NHS Review - The Tories and Lib Dems vs Everybody Else

Quite funny looking through the list of responses to Dr. Darzi’s review of the NHS today.

The praise has been almost unanimous from the NGO’s, although some of them are tentative (i.e. ‘good, but it needs to be implemented before we celebrate), even the CGI supports it.

So it’s quite funny seeing the Lib Dems and the Tories trying their best to discredit it when everyone else has welcomed it.

The best quote is from Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Health Spokesman, who claims it ’says nothing’ about the issues surrounding mental health, which is funny because it goes precisely against the views of Paul Farmer who is the Chief Executive of Mind, who says ‘Mental health has finally been given the priority it deserves in this review’.

Better luck next time, Norman!

Vote Blue, Go Green, Buy shares in oil companies dealing in Zimbabwe

I’d love if it if what is now considered a classic piece of political catchphrasing became a rod for David Cameron’s back, but I don’t see it happening. The tide is with the Tories now and nothing they seem to get caught up in damages them the same way it damages Labour.

However I must admit I was surprised by the number of MP’s announced this weekend in the Independent on Sunday to having shares in BP and Shell. Yes, six out of however many isn’t much, but for a party that has basically detoxified itself by being ‘green’ to have members of the front bench with large shares (large by the means of a normal person) in companies like Shell - that have scorched the earth in pursuit of oil, on top of still dealing with Zimbabwe at the height of criticism levelled at the regime there - seems insane.

Why are you so quiet now, John Major, when you could come out against Mugabe’s knighthood?

In the past year ex-PM John Major has been speaking a few times to the press, mostly to bash Gordon Brown and the government and try whitewash his own time as PM.

He lists his favourtie ‘acheivements’ in power as setting the path for economic growth and his word in Northern Ireland. As far as I’m aware he pumped billions into propping up the pound in the ERM, before we got chucked out and interest rates and inflation were in double figures (once you hit the bottom, the only way to go is up - not the best theory for setting out a path to economic growth) and in NI he messed up anyway, according to someone involved in the peace process.

So it’s hardly a stunning record. Recently he came out against 42 days, citing the IRA as examples of terrorism that didn’t need 42 days. Without wishing, or needing, to bring up internment, it showed a man sadly out of touch with the 21st century and the demands of keeping apace with terrorism.

Cameron’s latest attack on Brown is full of pathetic nonsense

Given how many things Cameron could focus on with the government, it never fails to annoy the hell out of me when he starts coming up with a load of half baked nonsense.

Today Gordon Brown is giving a major policy speech on social mobility. Now, social mobility is known to have decline massively from the late 70s onwards when the Tories came to power. A decade of Labour throwing money at the problem hasn’t reversed the trend, however it has slowed and more or less stopped. That’s according to independent research though I freely admit I have no idea who said it, it’s become one of those ‘facts’ that gets bandied about.

As much as we’d like to see Boris sink, I think his adviser is more an idiot than a racist.

Again and again we see things nowadays where comments will be willfully interpreted as proof of someones racism or sexism when nothing of the sort was intended. The other day is was Andy Burnham taking the piss out of David Davis and Shami Chakrabati, now it’s an advisor of Boris Johnson being pestered about something someone else had written to the extent of ‘if Boris becomes Mayor, black people will emigrate from London’, and giving a curt reply along the lines of ‘well let them if they don’t like it’.

Now I understand that it may not have been the most sensitive thing to say, but I see no actual evidence of racism in this comment. It’s obviously more that the guy is being asked a stupid question and is batting it aside with disdane.

Why can’t Brown speak properly?

Seriously, listen to this. About six minutes in he tries to say the word ‘kilometre’ and stumbles to the point where he has to stop himself and start over. How hard is it to say kilometre? I mean, I understand some words, foreign names and the like, but kilometre is such a normal word.

I’ve always assumed it’s because he has to concentrate on subdueing his Scottish accent so much he mangles words. Any other theories?

Burnham’s comments are a storm in a reactionary teacup

Burnham’s main mistake to me, when making a joke about David Davis having ‘hand-wringing, heart melting’ late night phone calls to Liberty leader Shami Chakrabati, is to poke fun at two such reactionary hyperbole loving people like David Davis and Shami Chakrabati.

A list of Cameron’s ‘dithering’

Seeing as it’s Gordon Brown who gets the dithering charge flung at him whenever he does anything, I thought I’d mention some of the things Cameron has dithered about recently.

Another week, another ‘Better than expected’ from Brown

Yet another PMQs where Brown hasn’t been mauled, and commentators come away going ‘Hmm, he was better than usual there’. Except, of course, they are saying this every week now, at least for the past month.

Today Andrew Sparrow felt both leaders were below par, but Ben Brogan from the Mail says Brown did better than expected, and Andrew Grice from the Indy actually proclaimed it a Brown victory (and I’d be inclined to agree frankly).

At what point we’ll start expecting this as a minimum from Brown I don’t know. I guess given that some weeks he can in all honestly be quite dreadful, that will be expected and then anything above that (which happens about 80-90% of the time now) will be viewed as a bonus.

The problem is that PMQs really is all about the morale of your team, and if everyone goes in expecting poor performances, it will be that much harder to lift expectations and moral with a good performance. Hopefully Brown can keep up the quality of his recent good performances and we can see a bit more confidence in his MPs.

However to do so they’ll probably have to ignore the poll ratings for the next couple of years.

My letter to David Davis via DD For Freedom website

Hello David (or Team David),

Good luck in your campaign but I do have a few questions:

Why does 42 day detention go against the Magna Carta but 28 day detention (typo! should read ‘doesn’t’ here), which you voted for?

Isn’t the death penalty an infringement on civil liberties?

If you are against ID cards, why did you vote for them in 2004?

What happened between following the Tory whip on ID cards in 2004 and resigning now in 2008 to change your mind so extremely?

Why were you against the repeal of Section 28 if you’re such a defender of Liberty?

Why did you vote against the equalisation of the age of consent for gay people?

Why did you vote to lower the abortion limit, which would infringe on the womans right to control her own body?

Why are you on record not asking for a reduction of CCTV, but saying it should be brought up to ‘evidential standard’?

I look forward to hearing from you as I believe these are the serious issues you have to face if you want to lay claim to being a true libertarian.

Many thanks,