Tom Harris has a good blog today regarding Labour’s propensity to shout ‘wolf’ every time the Government make an announcement.

http://tinyurl.com/2wsjthn

 

A prime example of this was Andy Burnham’s performance on Newsnight earlier in the week. Andy made much of the allocation of NHS funding, whilst failing to mention that in his one year tenure, he spent £260 milllion on management consultants alone, something Andrew Lansley put a stop to by imposing a consultancy spending moratorium on day one.

 

The opposition have also begun to describe GPs as the private sector within the NHS. Another wolf.

I assume, in an attempt to devalue and undermine the role of the family GP, in order to denigrate our NHS GP commissioning policy.

 

This is the most disingenuous line of attack. Each GP trains for seven years and then a further three to four years, often more, in order to become a GP.

They are professional, highly skilled and qualified individuals.

 

If I had any complaint regarding GPs, it would be that they have become too process driven. Over the last ten years they have spent more time attempting to reach targets, because they were made to, than worrying about outcomes.

 

All that will now change with the emphasis in future being very much on outcomes.

 

GPs will no longer have the PCT breathing down their neck, watching every penny they spend and on who, telling them what services they can procure and which they can’t.

 

In future, patients will be able to sit in front of a GP and the massive forest of bureaucracy which stood in the way of patients accessing services will have been taken away.

 

Decisions regarding care, drugs, treatment will be made between the GP and the patient. No decision will be taken about a patient, without that patient being fully involved. No longer will the decision be taken by the faceless PCT.

 

Now how could anyone wish to deny patients that level of control over their own lives?

 

Was that a howl I just heard?

I am very strongly a first past the poster and will now blog more regularly with anything which catches my eye in order to make the case.

Love this from Tom Harris MP this morning.

http://www.tomharris.org.uk/

I would consider Tweeting again, just for this cause, however, a certain blogger has apparently taken every possible permutation of my name you can imagine.

I have today written to David Willetts, in the hope that he will put a stop to what is a serious A level scandal. I have applied for an adjournment debate on the subject and hope that if successfully called, when he responds, he will be able to provide the re assurances that a practice which has been in operation for many years will have seen its last day.

In order to explain the scandal in detail, I shall use the schools in my own county of Bedfordshire to explain how it works. However, this situation apparently occurs every year, across the country in all counties.

At 8am on Thursday morning last, the day of A level results, Bedford Modern Independent School in Bedford, a truly excellent school, opened it’s doors at 8am in order to hand out the A level results to students.

I think we all know what a rough year it was this year for A level students. Many did not get the University or course of their choice. There was a mad scramble for clearing however, clearing also only had a limited number of places on offer and they were allocated on a first come first come first served basis.

At 8.40am the head of UCAS was quoted on the radio stating that hundreds of children had already been through clearing. Obviously attempting to secure the few places there were. 

Why is this scandal?

Because the state schools didn’t open their doors to hand out results until 9.30am.

Which meant that across the country, what places were available in clearing, may have gone to children from the independent sector, not the state.

Now, I have nothing against the independent sector. They have ably demonstrated their commitment to their pupils and used what they had to their advantage. Their teachers got out of bed and into school at 7am and were ready and waiting with advice and help and instant solutions to the problems the children faced. And for the cynics, no more cheques arrive. They don’t really even have an obligation on this day other than to hand out the results.

Those pupils who needed to went straight to computers in the school and were in clearing by 8.30. An hour before the state school teachers in Bedfordshire had even arrived at the school.

At one of the upper schools in Mid Bedfordshire, children were queuing for their results at 9.20 and told they couldn’t have them until 9.30.

I have laid down Parliamentary questions requesting detailed information re clearing. I want to know how many children from the independent sector had entered clearing v state in fifteen minute breakdowns during the morning from 8am onwards.

I have had it confirmed by individual Universities that places are offered on a first come first served basis.

I also want to know how many independent school children were offered places from 8am onwards v state.

It has to stop. All children should be given their results at exactly the same time, regardless of where they are educated.

This will either mean the teachers in the state sector have to get into school earlier to coincide with the time clearing opens, or independent schools will have to twiddle their thumbs and wait for the state school teacher to arrive. Either or, it has to stop.

I read with a sense of relief, in the Mail on Sunday, that Michael Howard, is to lead the call for an enquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly http://tinyurl.com/392f64j 
I cannot understand, given the obvious, huge, question marks hanging over the cause of his death, why this has taken so long.
The ulnar artery is tiny and not easy to get at. Due to the presence of coagulating enzymes in the blood, if Dr Kelly had managed to rupture the ulnar artery, using the blunt vegetable knife, it would have naturally stopped bleeding at any point from three minutes onward.

Could the grass have absorbed enough of the blood, which would have been thickening by the second, straight into the soil without trace? If he had lost enough blood via the ulnar artery to kill him within the three (can be up to 7-8)  minutes then surely it would have been too much to have been absorbed and there would have been puddles of coagulated blood lying on top of the grass.

Obviously, I'm no expert, however, it doesn't take a huge amount of knowledge to smell a rat.

Well done to Michael Howard. Bring on a full and official enquirey. His family deserve that at the very least.

According to a YouGov survey, 62% of people think the idea of short term council house tenancy is a good idea. I wonder how many of the people who took part in the survey live in council houses?

Interesting phone call this morning in which a little Dickie bird tells me that Vince Cable would be interested in my idea of using the Government owned banks to structure a lending package for council house purchase. The proceeds of which, would be channeled into a further package to finance the building of new social housing, which would ensure a more adequate supply. Thereby, giving everyone a fairer chance of securing a house and an almost definite 'leg up' in terms of social mobility.

The problem with social housing today is that those striving to improve their situation are excluded. As an example, two newly married rural workers in my constituency who between them earn £27k pa have applied for social housing. Because they are sleeping on a sofa at a parents house they are not officially classed as homeless. Nor do they have a baby. What they want is a home first, however, due to the shortage, the only way they can get one is if they split up and she becomes homeless and pregnant. A drug problem would help their case too.

That is the legacy of Labour to the young and struggling would be family.

The link to my leader article in the Mail on Sunday is up on Conservative Home. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/
I have just recorded an interview with Andrew Pierce for LBC. Andrew also grew up in a council house, where his mum still lives, and has done for over 50 years.

I have just written an article for the Mail on Sunday, re council housing.
As I write this, they are sending a photographer to photograph the house I grew up in.
I find this quite exciting. I haven't been back for years and not having a photograph of the house myself, I can't wait to see it.
Here is a link to my interview on the Today programme this morning, which should provide a flavour of what the article is about.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8894000/8894321.stm