personages / whatever – but, golly gosh, ain’t we lucky with the infrastructures of good old Blighty?
“Pacific Kaye” anyone?
I recall Bradford unhappily reporting on the hospital coming in on time and on budget a few weeks ago. Sounds like she is still unhappy about it?
I haven’t heard anyone call it the Death Star. It looks nothing like the Death Star.
Saturn’s moon Mimas – now that should worry people
link to lightsinthedark.files.wordpress.com
Please, please, when someone gets an opportunity onscreen or radio – shame any BBC presenter using the term “Death Star”. Let them know, with no shadow of a doubt, that it is both inappropriate and grossly insensitive to seriously ill, hospitalised people and their families and friends. That will put their gas at a peep.
Well caught Stu, more crap being fed out as fact. Wish we could get rid of these unprofessionals
Inconsiderate bastards!
Imagine building hospitals when people are dying out there!
I think the attempt at a nick name just shows how uncool Bradford is and how little she knows about Star Wars.
@Karmanaut says: 28 April, 2015 at 12:28 pm:
“Back when a were a lad we ‘ad to fling patients at Glasgow hospitals using huge catapults and we just hope they’d ‘it the roof an not bounce off.
Now guys, I’m not making a joke I’m telling facts. As a child, before the NHS, I lived in a Pluchie’s Raw on a farm. It was a rural area but really not remote.
We couldn’t afford medical treatment and, believe me I kid you not, the Local GPs were paid in farm produce and whatever the ordinary punters had to offer. A joiner would pay with his skills for example. When I grew-up a bit, (by that time it was WWII), as the best poacher for miles around. I supplied the local village butcher and the local farms and local Small Holdings with poached game. That was what paid for our medical bills.
Poor people only had access to hospitals by charitable organizations and such like. To us the post war NHS was the greatest step forward ever taken by a UK government and it was what made the Labour Party. It very much looks like it will also now end them.
Tomorrows Daily Fail headline: Scandal as Trekkies refuse to enter the ‘Death Star’! Scotland’s NHS budget in crisis as costs of transporting hardcore Trekkies to other hospitals spirals out of control. ‘Nicola never thought about this’ cried some bloke in a tight-fitting red shirt before being devoured by a floating blob. (Another focus on the fiction headline specifically designed to divert discussion and dilute the positivity from the fact that a brand new hospital has just opened in Scotland) !
Fiona @ 12:01
Fairly common phenomena, that sort of thing. I remember reading somewhere that some study found that Americans were given a choice of being better off but Japanese being better off still, and being worse off but the Japanese being even worse off again. Most chose the latter option! Mad.
Have a look at this folks:
ponsonbypost.com/index.php/comment/6-how-the-bbc-stole-the-referendum
The title says it all. BBC bastards.
Stephen.
I hope we can get someone with a camera to take a shot of Bradford, Kaye and Bird leaving BBC Scotland after they have been sacked and sent packing.
Please, please, please let’s make those polls come true. I really want to see the SNP getting to grips with BBC Scotland and that trio getting their jotters.
*Newsflash*
“Retirement age in Scotland raised to 99 and 3/4’s…”
“New pension crisis as Scots live longer due to improved healthcare caused by SNP insistence on giving a toss..”
Total zoomery from the Daily Mail. You have to wonder who the Luke Skywalker is in this bizarre Death Star fantasy?
Good grief, not Ed Miliband?!
The English Press are only mad at the SNP because the NHS south of the border Disney work , while oor wains are in & other patients are in a brand spanking new Hospital watching Disney cartoons,nae PFI involvement ha ha.
@Paula Rose
Excellent anagram! 🙂
PS:
Radio 5 live 14:30 hrs headlines including the single phrase.
“Hatred of the English has reached astonishing proportions in Scotland”!
That’s all she said…had a look out the window..nope! My English neighbour just gave me a friendly wave, funny old world init!
Must tune into the 15:00hrs main news version. 🙁
My daughter lives quite near this new hospital and when visiting her a couple of weeks ago, we went past it. She told us about it and NEVER ONCE referred to is as ‘the Death Star’!!
She also explained the reason for the helipad on top – there is a triage staging post just in the door where a patient that is flown in can get almost IMMEDIATE treatment that can sustain him/her until they get that patient down to Emergency room/surgery. The quicker treatment is started, the more likely the chances of a positive response and recovery for the patient. Minutes count. Grassy helipads are often a few minutes away from Emergency doors, transport is needed to get the patient there at a time when minutes are often precious. There is also the case of the debris, and dirt in the open air often being detrimental to the patient. The thinking is – the sooner the patient gets to emergency rooms and treatment is started, the better the outcome. Hence – helipad right at hospital (on top) and quick access to emergency treatment. All good for the patient! 🙂
Also yes, daughter mentioned the parking. What she went on to say was that there IS a huge car park – unfortunately it’s about 10 minutes walk to main hospital building and people are complaining that they have to walk too far! There IS (just as at Ninewells!) a bus that runs from distant car parks to the main building. But unfortunately some people want to be able to park outside the door to save their legs a bit of a hike! Poor souls! Daughter works where she hears all the gossip (trainer in a big local store) about local happenings. Most people are amazed and happy to get it. Few complaints, though the resistance to the walk from car park crops up. There is an EXCELLENT BUS SERVICE runs to it though! At the moment there ARE road works as the road upgrade is done. But once finished, it should make things so much easier. The buses ARE running – and running well! So there is nothing to stop people parking away from hospital and taking a 50p journey on a bus! All buses are adapted for wheelchairs and so… Any whingers are really just butting their heads against the idea that the world – or the hospital – is not pivoting around them.
Sure there are going to be a few teething problems – that’s par for a new service/building. But any criticism by the MSM that it’s got problems, is really quite false. The people in the area are generally VERY HAPPY about the new hospital! Any criticism seems to be just ‘sour grapes’ that the English folks aren’t getting such services,from my perspective…
Perhaps if the MSM encouraged the English voters to vote in someone who is going to help them GET those services, rather than just whine about what Scots have fought for, then England would get a better NHS service too! But of course encouraging English voters to vote outwith the trough feeders would be like cutting down their money trees (if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphors)… I do believe that English voters are seeing the light though…
I didn’t listen to Call Kay with an e – I can’t/won’t listen to rude, nasty hosts trying to upstage their guests but I do believe that if Nicola Sturgeon was able to put up with that kind of treatment (I’m sure NS knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy ride with that woman! And prepared for it) that people who DO listen would recognise what an obnoxious host Kay(e) was and how calm and pleasant Nicola remained. And how she had ANSWERS which the other politicians don’t have. Yep – perhaps an insane couple of hours, but I’m sure Nicola saw the benefits of putting up with that childish behaviour. Kind of… like going to the dentist… only hurts for a moment! But the GAINS!! 🙂
@ Baratorc 1.22 FFS do you mean we have Three Tokio Roses in Scotland,ah bet the Americans were gledd the had only wan in the Pacific War lol.
“As you can see, Miss Bradshaw, your friends have failed. Now witness the healing power of this fully EQUIPPED and OPERATIONAL hospital”!
I know the line up for the general election coverage is probably tied up already but anyone fancy a petition to get Eleanor Bradford to do the BBC Scotland coverage?
She is such a fantastic, balanced journalist. Some maliciously accuse her of being overly critical of the Scottish Government for party political reasons, of being a diehard no-voter who allowed her politics to severely prejudice her reporting of the news during the referendum and those who accuse her of being a mere labour mouthpiece who cannot even celebrate the completion of this fantastic new facility in Glasgow without revealing her hatred of the SNP.
I don’t – let’s get Eleanor bringing in the New Year, I mean announcing the results on May the 7th/8th. I want to hear it from Eleanor.
If, subsequently, Ms Bradford has to visit someone at the new ‘Death Star’ hospital, perhaps she’ll bring with her a bunch of sour grapes?
I also liked the way Bradford hailed the fact that each patient would have an individual en-suite room to themselves, by saying that “some people liked to be with other people on Nightgale wards”.
Not some people at the BBC, I suspect.
What do Glaswegians call Pacific Quay? Justasking!
This isn’t the result they’re looking for.
On the road from Perth to Crainlarich We got held up for over an hour. The reason? A motorbike had collided with a bus and the road was closed while paramedics treated him at the scene. After getting him stabilised a helicopter then took him to a hospital. I don’t know which one but iwherever it was it would have needed a helipad.
Likewise at another accident on the Elvanfoot/Leadhills road. Biker misjudged a corner and was eventually arlifted out. Again a helipad would have been needed at the the receiving hospital.
Hillwalkers, climbers and farmers all owe their lives to mountain rescue teams and air ambulances. They are not a luxury in Scotland, they are essential!
SNP BAD ….. Lol
Perhaps Scotland could have saved a few bucks by having the helicopters land in the nearest park. Yeah sure.
link to gov.uk
28 May 2012
An RAF helicopter crew battled through fog last week to transfer a seriously ill child from Norfolk to London’s Great Ormond Street children’s hospital.
Despite increasingly foggy weather in East Anglia, the crew were able to pick up the boy and transport him to a helicopter landing site in Regent’s Park used for the London hospital.
Ye know they could have gone for a different headline.
“Glasgow welcomes new state of the art hospital in Govan.. and now, with the other political news coverage, heeere’s Johnny..”
Instead they try to rubbish Scotlands independent achievements at every opportunity.
I love Scotland.
If I may, the fury lies not in that the hospital is too good – the fury lies in proportionality. Arguing it’s hated for being too good is lazy and reckless reporting at best, at worst it’s deceit.
The reality is this is a fantastic asset for Scotland but also a fantastic example of what the rest of the UK could get. I bet there really regretting there quote in the referendum “Scotland please don’t leave the union, lead it”
I seem to remember that emergency cases from the islands were often flown to the Southern General. When boat travel to remoter island and then onward road journeys can take considerable time, fast transportation by helicopter to give access to specialist facilities not available locally is essential.
This should be seen as a beacon of light showing the way to what the UK should be aspiring to as a whole.
Just wait until they find out that its the second robot manned facility we have, after forth valley royal opened near Falkirk a few years ago…
The hospital is an incredible environment and as many here have said was delivered on time and below budget. The “private cinema” is actually being installed and managed by a charity called MediCinema and 100% funded by kind donations from Scottish people and businesses. Information which is omitted for dramatic effect of course…. How sadly small minded BBC
I live locally & have heard not a soul call it the Death Star. I have heard it called the Starship Enterprise once.
Most of us are happy to have such a great facility available but too busy wondering where, exactly, we’re all going to park when all 10,000 workers move there, to be inventing inappropriate nicknames for a bloody hospital.
I had thought parking was the only negative angle until I was reminded by the Fail that we in Scotland pay for nothing and simply leech off our English neighbours!
The first mention I heard of the “Death Star” epithet was on Radio Scotland. It seems likely that this is not one of those imaginative common names, such as the “Squinty Bridge”, that arise spontaneously, but one of its unimaginative shadows introduced by the notably insensitive press. (It has happened elsewhere, too, such as the alleged “pepper-pot” in Berlin, which no-one has ever called that.)
No halfway imaginative member of the public would use “death” in the nickname of a hospital, since everyone is aware that at some time, despite everyone’s best efforts, there will be deaths. Only the press could be so crass – not the general public.
See when all these headlines roar “FURY at some political or social affront”, who exactly is “FURIOUS”?
The hedge funds, who didn’t get a PFI slice, I think
As someone living 2 streets away from the new super hospital I would love it if Wings Over Scotland would give some publicity to the local residents who have been well and truly shafted by a combination of the Scottish Government / NHS Scotland and Glasgow City Council in relation to the new hospital.
Who builds the biggest hospital in Europe but does not build one single new road or slip road, train station, subway station or bridge across the Clyde to transport the staff, patients and visitors there? Last year the Commonwealth Games lasted for 2 weeks and lots of infrastructure projects were undertaken to transport people to a sporting event lasting 2 weeks. Hopefully the new Southern will be around for decades. It is well known the Clyde Tunnel often has roadworks / ongoing maintenance and is a traffic bottleneck. The sliproad from the M8 at Shieldhall is a weak bridge requiring £12m of strengthening work but this will not be done until 2018. We had 6 months of roadworks along Govan Road last year and another 6 months of roadworks this year and the public transport links will not be ready in time for the new units opening. Meanwhile the Scottish Government and NHS have as a matter of policy decided not to provide enough car parking on the site, to encourage more people to walk. cycle and come to hospital by bus.
As someone living 2 streets away from the hospital, Glasgow City Council are saying I need to buy a permit to park my car in my street as does my wife… £100 a year for as a couple. Buying a permit will not actually entitle us to any space in our street or the surrounding streets. No spaces in any of the streets will be allocated for residents or permit holders. Glasgow City Council are putting in less parking bays in each street than there are car owners in each street. This means we will have to pay for a permit and then run the risk of getting a £60 parking ticket every day because GCC have not provided enough spaces for local residents even before any visiting family and friends are taken into consideration or anyone wanting to stop at the shops on Govan Road where all parking will be banned. Local businesses have to stump up £700 a year for a permit for business vehicles and works vans.
Glasgow City Council are saying the controlled parking scheme will stop hospital staff parking in the surrounding streets. But there is not enough parking on site for staff or patients. Local residents will be hit by paying for permits and being given parking tickets as some streets will only have a fraction of parking bays for the number of local car owners living there.
As a resident of Burghead Place once the controlled parking zone is brought in I will only be able to get into my street via Peninver Drive as Burghead Place will be become a one way street. This sounds good (stopping the rat run for the Clyde Tunnel) but means I will now have to sit in the queue for the Clyde Tunnel to get home.
100% agree, Dougie.
I support the Scottish government but this is one situation where the ball has been dropped, repeatedly, for the last five years. We’ve been subjected to almost continual roadworks over that time, effectively living on an eternal building site & locals are the only people suffering the downside of a superb national development.
The CWG infrastructure changes may have caused similar upheaval in the east end but at least that upheaval has ended. We will suffer for the foreseeable future.
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