Cameron accuses Salmond of being 'desperate' after claims independence will protect the NHS from privatisation Daily Mail.

  The Prime Minister said health is already devolved to Holyrood

  Mr Salmond said NHS cuts in England would be replicated in Scotland

  Scottish Government's spending on private contractors has risen by 25%

David Cameron has accused the First Minister of ‘desperate’ tactics over his claim that separation will protect the NHS from privatisation.

The Prime Minister stressed health is devolved to Holyrood and controversial changes at Westminster cannot be imposed on Scots.

Alex Salmond, who went green bowling in Arbroath with Scotland's Commonwealth medallists today, has argued that NHS budget cuts south of the border would be replicated in Scotland – despite the fact Holyrood has received an extra £1.3billion from Westminster over five years.

He has persisted with the argument despite claims of hypocrisy after it emerged the Scottish Government’s own spending on private contractors rose by almost a quarter last year to more than £80million.

Mr Cameron said: ‘Health is a devolved issue. So the only person who could, if they wanted to, introduce more private provision into the NHS in Scotland is Alex Salmond.

‘I think this is a desperate man recognising the argument is going away from him making a pretty desperate argument.

‘Actually because of the protection on NHS spending that the UK Government has given that we would not cut NHS spending while we have had to make difficult decisions elsewhere - that has actually made sure under the Barnett formula that money is available for Scotland as well.‘So I think that argument does not stack up at all.’

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Manchester United 1 Swansea City 2: Garry Monk's men deserve much more credit after proving everybody wrong, South Wales Evening Post

IF Manchester United are as bad as we have been told since Saturday lunchtime, why did nobody give Swansea City a chance of beating them this weekend?

Because for all the weaknesses within this United side compared to the various top-class teams Sir Alex Ferguson put together, the current crop were still expected to have far too much power for Swansea.

No-one, as Garry Monk pointed out afterwards, thought his team would have a hope in hell of troubling United on the first day of their new era.

Swansea, therefore, deserve more credit than they have received for what goes down as one of their most famous victories regardless of United's current state.

Predictably, Swansea's first ever league triumph at Old Trafford has been met with minimal praise for them and maximum criticism for United.

Last season, David Moyes was carpeted every time the Red Devils dropped points, yet Gylfi Sigurdsson's late winner has not prompted flak for Louis van Gaal.

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Travelodge removes Bibles from its rooms, The Christian Institute

The nationwide hotel chain Travelodge has removed Bibles from all of its rooms, in a move criticised by the Church of England.

Bibles provided free by the Gideons have been taken away for “diversity” reasons.

The removals took place after refurbishment work across the hotel chain, which replaced the drawers where Bibles were being kept.

‘Cultural vandalism’

In response, a spokesman for the Church of England said: “It seems both tragic and bizarre that hotels would remove the word of God for the sake of ergonomic design, economic incentive or a spurious definition of the word ‘diversity’”.

Writing on the Telegraph website, commentator Tim Stanley described Travelodge’s decision as “an act of cultural vandalism upon a tradition that goes back 126 years”.

A spokesman for Travelodge said: “The reason is because of diversity. With the country being increasingly multicultural, we didn’t feel it was appropriate to just have the Bible”

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Travelodge removes the Bible from every room: No one had complained... but chain 'doesn't want to discriminate'  Daily Mail