The You Gov poll today shows that few people trust the Tories with the running of the NHS - not a great result for Cameron who spent most of his days in opposition trying to persuade the public that the Tories could now be trusted to look after our health service. He may have persuaded some but the Tory failure to win a majority in May 2010, tell us that he could not persuade everyone.
There was no mention of the current NHS Bill in the Tory manifesto or in the Coalition agreement but within weeks of Cameron moving into Number 10, Lansley was bringing out a detailed document outlining major changes to the NHS.
No surprise to many of us, for all Cameron's attempts the Tories have never been great supporters of the NHS - In the 1940s, the Tories voted against the NHS. Not once, but on the 1st, the 2nd, and 3rd reading of the bill. The Tories FULLY opposed the NHS.
Now some Tories are calling for the NHS Bill to be dropped, this is not because they love the NHS but they see the bill as political suicide, so we have ConservativeHome plus three Tory Ministers calling for the bill to be dropped. Even here in Ipswich, leading Tory Gavin Maclure has called for the bill to be dropped but if you read his comments you can see he has little respect for those who work in the health service, his view on Doctors: "I think GPs are the worst people to be given more power over my health: they are generally rude, arrogant and many are patently incompetent" and he does not care much for our nurses either: "is better performance management of nurses who leave our elderly grandmothers to wallow in their own faeces, and thirsty because they don't provide drinking water"
Now our MP, Ben Gummer has been very silent about the NHS Bill, surprising as when he was trying to be elected he seemed to be at the hospital every other week and you just had to mention the words 'Heath Road' and he would have a comment in the Evening Star. So what does Ben think about the bill? Does he have the same opinion of Doctors and Nurses as his friend Gavin Maclure has?
Should he not tell the Ipswich public why he is supporting the NHS Bill?
Now the local Lib Dems have also been silent, even though one of their leading members is a local Doctor. Daisy Cooper a leading Suffolk Lib Dem has shown her support for the bill to be dropped on twitter but what does she think of her Lib Dem MP's and Ministers? It is three Tory Ministers who are calling for the bill to be dropped, the Lib Dem Ministers remain silent. Simon Hughes has called for Andrew Lansley to be sacked - but only AFTER he has got the bill through.
So it seems the public are right the NHS is not safe under a Tory Government, even one that is propped up by Lib Dems
All I can ask is that you sign the 'Drop the Bill' petition here.
1 comment:
Alasdair, I think you'll find there are a lot of Lib Dems who are very unhappy about NHS reforms. But don't forget that Labour introduced PFI and allowed private companies to bid for various elements of NHS services, such as cleaning.
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