Politics – The boy Cameron Hits Back
Cameron Says that Millibrand is a bit Wrong About the NHS Time and time again Miliband refused to tell Andrew Marr if he used the word “weaponise” to discuss cynically politicising the NHS. The PM isn’t going to let him forget it:“I heard that Ed Miliband had used this remark about ‘weaponising’ the NHS and that is why I put that to him in the House of Commons because frankly I think it was an appalling thing to say. The NHS is not a weapon… Having watched that exchange on Andrew Marr where he was wriggling like an eel, it is absolutely clear to me that he did say those words and that is why he wouldn’t deny it. And I think in one moment we learned more about Labour’s attitude to the NHS than we’ve learned perhaps for five years. They just see it as a political weapon and frankly I think that is disgraceful.” Oh come on Dave Cameron, the NHS? you have no reason to attack anyone about it. If Millibrand did not “weaponise” it he would be failing in his duty as the leader of the opposition. The truth is that you need to man up and say just why the NHS is in the mess that it is. Cameron you talk about how much you love the NHS, how much you use it. The truth is that it is failing. The truth is that it is failing under your watch. Dave Cameron, forget about the politics, actually DO something!
Politics – Cameron has Blown the Election, on Day 1?
Cameron has scored an own goal It is always nice when people agree with you, even if it is the Torygraph, Here is what they say about Cameron and his election priorities. “Just what are the Conservatives’ election priorities? If you go to the Conservatives’ website, you’ll find this list on the homepage: • Income tax cut for 30m people • Benefits capped • An in/out EU referendum in 2017 • Getting immigration under control • The deficit eliminated • Strong and stable leadership Today, David Cameron is giving a speech outlining the central themes for the Conservative election campaign: • Deficit • Jobs • Taxes • Home ownership • Education • Retirement You will, I’m sure, quickly spot some rather significant differences. The biggest is that neither immigration nor an EU referendum are on the new Conservative list. Labour, meanwhile, is noting that the NHS isn’t there either.” It seems that Cameron and his aides have decide to play to their strengths, but to my (albeit biased eye) they are few. They lag behind UKIP on immigration, better to ignore it. They lag behind Labour on the NHS, much better to ignore it. The really interesting thing is Europe. He knows that he can not deliver on a re-negotiated treaty. There is no appetite for it anywhere else other than Cameron’s fevered imagination. The dilemma for Cameron is whether to fight UKIP on immigration, or not. The truth is that UKIP are peddling dangerous lies. The immigrants from Europe enjoy a much lower unemployment rate in the UK than indigenous UK citizens. In other words, they work harder, for less, that the average Brit. In politics the truth matters little. The Tories, and Cameron lose on this issue. Cameron can afford to lose on the NHS. After all the people who care about the NHS, above all, are likely to be Labour leaning voters. The problem is those pesky UKIP transfer voters. If they are going to vote Labour anyway then do not expend any energy on them. But, Tory to UKIP voters. Surely Cameron has to fight to save them? The problem is that anything that the Boy Cameron has to say about immigration will come across as UKIP-lite. Being out of power, and a party made up of one issue nutters, UKIP can make outrageous promises, and they do. – But they don’t talk about legalising guns too much – why should they? Cameron is on a hiding to nothing. He vowed to reduce immigration to “tens of thousands” it stands at more than 200,000. It is like the deficit. It is a stubborn problem that will not go away, no matter how he dresses it up. Cameron is just so lucky that he up against the UN-photogenic Milliband In any event some of his “loyal friends” are beginning (beginning?) to position themselves for the inevitable blood-letting should/when Cameron loses the election. (Perhaps we should think about what “loses” means, no majority, no majority and forced into another coalition?) The usual suspects are there Boris, Theresa, but how about Owen Paterson? (Who he? More to follow) That traditional friend of Cameron and the Tories the Sun is particularly hostile today: “If he won’t address the issue of immigration, you have to wonder if he really wants to win.” With friends like that………………
Politics – Has Cameron Blown the Election?
David Cameron Spells Out his Top 6 Priorities, and Upsets Everyone! The election campaign has begun, Cameron has spelt out his top 6 Priorities. Obviously Europe is there, he has to head off UKIP. Immigration is there, again to deal with UKIP and expose Labour. The last obvious subject has to be the NHS, he has to spike Labour’s guns. The strange thing is, none of these are in his top 6 priorities! What is going on? Surely Cameron is not running scared on immigration? Perhaps he is. There was an absolute promise to reduce immigration to “tens of thousands” in the life of this parliament. Failed, abysmally. How about Europe? There is Cameron’s pledge to renegotiate the treaty and have an in and out referendum in 2017. So, why, if he is on solid ground here is he risking the wrath of UKIP, the voters, and his right wingers? Perhaps he is facing up the reality that he can not deliver. Our 20 odd (the right wingers say very odd) European partners do not want to renegotiate anything. He can not deliver a referendum that he can win. Better to run away David, oh, you are. How about the NHS? Cameron uses the NHS, believes in the NHS. However, it is failing. After 5 years of Cameron’s tender loving care it is in intensive care. A&E is a nightmare. The problem is that people insist on getting ill. Worse still, they want to be made better. Just how unreasonable is that? Although he did not set it up, the first hospital to be privatised has just failed. The NHS is a poisoned pill for Cameron. So, what is on Cameron’s list? The deficit. (Cameron has seen it grow, not shrink) Jobs. (All those zero hour contracts) Taxes. (He has made good progress here, as long as you are one of his millionaire friends) Education. (We are still slipping down the league tables) Housing. (Does even Cameron believe that the bedroom tax was a good idea?) And retirement (Hang on a second, was it just today when it was announced that the much vaunted level state pension was exposed to be a sham? Yes it would). Sometimes you almost need to feel sorry for the Boy Cameron, almost.
Can a Privatised NHS Work?
The first NHS Hospital to be taken over by a Private Company Fails. Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire was privatised in 2012 although the process started in 2009 under the last Labour government. The agreement was that Circle would take over the hospital from the NHS and any profits above £5m would be returned to the NHS. The trouble is that that there were no profits, just losses. Admittedly, the Losses started at £10m in 2012 and fell to £1.5m in March 2013. However, the NHS is not something that can be made to comply to “the market”. People get sick at odd times, mainly during the winter. Just because more people are ill does not mean that prices go up. The laws of capitalism do not apply. As a capitalist you can cut costs, reduce wages, reduce the number of jobs etc. but that does not help when the CQC ( Care Quality Commission) are on your back and the numbers going to A&E are going through the roof. All you can do is to suck it up – or ditch the whole thing, as Circle has decided to do. As much as I hated the idea of any company running a hospital I can not but feel a bit of sympathy, not much but some, for Circle. They take on a proposition that looks like it will make a profit only to find that the Tories, their natural partners in crime (it’s an expression, not a judgement!) start cutting the funding…. On top of that the impending CQC report would have criticised the standard of health care demanding better service levels. That is so unfair. Circle says that its funding has been cut by 10%. It is unreasonable to expect any organisation faced with increased demand to be able to cope with reduced funding at this level. Unless it is the NHS, of course. Circle can hand back the keys. The NHS is just told to do more with less by this heartless and BUPA insured government. (You don’t really think that the boy Cameron uses the NHS, unless it makes a good story n the press do you? So, when can the private sector run the NHS successfully? It is quite simple, Never.
Politics – The Papers React to the News of the Economy and its Current Woes
Osborne “Savaged” over his handling of the economy Poor old George. There he was a few short weeks ago boasting that under his management we had the fastest growing economy in the developed world. Even if it was true then it is not now and the papers have told him so. The guardian talked of a blow to the Tories’ strategy of using a resurgent economy as the “springboard” for the general election campaign. It said “Data from the [Office for National Statistics] added spice to the political battle over economic competence when it said gross domestic product per head – one measure of living standards – was rising but the 0.6% increase in the third quarter still left the measure 1.8% below its pre-recession peak.” Even the Telegraph got in on the act pointing out that net disposable income was static including a pointed cartoon at George’s expense. It then went on to blame those pesky Europeans (nothing changes). The Daily Mirror spoke to David Blanchflower, who was an economist at the Bank of England. He said that the results on the economy may George “look like a buffoon”. The savaging came from Danny Alexander the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury. He complained that £60bn of the spending cuts demanded by George are unnecessary, some of us would argue that they are ideology driven. He said “The Tory agenda to keep reducing public spending beyond what is necessary would result in the wilful destruction of important parts of our public services. That is not appropriate or right for this country.” What happens when your claim to be the only party that can run the economy falls apart?
Politics – The Tory Party at War
The Tory Party may not be at war but tensions are running high! The race to be Cameron’s successor seems to be ramping up inside the Tory Party. We all know that Boris (the public buffoon who is really calculating and determined) is in the race. So is The Chancellor George Osborne (formally Gideon Oliver Osborne – the Gideon did not have the common touch. Frankly George, it would take more than a name change). Now, Theresa May is also beginning to make waves, quite big ones actually. She has been told to get a grip of her aides who are beginning to resemble the packs of aides that surrounded Blair and Brown. Two of them refused to canvass during the campaign for Rochester and Strood. For that Nick Timothy and Stephen Parkinson were suspended from the list of approved Tory Party parliamentary candidates. They said that they could not campaign as it was against the rules for aides to undertake party political work. Both Grant Shapps, the Tory Party chairman and Cameron himself disagreed. May went to bat for her underlings, but to no avail. Rumour has it that some members of the Tory Parliamentary Party are accusing her of not being a team player. Not the sharpest knives in the drawer are they? She never has been. The question of Timothy and Parkinson rumbles on, they will be admitted back into the Tory Party fold if they agree to campaign, so far they have not done so. Obviously they still have her support. The Sunday Times (21/12/14) talked of May starting a war against other ministers when she announced that Universities would have to ensure that foreign students would have to leave the country once their studies have finished. That sort of thing always plays well with the rabid right of the Tory Party, or the nasty party as May called it some years ago. The problem about students over staying has been dealt with. The bogus colleges that was a one way ticket into this country have been closed. The bogus student problem is over. What May is talking about here are those students that been to real universities and colleges, the sort of people who would help this country by using their qualifications here, not abroad. Not surprisingly her plan will be opposed by The Treasury and The department for Business, Innovation and Skills. They believe that Britain could only benefit if highly skilled overseas graduates are allowed to enter the UK job market after completing their degrees. Addendum. An interesting comment from the Daily Mail Online about the war in the Tory Party. Number Ten is said to be fed up of criticism of what they see as incompetence in David Cameron’s political operation from May’s camp Chancellor George Osborne is said to have been concerned by a surge in support for Mrs May among party activists, among whom she is now the clear favourite to succeed Mr Cameron, though sources insisted he had played no role in the suspension of Mr Timothy and Mr Parkinson. One of the Home Secretary’s supporters was yesterday quoted as saying: ‘Osborne is obsessed with having spies everywhere so he can either succeed Cameron or be kingmaker. Theresa has every right to protect her own interests. ‘That is not disloyalty and she will not be intimidated by anyone in Downing Street.’ Tory Party backbencher Nadine Dorries said: ‘The man pulling the strings is Osborne, not Cameron. ‘Osborne is desperate to ensure he has enough Tory Party MPs in place to vote him on to the shortlist of two, which is put before members to choose the next leader, should there be a contest in 2015. Those two are likely to be Boris Johnson and Theresa May.’ She added: ‘If Nick and Stephen become MPs that is two more votes for Theresa and two fewer for George. Theresa has had a lot to put up with. The more popular she is among party members, the nastier it becomes in Westminster.’ Mrs May has repeatedly stressed her loyalty to Mr Cameron and personal relations between the two remain reasonable, though she has never been part of his inner circle. However, the Home Secretary, dubbed ‘Britain’s Angela Merkel’ by allies, is thought to regard Mr Johnson as a ‘faintly ridiculous’ figure and would run against him if the Tory Party loses in May and Mr Cameron is forced to quit. So she thinks that the Tory Party might lose in May?
Phil’s British Heart Foundation Donation – you know it makes sense
