Vocal Voices

In an interview with Murnaghan, Farage said that health workers who do not have a good command of English - written and spoken - would be removed from the NHS. He also said that there would be a cull of middle management, which has grown by 48% since 1997.

Judging by most of the comments made about the article it looks as though he has hit the nail on the head once again. He has promised more on the NHS in the coming weeks.

I am betting that one of his questions to the Health Minister will be along the lines of how these people became employed in the first place. Currently there are no minimum qualifications, only a guide, but it states five good GCSEs at C or above to include English and one Science subject. It also stresses that in addition to qualifications applicants will need to demonstrate competence in literacy and numeracy. If the guide is being followed there should be no NHS worker incapable of understanding and being understood in English.

Workingman wrote:If the guide is being followed there should be no NHS worker incapable of understanding and being understood in English.

Of course that depends on how you read the qualifications. If you were to pass French at GCSE C level, do you suppose that you would be able to work in a French hospital and communicate effectively in French?

I suppose that they are doing the same thing with non UK staff for UK hospitals. Basically taking a English as a Second Language GCSE equivalent, like our French and using it as proof that the person has the correct qualifications.

What it comes down to is the integrity and honesty of the person applying the rules.

I'm sure we all have issues with that....

One of the points we have to remember with UKIP and Farage is that they will not be a main party capable of running the country alone any time in the next 15 years. So insisting that they have a manifesto equivalent to a main ruling party is stupid. All they can do is get into a Coalition and then fail to deliver. Just like the Lib Dems.

Better not to go there but the press have sold us the story (main parties aiding and abetting), that any party , to be thought credible, must have a full manifesto.....

Well said Suff, Farage is a one trick pony.

I think Farage makes a very valid point about foreign doctors and the NHS.

I can only speak as I find, and a few years back I certainly had a South Asian ophthalmic consultant at the local hospital whom I found very difficult to understand, to the point that I was quite prepared to ask to see another consultant if they'd given me a second appointment with him. Thankfully it didn't come to that.

Nigel Farage is quite right. For safety reasons alone, both doctors and nurses should have a good command of the English language. Why would anyone think it acceptable for anything less.

I agree about the English being extremely important but I also agree with Suff, that he is a long way away from being able to offer a proper mandate to run the country - thank goodness!!

Kaz wrote:Well said Suff, Farage is a one trick pony.

More a three trick pony: EU; immigration; and now the NHS.

The sub-text of his NHS speech was that 'health workers who do not have a good command of English are a danger to our health and we, UKIP, will keep you safe'.

You have to credit him and his team, they do keep finding a pulse wherever they press.

That wasn't quite what I was saying Kaz.

Farage offers us something many want. A chance to exit the EU. The UKIP did not start by telling us they were going to run the country. All the other parties told us we couldn't vote for them unless they did have a full manifesto for running the country.

Voting UKIP is a vote to leave the EU. It is _NOT_ a vote for having the UKIP run the country on their own. Well not yet anyway.

So, for me, the UKIP is a _VERY_ valid vote to make a very needed change to the UK political system. The fact that every time he speaks about his "manifesto" he highlights the issues with the existing system, the fundamental lies and skulduggery being carried out by the other parties is, to me, very interesting.

Farage simply highlighted that hospitals need correctly qualified staff who speak a decent standard of English. The implication being that as a member of the EU, that is going to be exceedingly hard to control.

I have a lot of time for him, but I'd love to know who is giving him all this quite correct and extremely damaging information on which he can build his policies...

UKIP would be daft to get embroiled in any ballyhoo about manifestoes. One of the least likely questions a canvasser will come across on the doorstep is: "Do you have a copy of your manifesto?" Any print run to meet demand would be one of the shortest on record. The public know that they are fiction and not worth reading.

What UKIP should keep on doing is finding those subjects where it can score points with the electorate. Come the first hint of any power cuts and I can see Nigel in a candlelit bar knocking back a pint and knocking windmills whilst bemoaning the fact that governments have failed to invest in nuclear. His backroom staff will have that box, and others, already ticked.

The simplest thing for UKIP is that it has no history of any policymaking so it can cherry pick without being criticised. None of its policies have ever failed, which cannot be said of the big three.

Kaz wrote:Well said Suff, Farage is a one trick pony.

He will get my vote Kaz.