Conman rides again

Conman and his faithful companion Dobin

The cost of the NHS in England for 2012/13 it is around £108.9 billion. An additional £500m bailout over two years has been announced to help struggling A&E departments through the winter months providing a sticking plaster for the period up to the general election. To put these numbers into proportion: "Out of every £100 of national wealth (GDP) we spend £8.70, compared to the US £16 and are well below the Western average. Greece and Portugal spend proportionately more on health than the UK. The public need to understand that this is a major reason for some of the NHS problems."

This morning BBC Breakfast TV was targetted by Conman following his whirlwind visit to an A&E Dept leaving them in a whirl while saving his wind for the TV audience. I have rarely heard such distortions from a communications man determined to hoodwink the public. His message was that if people know where to go there is no problem with A&E services quoting the failing '111' service, inadequate 'out-of-hours' services and yet to come integrated 'care in the community' provision which is why people go to A&E. Amongst all the NHS upheavals, A&E Depts have become the ultimate points of delivery where other services fail. Louise Minchin didn't sound convinced. Neither was I.

Physician heal thyself!

Unemployment: Conman and Dobin to the rescue?

Conman and his faithful companion Dobin who is often taken for a ride

Devoid of any policies to create growth and employment for a lost generation, the government media machine is rumoured to be looking to heroes of yesteryear such as the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Batman and Robin, Etc., to re-produce some up-to-date fantasy features such as the old comedy, The Trickle Down Effect, in which the rich were handsomely rewarded on the premise that wealth would trickle down to the masses, well some of them. For the results of that policy look around. 


The last major feature, Squeeze the Public Sector, was based on the notion that by adding massive numbers of public sector employees to the dole queue, thus reducing the tax intake and paying more in benefits, the private sector would have far greater numbers to recruit from the enlarged pool of the unemployed. Alas this scenario was also one of make-believe because the private sector has done its own thing with less money around to stimulate the economy.


With the Prime Minister again declaring the latest unemployment figures 'disappointing',  it will be the task of Conman and Dobin to inject another feel-good factor, building on the make-believe world inhabited by the Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, who, not being unemployed himself, manages to sound extremely positive about the situation explaining that the figures are 'much more complex than the headlines suggest', a great comfort to the long term unemployed.