So I did!
The first tab showed:
Lansley's NHS bill is unnecessary, incomprehensible and possibly illegal. Other than that it's great.
It was a blog post on the Telegraph site written by Tom Chivers. He commented on the growing opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill from an increasing number of health professionals. These include general practitioners and nurses.
The post went on to comment:
What's really weird about it, though, is that no one seems to know what Lansley is doing, why he is doing it, and whether what he has done so far is even legal.
...
But let's imagine, then, that only Mr Lansley can understand the bill, but that nonetheless it is well designed to achieve what it is meant to achieve. What precisely is it meant to achieve?
Tom Chivers continued:
Mark Pearson, head of health at the OECD, said: "The UK is one of the best performers in the world. But outcomes are not what you expect because there is a big reform every five years. We calculate that each reform costs two years of improvements in quality. No country reforms its health service as frequently as the UK." Essentially, it ain't broke, yet we keep fixing it. Pearson again: "The NHS is so central to the political process that every politician has to promise to improve the NHS. But there's no big reform that will improve it. Better to let it bed down and tinker rather than wondering about more or less competition. It is less the type of system that counts, but rather how it is managed."
Well! We already knew that the NHS was considered one of the best health services in the world - but, of course, 'Silly Ass' Lansley just had to know better, didn't he? He even convinced 'Boy David' Cameron that reforming the NHS would be the great flagship legislation of Cameron's Coalition Government!
Tom Chivers and several others don't quite see it that way:
Maybe Mr Lansley knows precisely what he is doing and the legal basis for doing it. But the fact remains that the NHS is not in dire need of fixing, and that fixing in general does more harm than good. It's also a strange political decision: as the doctor and journalist Ben Goldacre tweeted recently, "Destroying the NHS is the one thing almost everyone, regardless of affiliation, fears about a Tory government, and they're doing it. Very odd choice. The NHS will ruin the Tories." Hopefully, before they ruin the NHS.http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100134154/lansleys-nhs-bill-is-unnecessary-incomprehensible-and-possibly-illegal-other-than-that-its-great/
In his blog, Chivers refers to an article in the BMJ by Martin McKee, professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I decided to take a closer look at this. I found the following headline:
Does anyone understand the government’s NHS reforms, asks senior professor
If a professor of public health doesn't understand it - no wonder Arturo and I are befuddled by it! Not only is Professor Martin McKee an academic, he has "25 years of experience researching health systems, including writing over 30 books and 500 academic papers." (http://www.bmj.com/press-releases/2012/01/17/does-anyone-understand-government%E2%80%99s-nhs-reforms-asks-senior-professor)
In the article, Professor McKee stated:
“I have tried very hard, as have some of my cleverer colleagues, but no matter how hard we try, we always end up concluding that the bill means something quite different from what the secretary of state says it does.” ... even Malcolm Grant, the incoming chairman of the National Commissioning Board, has described the bill as “completely unintelligible.”
Now that is just what Arturo meant when he said that 'Silly Ass' Lansley was all 'gobbledook and jiggery-pokery'! You cannot trust a politician to say anything in a straightforward way! That is especially true of many of the politicians in the present Coalition government - particularly 'Silly Ass' Lansley!!
Professor McKee continued:
“The prime minister has reassured us that he will not privatise the NHS. Yet the management of one hospital has just been handed over to what is essentially a private equity consortium,”
Arturo said: "It gets worse by the minute, doesn't it?"
Professor McKee concluded:
“I realise that my bewilderment may simply be a consequence of my own failure to understand the insights that have been granted to wiser and more learned individuals than myself … But I’m also hoping that someone, somewhere, among the BMJ’s extensive and erudite readership, will be able to help me.”http://www.bmj.com/press-releases/2012/01/17/does-anyone-understand-government%E2%80%99s-nhs-reforms-asks-senior-professor
Of course, this is all so reminiscent of poor Alice's confusion in 'Through the Looking Glass' when she met Humpty Dumpty who informed her, in no uncertain terms:
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master — that's all."
That is the crux of the issue. 'Silly Ass' Lansley and his cronies have their own agenda. They will use obfuscation and gobbledegook to confuse even the most erudite in their plan to sneak the Bill through Parliament. If we are sufficiently confused, we won't see the real jiggery-pokery going on - the stealthy privatisation of the Health Service. My friends, this present Health and Social Care Bill is nothing more nor less than full-on jiggery-pokery!
Watch out, 'Silly Ass' Lansley, some people have sussed what you are up to! You will NOT get away with it!
As for me and Arturo, we're eating with Larry tonight!
'Bye' from us both
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