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The politicos have gone home. Take a breath.
High spots?
Two…
...Braverman’s Britain is likely to get us all on a plane to Rwanda...
... and...
.. the protester who proved the ‘glitter theory’; you can sprinkle it on a cow pat and it’s still a cowpat… sprinkle it on a speaker, doesn’t make them a leader.
Oh, and…
... Mrs Sunak seems a nice lady and don't try interrupting Rachel Reeves… she looks well capable of delivering a right-hook.
The low point; thinking paying knackered front-line people to work longer hours was worth clapping, never mind doing.
As for the rest… I can’t remember.
I’ve been ‘doing’ party conferences since I was in my mid 20’s, now I’m heading for my late 70’s they all blur into ...
... the speech writer’s lexicon;
… better, brighter, faster, investment, more, quicker, ordinary-people, opportunity, security, justice, nation, growth, productivity, innovation, accountability, crisis, reform, immigration, fairness, climate, rights, local, democracy, equality, blah… blah.
Rearrange into…
“… a better, brighter future. More investment, to reach ordinary people, quicker. Creating opportunity, greater security and justice. Make the nation grow, through innovation and productivity. Fix the crisis in our...
[insert; schools/hosptials/ courts/railways/etc]
... with reform. Fairness in immigration. Climate change is vital but we will respect rights, make decisions locally, giving back democracy with equality for all….blah… blah”
Stand back, smile a glittering smile, bathed in spotlights, admiration and bewilderment.
Same old problems, same old promises, same old cow-pats.
The more dangerous politicians link problems and claim one is the solution for the other.
For example, Silly Boy Streeting says the inequity in the non-dom tax system will solve problems in the NHS. Stop non-doms escaping UK tax and make the top 500 give us £6m a year… pass it to the NHS.
… more likely non-doms will buy Rwanda, clear-off and we'll never see them again.
Bully-Boy had no ideas. Spoke for 15 minutes, denounced striking doctors as militants and dodged them… exiting through a back door.
The NHS? No one really knows what to do.
Politicians are all under the Westminister ether of ‘doing’. When what’s really needed is a period of calm. A period of political inactivity. Something politicians are hard-wired not to do… nothing.
They can’t figure out that ‘doing something’ might actually mean ‘doing nothing’.
Not long ago, the revered Commonwealth Fund, rated our NHS as the top healthcare system in the world. What happened?
Austerity, Brexit, Covid, chaotic government happened.
Funding didn’t happen. The ten fallow years between the end of the world banking-crisis and the beginning of Covid; lack of investment, plundering capital to use as revenue… cuts to training, maintenance, innovation, building, kit-n-caboodle… each one a chicken that’s now come home to roost.
Rational politics would understand that.
Rational policy makers would recognise that.
Instead we have to: ‘do, reforms to the NHS’; do-privatisation. ‘Doing’ by, turning it upside down, shaking it.
Rational thinking says;
Take taxes from your left-hand pocket and insurance premiums from your right… it’s still your trousers… you still have to pay.
Privatisation… Circle eventually paid £5m to get out of their contract to run a hospital, Virgin have disappeared, Serco, Babylon and umpteen others have walked.
PFI turned into a financial death-trap. This summer, Centene was looking to dump nearly 60 GP practices, and exit the NHS.
Change?
A rational policy maker would start with three things, by…
- looking around the world for what works.
- Asking, what went wrong, the root-cause.
- Thinking, what policy will be working a generation from now.
The answer comes back to the NHS and funding it consistently...
... because the fundamental business model; free at the point of use, funded by progressive taxation… works and…
… has endured Brexit, Covid and austerity. The lunatic that was Lansley, Blair’s markets, Cameron’s neglect, Thatcher’s break-up…
… the NHS is still here. It’s designed for resilience. Invest in it, it works.
There is a terrific new report from the 99% Organisation;
‘The Rational Policy Maker’s Guide to the NHS’.
In’s and out's, nooks and crannies, affordability, structure, results, benchmarking… a cornucopia of graphs, diagrams, FAQ’s and
...explodes the myths;
- no other country has a similar system,
- The NHS is unaffordable,
- a different way of paying would work better…
… all de-bunked in this masterwork of facts and figures.
Read this report, skim it, keep it by you, refer to it, send it to your MP, nail it on the front door of Number 10, glue it to the pavement outside the DH, dangle it from a motorway bridge, turn the locks on every NHS boardroom until they've all read it and can recite it by heart.
It’s truly excellent and comes complete with sparkle and glitter.
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