On Gulhane on Politics this week: Long Covid - 175,000 Scots suffer with this debilitating condition; Cancers - tackling those with the poorest survival rayes; and Crime - we need to do much more to support victims. Well, it’s fair to say that the SNP leadership contest has descended into farce. In fact, even the President of the SNP, Mike Russell, says his party is in a tremendous mess.Lies, cover-ups, tens of thousands of once loyal supporters leaving the Party, resignations – you couldn’t make this up. Come next week, we should know who will replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First Minister – that is, if the election process isn’t challenged in the courts by those who question the contest’s integrity. As if rising above the turmoil, gaff-prone Humza Yousaf the Health Secretary is still favoured by the SNP hierarchy to get the top job, despite his abysmal record in charge of Transport, Justice and now, the NHS. That said, it’s the 70,000 SNP members who get to decide, not Nicola Sturgeon’s cabal at Party HQ. It’s not a done deal. On Humza’s record as a Minister, hardly a week goes by in Holyrood when we don’t have to home-in on his failure to grasp the health brief. The latest debate focused on Long Covid, which now impacts over 175,000 Scots. Six common cancers have a poor survival rate: lungs, liver, brain, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach. We call these less survivable cancers as their average five-year survival rate is just 16%. Over 9,000 people will be diagnosed with one of these cancers in Scotland each year – a quarter of all cancer diagnoses. And these six cancers account for 40% all cancer deaths, claiming over 7,000 lives in Scotland annually. To understand more and to discuss how we can increase awareness of symptoms, I had the pleasure to speak with Lorraine Dallas, Director of Prevention, Information and Support at the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and Heather Dearie, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2009. Scotland has a prison population of around 7,500 with 25% of prisoners on remand. Many prisoners have families in our community - partners, children, elderly relatives. By committing their crimes, they’ve knowingly put their own loved ones at risk. There’s financial hardship, stigma, mental burden. In recent years, our courts have seen a marked upturn in common assault, rape, attempted rape and threatening behaviour. The number of prisoners charged with sexual offences has indeed doubled over the past decade. Earlier this month, we debated the impact of prison on the families of our prison population – and there were calls from the SNP and Greens for alternatives to prison, non-custodial sentences. The one big concern that the SNP and Greens miss, however, is the impact of crime on victims. The SNP and Greens don’t speak up for them. This was the thrust of my speech – which, unsurprisingly did not go down too well with those seeking a soft-touch justice system.
