内容摘要：Politicians know how deeply voters care about the NHS and that’s why they put it front and centre of their manifestos. But it is quite difficult to understand how these pledges will become reality because health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and this is a Westminster election.

Politicians know how deeply voters care about the NHS and that’s why they put it front and centre of their manifestos. But it is quite difficult to understand how these pledges will become reality because health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and this is a Westminster election.

In 2011, Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a devastating civil war in which more than half a million people have been killed and 12 million others forced to flee their homes.Before this week, Mohammed al-Bashir was little known outside the areas dominated by HTS in the north-western provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.

According to his CV, he trained as an electrical engineer and worked at gas plants before the start of the civil war in 2011.In January, Bashir was appointed prime minister of the Salvation Government (SG), which HTS established to run the territory under its control.The SG functioned like a state, with ministries, local departments, judicial and security authorities, while maintaining a religious council guided by Islamic law.

Around four million people, many of them displaced from elsewhere in the country, lived under its rule.When institutions stopped functioning in Aleppo after HTS and its allies captured the city earlier this month at the start of their lightning offensive, the SG stepped in to restore public services.

Technicians reportedly helped repair local electricity and telecommunications networks, security forces patrolled streets, medics volunteered at hospitals, and charities distributed bread.

"It is true that Idlib is a small region lacking resources, but they [SG officials] have a very high-level of experience after starting with nothing," HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani was heard telling Assad's former prime minister, Mohammed al-Jalali, in a video of a meeting in Damascus on Monday.The court heard that the victims have suffered PTSD, flashbacks, psychological distress, mental health challenges and seizures as a result of the abuse.

McIlvenny had claimed that he himself had been the victim of exploitation by a man identified as 'CS' and that he had brought his friends in to help him by getting them to supply images to CS.However the judge said there was no evidence he had been blackmailed or coerced rather that "it is hard to think of a case of higher culpability".

"He blackmailed his victims and was prepared to coerce a 14-year-old boy for his own gratification," the judge said."He took them to his lair of deprivation with lies, exploitation and threats. He took full advantage of their youth and vulnerability for his own gratification."