Cut it out

David Cameron promised a new kind of politics - less partisan, agreeing with his opponents when possible, not making cheap points.

So what, then is his new NHS campaign to stop the cuts all about?

Here are three objections:

First, the Labour Party has not cut the NHS. This is a simple, but fairly fundamental, problem with the campaign.

Second, the petition you are asked to sign is not a petition against cuts. This is what it says:

We, the undersigned, call on Gordon Brown to stop his mismanagement of the NHS, which has resulted in deficits approaching £1,277,000,000; 20,000 job losses in NHS hospitals; service cutbacks; and left many of our trainee doctors and nurses out of work. We want NHS money to go where it is needed; local people put in charge of local NHS services; and short-sighted closures replaced with long-term measures that improve care for patients.

So the petition does not actually call for a reversal in so-called cuts. This discrepancy between the campaign slogan and the small print is highly questionable.

Third, people can understand points one and two because they are not idiots.

Comments

[The Morningstar]

I hadn't seen the campaign but if they are talking about cuts they probably mean in the services. More and more money goes in for less and less work carried out, New Labour is cutting staff and services by mismanagement of the NHS.

[Alex R]

I'm glad you've pointed this out. I (actually a tory) am so bored of hearing tory shadows attack the government for massive failures (e.g. pension raid, NHS cuts, list is endless etc) but refuse to pledge to do anything about it.

George Obsorne stands up and says that Brown's £5bn a year raid on pension funds will do untold damage to pensioners for years to come. Will he pledge to reverse it? Of course not, he couldn't possibly write the 2010 budget in 2006.