Back you or Sack You? Oh Dave, we will.

So today, the seller of snake oils, wee Davie-boy Cameron will swoop in and save the NHS.

This is fantastically good news for lefties whichever way you look at it.

"David Cameron will today invite the public to vote against him at the next general election if he fails to keep his promises to protect the National Health Service." (sorry, but snigger - who told him to say that?)

He will offer five personal guarantees: "that the Government will not endanger universal coverage; will not break up or hinder efficient and integrated care; will keep waiting times low; will increase spending on the NHS; and will not "sell-off" the NHS to create a US-style private system, but will ensure competition benefits patients."


The elusive Mr Healey, like a rabbit out of a trap, points out that Mr Cameron is already breaking all five of his "guarantees"


Study after study shows that it's very unlikely that spending will in fact increase in real terms, though he may just manage that one by a whisker. Waiting times are as likely to "stay low" now that targets have been scrapped as I am to find a miracle cure - possible, but history proves unlikely. 


Of course, they are all very woolly. He doesn't really say anything at all. Kind of "The NHS will be safe with us" in full sentences. 


Come 2015, he'll hope the spinners can drag the pledges to fit reality. But, as I've pointed out over and over,this is not like any other issue. He can't stand up today, full of pledgery and hope the public give him leeway when an election lumbers into view.


So that's why it's such good news for lefties - especially as with his usual strategy blind spot he tells us to vote him out if he fails. 


Either he does what he says, keeps waiting lists low, doesn't privatise, keeps funding up etc and we're all delighted. The most important policy area will be safeguarded and Cameron will find no amount of fudgery will get him off the hook. 


OR he fails miserably and the public take him at his word, kick him out and never trust the Tories with the NHS again. 


Either way, it's an extraordinary gamble to take. 


For instance, "The government will not endanger universal coverage". Whatever he means by this, I think the public will take this to mean no postcode lottery. He may find it difficult to remind them that it meant "a national services free at the point of use" 


When he says he will "not "sell-off" the NHS to create a US-style private system, but will ensure competition benefits patients." Just how much "competition" will the public allow him? They still hear privatisation instead of the word competition. As they should.


So I'm sorry if I seem to write about this as a kind of amused bystander, sorry if I'm a little flippant, but after all the policies I think so disgusting, all the economic horror stories, all the damage his government is about to inflict, it's the NHS - the one thing he should never have gone near - that looks as though it will finish him off. 


Now it all comes down to pledgery V fudgery and Cameron's record on the second is rather better than the first. 




   

Clegg in "Tories Lie" Shocker!!

More later, but one thing that occurs to me this morning is that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems just can't be as naive as they seem. Surely. Can they?

This morning the airwaves are jammed with Lib Dems telling tales to teacher. "He stole my referendum" "He fibbed" "He broke my coalition"

Can they honestly be surprised to find that Conservatives might lie sometimes? That Tories might sell their granny for an archaic voting system that gives them an unfair advantage? It's like a gazelle complaining that a lion ate him. Or bread reacting with astonishment at being made into a sandwich.

No-one else is surprised. No-one. Not even Conservatives. They did what they had to do and won the referendum. No hard feelings, back to business. OK, the campaign was a bit dirty, they were economical with the truth, but it's not like Lib Dems know nothing of that at local level. In my area and many others they run the dirtiest, nastiest election campaigns known to man.

We are told that "the bonhomie of the rose garden has gone". The only thing that astonishes people in the real world is that it was ever allowed to flourish so unquestioningly in the first place.

Do any of you remember that documentary - 5 Days that Changed Britain? I clearly remember Clegg saying that he phoned a friend during coalition negotiations who also knew Cameron well. "Can I trust this guy?" He asked. I shouted back "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" at the TV screen. "He's a Tory!! He's lied in every single speech he's made during the election campaign and before. He's like a tiger played by Leslie Phillips"

I honestly thought that Clegg must know it too, but had chosen to ignore it for the deputy PM job and a cabinet full of ministers. The sense of genuine outrage Lib Dems are expressing this morning makes me wonder if Clegg is, after all, the most naive politician of all time.?

The NHS - It's a jungle out there Cameron

As I said on this blog back in February and before, the NHS is not an animal Prime Ministers ought to underestimate:

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2011/02/nhs-camerons-albatross.html

In policy terms, the NHS is a lion, snoozing in the midday sun. It might look sleepy, it might seem unconcerned. You might be foolish enough to believe that it is cumbersome - lazy even, but you wake it at your peril. You won't win. Politicians never have been and never will be a match for NHS-lions. If you anger it or make it lame, you won't survive. It will gobble you up and spit you out, adding more politician bones to the sun-bleached pile of decades. 

It's been clear for some time that Lansley is a "Dead man Walking." It was only ever a matter of time before Cameron would have to step in with his earnest promises and hypnotic snake-eyes, reassssssuring us that all is sssssafe. The BMA, the RCN, GPs, patients and charities are all against his plans, with the BMA coming a hair away from a vote of no confidence in Lansley last month. 

Even the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil  monkeys of Clegg, Alexander and Huhne were urged by their conference to stop chattering amongst themselves and step up to protect the King.

According to the Independent this morning, next week, Cameron will announce a "pause" of up to three months in the progress of the bill through parliament. This will be :

"to allow for more time to reassure clinicians, patients and coalition MPs."

Take three months Mr Cameron, take three years if you will. When it comes to the NHS, we can sniff out rotten flesh at 100 paces. We are told that these plans took Lansley up to 8 years to put together. Three months won't persuade us to like them any more. The press-vultures are circling, ready to pick your policy bones clean - the longer you take, the more deadly they become. 

When even wily old crocs like Tebbitt and Owen step in to criticise their own, it's time to go back to the lodge and search out other prey. 

Law of the jungle Mr Cameron; survival of the fittest. If only you'd left the beast alone; protected it as you promised, it would have have no cause to gobble you up. As it is, it will be feasting on political capital for years.