Do you ever want to grab a whole country by the scruff of the neck and shout "WAKE UP!!!"
I do. I do right now.
David Cameron is busy charging round the country (actually not this country, he mostly charges round Norway) telling everyone the Conservative Party has changed.
He's doing what the Labour Party did so succesfully in the mid-1990s, neutralising his negatives. He knows nobody will really ever trust the Conservatives on health and education, but he's just trying to reassure people that they aren't going to wade in their with a big Tory axe and smash the NHS up, so it's safe(ish) to vote Tory.
Well, Pickles is here to tell you it ain't. In 1982 Margaret Thatcher said that the NHS is:
"Safe with us"
A year later Neil Kinnock said:
"If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday– - I warn you not to be ordinary - I warn you not to be young - I warn you not to fall ill - I warn you not to get old."
Unfortunately Margaret Thatcher won on Thursday. And then another Thursday. In 1997 nearly 1.2 million people were on an NHS waiting list. Today nobody (or near as dammit) waits longer than 6 months.
So, when at some point in the next few months or years David Cameron tries to claim that the NHS is safe with the Conservatives, or when George Osborne claims he can't promise tax cuts because of the economic conditions (is that the economic conditions which have seen more than 50 quarters of consecutive growth, the best ever?) and we know he means that it's because he doesn't think public service cuts will wash in the manifesto and they'll have to be done by stealth. I warn you, don't be taken in.
For much as the pledges on tax that Labour made have been kept, Labour has also found ways and means to pay for better public services. That's because that's what Labour is about. Just as the Tories will find ways to do the opposite.
Spending on the NHS is going up more than 8% a year at the moment, in real terms. That's nearly triple the annual increase under the Tories. Health spending will have doubled - in real terms. All of this talk of "where's the money gone" is so much disingenuous twaddle. Some of the money has gone to improving the pay and conditions of staff (good thing). Some of the money has gone to reduce waiting lists (remember the pledge to take 100,000 off the waiting lists - done. five times. By 2004.) Some of it has gone on better cancer care and heart treatment, cutting deaths by thousands. Some of it has gone on making sure that every patient now has the choice of hospital, a guaranteed GP appointment within 48 hours, and a maximum 4 hour wait in accident and emergency. I went to a drop in centre at an A&E department a few months ago. I was in and out in 45 minutes. I did the same 6 years ago - it took 7 hours.
But more importantly, much of the money hasn't been spent yet. The big increases are scheduled for the 2006,7 & 8 budgets. That's the whacking great 8% plus per year ones. This is good money after good. Today nobody waits more than 6 months (there were hundreds of thousands of people waiting over 18 months only 8 years ago). By 2008 nobody will wait longer than 18 weeks.
We used to say that long waits and "rationing" in the NHS were inevitable. We used to say that the model was permanently broken.
We used to have a Flu crisis every winter with the elderly sleeping on trollies in corridors. We used to have people living for years without a hip replacement on the NHS they'd paid for in their taxes and National Insurance.
I'm proud of what this government is doing for the NHS. You can shout about job cuts in some trusts, about MRSA, about lots of things that are really unfortunate and regrettable that have happened in the NHS in 10 years. I've got to say, in an organisation that employs over a million people, we just need to remember that some (not all) of the people who raise their heckles at these issues have got an agenda. It's one based on persuading people that the NHS is permanently broken and that their money is being wasted.
So that's why they're moaning about the lack of results from the investment when the results are clear, and the investment has hardly gone in.
I say don't listed to them. And I say remember, that in 1982 Margaret Thatcher told us that the NHS was safe with her. And remember that when smarmy Cameron tries to tell you it's safe to vote Conservative again.
David Cameron is busy charging round the country (actually not this country, he mostly charges round Norway) telling everyone the Conservative Party has changed.
He's doing what the Labour Party did so succesfully in the mid-1990s, neutralising his negatives. He knows nobody will really ever trust the Conservatives on health and education, but he's just trying to reassure people that they aren't going to wade in their with a big Tory axe and smash the NHS up, so it's safe(ish) to vote Tory.
Well, Pickles is here to tell you it ain't. In 1982 Margaret Thatcher said that the NHS is:
"Safe with us"
A year later Neil Kinnock said:
"If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday– - I warn you not to be ordinary - I warn you not to be young - I warn you not to fall ill - I warn you not to get old."
Unfortunately Margaret Thatcher won on Thursday. And then another Thursday. In 1997 nearly 1.2 million people were on an NHS waiting list. Today nobody (or near as dammit) waits longer than 6 months.
So, when at some point in the next few months or years David Cameron tries to claim that the NHS is safe with the Conservatives, or when George Osborne claims he can't promise tax cuts because of the economic conditions (is that the economic conditions which have seen more than 50 quarters of consecutive growth, the best ever?) and we know he means that it's because he doesn't think public service cuts will wash in the manifesto and they'll have to be done by stealth. I warn you, don't be taken in.
For much as the pledges on tax that Labour made have been kept, Labour has also found ways and means to pay for better public services. That's because that's what Labour is about. Just as the Tories will find ways to do the opposite.
Spending on the NHS is going up more than 8% a year at the moment, in real terms. That's nearly triple the annual increase under the Tories. Health spending will have doubled - in real terms. All of this talk of "where's the money gone" is so much disingenuous twaddle. Some of the money has gone to improving the pay and conditions of staff (good thing). Some of the money has gone to reduce waiting lists (remember the pledge to take 100,000 off the waiting lists - done. five times. By 2004.) Some of it has gone on better cancer care and heart treatment, cutting deaths by thousands. Some of it has gone on making sure that every patient now has the choice of hospital, a guaranteed GP appointment within 48 hours, and a maximum 4 hour wait in accident and emergency. I went to a drop in centre at an A&E department a few months ago. I was in and out in 45 minutes. I did the same 6 years ago - it took 7 hours.
But more importantly, much of the money hasn't been spent yet. The big increases are scheduled for the 2006,7 & 8 budgets. That's the whacking great 8% plus per year ones. This is good money after good. Today nobody waits more than 6 months (there were hundreds of thousands of people waiting over 18 months only 8 years ago). By 2008 nobody will wait longer than 18 weeks.
We used to say that long waits and "rationing" in the NHS were inevitable. We used to say that the model was permanently broken.
We used to have a Flu crisis every winter with the elderly sleeping on trollies in corridors. We used to have people living for years without a hip replacement on the NHS they'd paid for in their taxes and National Insurance.
I'm proud of what this government is doing for the NHS. You can shout about job cuts in some trusts, about MRSA, about lots of things that are really unfortunate and regrettable that have happened in the NHS in 10 years. I've got to say, in an organisation that employs over a million people, we just need to remember that some (not all) of the people who raise their heckles at these issues have got an agenda. It's one based on persuading people that the NHS is permanently broken and that their money is being wasted.
So that's why they're moaning about the lack of results from the investment when the results are clear, and the investment has hardly gone in.
I say don't listed to them. And I say remember, that in 1982 Margaret Thatcher told us that the NHS was safe with her. And remember that when smarmy Cameron tries to tell you it's safe to vote Conservative again.
posted by Pickles @ 4:57 am
1 Comments:
At 5:12 pm,
Anonymous said…
I agree with much of what you say but surely the challenge is to sell what we have achieved to the public much better than we have done thus far. When the party leadership continues to go on about reform and inefficiencies in the public services doesn't this play into the hands of the tories? Also is there not a danger that the reforms are taking place too quickly and thus creating many bad headlines which far outweigh the good that has been done? The new performance by results regime may or may not result in better healthcare in the long term (I have my doubts) but the problems they are creating in the short term are damaging public perception of our policies and leading to services being cut back in some areas. Recent polls on issues show we have a much diminished lead over the conservatives in both health and education. To get back our lead we much sell our achievements and rebuild faith in the public sector, and pursue reforms in a much more tentative manner testing them out to see what works and what doesnt.
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