NHS and the Lib Dems

OK, so it looks as though Huhne won’t resign, so my prediction was wrong. The thing is, he should have done. That would have sent a much stronger message than a post election disaster wringing of hands. The Liberal Democrats’ sudden discovery of a backbone may look just a tad suspicious but I am not sure whether people will see through it.
The strange circumstance of a government consulting after a policy is announced instead of during its development., as is the case with the NHS reforms, has been shown to be mightily flawed. But why were the Liberal Democrats at the back of the queue when it came to voicing opposition ? They were beaten to it by the BMA, the nursing unions and now stand just behind the Royal College of General Practitioners. I suppose the Liberal Democrats have to decide whether they are part of the government or the opposition, albeit an internal opposition.
But all the politics is really secondary to the fears we must now have for the NHS. The now dead reforms were partly designed to reduce NHS spending without threatening front line services. Deprived of this vehicle for expenditure cuts, the NHS is now vulnerable to more traditional ways of reducing spending - the reduction in so-called ‘non-essential’ services. We have seen in the past what that can mean. The same is true in education and policing. It really never happens that a proper differentiation is made between what matters to people and what doesn’t when it comes to cuts. Liberal Democrats must, therefore, double their vigilance. Come to think of it, the idea of permanent internal opposition is a attractive one. Have the Lib Dems got the necessary gumption ? No sign of it yet.
Now Scotland is another matter....... more to come.


http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Colleges/Government---Politics.aspx?mRef=CNM01.