Crony state of affairs

Last night on Channel 4 'Dispatches', government health policy was comprehensively analysed and blown to smithereens. Liam Halligan did an absolutely fantastic job in presenting such a well researched piece of journalism. He put the BBC to shame given their pathetic attempts at commenting on health policy in recent years, where ministers are given notoriously easy rides and tricky areas are just glossed over. Patricia Hewitt was made to squirm like the absolute ignoramus she is, something the BBC has singularly failed to achieve in several attempts.

http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/article.jsp?id=1326

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/25/nrhewitt125.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/25/nrhewitt25.xml

I am sorry but the time for sensible dialogue with the likes of Blair and Hewitt is useless. They have no respect for the NHS and no respect for the public. This is shown by their repeated lies and overt contempt for the democratic process. The NHS reforms are not working, they are the root cause of the problems and things will only improve when these reforms are firmly stopped in their tracks. The politicians so far have not engaged in any fair debate, they merely repeat soundbites and drone on with some manipulated statistics to back up their flimsy arguments.

A rather biased BBC program looking at the David Kelly death was on the other night. Unfortunately all the 'proof' of suicide was kept for the end of the program, in a way that set out to convince people it was actually a suicide. A lovely bit of BBC spin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly

Were viewers meant to forget the facts that had been presented earlier in the program? These were facts that showed the Hutton enquiry to have less power than a coroner's inquest, that showed the cause of death to be very unclear and unproven, and that showed the Hutton inquiry was deeply flawed and lacking in investigative rigour.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200505020027

As these medical expert say, due process has not been followed in investigating the death of David Kelly. Serious and legitimate questions remain unanswered. Whether it was suicide or not; the David Kelly debate will rage on and on until it is investigated properly. My hat goes off to Norman Baker who seems to be one of a rather rare subspecies of politician; he actually cares and believes in certain principles.

The same cannot be said for Tony Blair and his cronies. Their behaviour in the David Kelly affair was absolutely scandalous, they hung Mr Kelly out to dry in a way that was totally indefensible. There is a complete lack of rigour that seems to apply to politicians when they make decisions that have massive implications. They can take us to war and then when is abundantly clear that due process has not been followed, and nothing happens. If something inconvenient happens to the government and it is investigated; the PM will appoint one of a band of friendly cronies to investigate, thus ensuring the PM will hear what he wants to hear. Even when it is proven that a politician has acted corruptly, it still requires the PM to act for some kind of punishment to occur and we know how often things are simply brushed under the carpet. The PM also has his resident 'poodle', the Attorney General, who he can always pressure for legal backing to any decision if he needs it. This complete lack of accountability seen in politics is in stark contrast to the recent clampdown on medical regulation; doctors will have their reputations wrecked under a civil 'balance of probabilities' rather than the old criminal 'reasonable doubt' and doctors will be constantly living in fear thanks to several other draconian measures imposed upon them by their political masters.

No wonder the NHS is in a mess. The democratic process that we rely on to drive us forwards is failing. This crony government seems to be answerable only to itself, as it goes about wrecking our country's chances of long term prosperity in the pursuit corrupt and idiotic short term gains. The one hope is that they will be made accountable at the next election, but how do we know that the next lot will not do exactly the same?