Sunday 18 May 2014

Zombies rule NOT okay at No. 10

"Did you hear John Humphreys on the Today programme, the other morning?" Arturo asked, with a glint in his eye. Before I could say 'Yea' or 'Nay', he said: "In talking to a Government Minister, he referred to 'Zombie government'. I think I'd also seen news of these 'zombies' in the papers too."

I didn't wait to hear the rest. I looked up 'zombie government' on one of the young intern's tablets. Lo and behold! There it was in the Daily Mail:
Coalition branded 'zombie government' as it prepares to give MPs 19 days off because they have run out of laws to debate

The article was by By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor. He wrote:
The Coalition has been branded a ‘zombie government’ after it emerged MPs will take a 19-day break because there are not enough new laws to debate.

The Commons is set to break up early for the Queen’s Speech because there are not enough issues to debate.

Can you believe it - run out of things to debate? Don't the Coalition know there are problems 'aplenty that need sorting out! Matt Chorley continued:
Ministers have been stung by the idea they have run out of policies to debate, with Commons Leader Andrew Lansley branding the idea a ‘fantasy’.

The House of Commons was due to sit until May 22, the day of the European and local elections.

But MPs are likely to be given an extra week off, because there is no more legislation to debate ahead of the prorogation for the Queen’s Speech.

When 'Sly' Lansley calls things a 'fantasy', you know that what you're talking about has hit the nail on the head - more about the NHS later on!

How, I ask you, can any present day politician be so witless as to ignore the fact that there are many vital issues that need to be debated. Just think about it - there are problems with the funding of schools and 'free' school meals. There are issues over foreign policy. There are food banks opening throughout the country. Local Authorities are running out of money. The NHS is in a state of collapse. There is a suggestion that 'child protection services' might even be privatised! And now this zombie government has left the debating chamber.

Yet Matt Chorley reports that:
Embarrassingly MPs have only been back in Westminster for eight days since they returned from a 17-day Easter recess.

They also had nine days off in mid-February for a half term break, which came only four and a half weeks after their Christmas break which last from December 19 to January 6.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625533/Coalition-branded-zombie-government-prepares-MPs-19-days-run-laws-debate.html

In the midst of this unfortunate state of affairs, an article in the Guardian written by Sarah Boseley and Rowena Mason reports in the headline that
Jeremy Hunt has sent homeopathy studies to chief medical officer: Letter to Tory MP reveals health secretary asked Sally Davies to initiate reviews of already dismissed studies by French firm

The article drew attention to the fact that:
Dame Sally Davies, the CMO, has categorically dismissed homeopathy as a waste of time and money. "I am perpetually surprised that homeopathy is available on the NHS," she told the Commons science and technology committee in January 2013.

Boseley and Mason continued, quoting an MP:
... patients and medics would be dismayed but not surprised to learn that Hunt had "wasted time and money" on investigating studies into homeopathy.

He added: "The government's own NHS Choices website states that the evidence for homeopathy is 'scientifically implausible' but this doesn't appear to be enough for the error-prone health secretary. As his policies continue to damage the NHS, I hope he hasn't ordered an investigation into the use of leeches."

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/08/jeremy-hunt-homeopathy-studies-chief-medical-officer

No wonder he has that persistent inane expression of surprise. Arturo thinks it's surprise at being a Secretary of State. And all this shenanigans is going on when - the NHS is cutting back on front line staff and denying essential drugs to some patients because of cost. Yet at such a time, 'Gormless' Hunt is asking for a review of 'homeopathy'! Some Secretary of State for Health! Some nut!!!

"What's wrong with this Hunt geezer?" Arturo asked in despair. "He reckons that because he heads up the Department of Health, he actually knows something about health! This is like certain estate agents who think they really own the houses they're trying to sell you! In a time and place where money flows freely, maybe one could indulge the Secretary of State's little foibles - but 'Hey, Jeremy, haven't you heard - we ain't got no money!'"

And - one more thing, why spend precious time and NHS resources on finding out about homeopathy when in March this year, Professor Sue Bailey President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and several other leading mental health experts wrote a letter to the Guardian under the heading:
Risks of deep cuts in mental health funds

They wrote:
The recent decision by NHS England and the health regulator Monitor to recommend cutting funding for mental health services by 20% more than that for acute hospitals completely contravenes the government's promise to put mental and physical healthcare on an equal footing and will put lives at risk
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/12/risks-deep-cuts-mental-health

These dire predictions were borne out in an article by Charlie Cooper writing in The Independent under the headline:
Mental-health patients driven hundreds of miles for treatment

The article continued:
Nurses say that it has become common for there to be no beds available for mental health patients in all of Norfolk and Suffolk, leading to severely ill patients being driven hundreds of miles to hospitals as far as Manchester.

They point out that:
Experts say the situation is symptomatic of a national problem... Earlier this year, NHS England reduced the tariff for mental health services by 1.8 per cent, compared with 1.5 per cent for physical health.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/mentalhealth-patients-driven-hundreds-of-miles-for-treatment-9349907.html

And to crown it all for the NHS - Polly Toynbee wrote an article in The Guardian under the headline:
The NHS is on the brink: can it survive till May 2015? : Jeremy Hunt's main task is to keep the health service out of the news until the election. Tories are praying he succeeds

Toynbee wrote:
All NHS organisations are sending up distress flares. The King's Fund calls next year's budget "completely unrealistic"; the Nuffield Trust talks of "flawed logic" and "wishful thinking". Hospitals undergoing increasingly savage Care Quality Commission inspections (as the CQC covers its own back) refuse to take the blame for deficits. Waiting lists are swollen to almost three million, waiting times are lengthening, and A&E targets are starting to be missed: the mildest winter on record still saw 3% more emergency admissions. So far deft NHS management has contained an explosion. Can it hold to next May?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/09/nhs-on-brink-survive-may-2015-tories-praying

I thought our PR man of a PM, 'Boy David' Cameron, had said that spending on the NHS would be 'ring-fenced'. An article, written by George Eaton, in the New Statesman stated the following:
In a speech at the Royal College of Pathologists on 2 November 2009, Cameron said: "With the Conservatives there will be no more of the tiresome, meddlesome, top-down re-structures that have dominated the last decade of the NHS."
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/pre-election-pledges-tories-are-trying-wipe-internet

Subsequently, Cameron went on to make this an election pledge!!

"So - what's the definition of 'zombie'?" I asked Arturo - knowing he would know!

"A zombie is, according to the Oxford Dictionary
A corpse said to be revived by witchcraft ... A person who is or appears lifeless, apathetic, or completely unresponsive to their surroundings."

"Ah!" I replied - "so they must have known 'Gormless' Hunt too!"

We're off to a new little Deli round the corner.

Bye from us both