Sniffing out the lies

"The hon. Gentleman refers to the prospect or the possibility of unemployment among junior doctors. Although he did not fall into this trap, let me take the opportunity to refer to the thoroughly misleading statements made in recent weeks about the prospect of thousands of junior doctors finding themselves without work. That is complete nonsense. As I said in response to points made by the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley), the great majority of eligible applicants are already working in the service."

This is a quote of Patricia Hewitt speaking to parliament in which she states definitively that it is 'complete nonsense' to suggest that thousands of junior doctors will find themselves out of work come August. One explanation for her stance is that she has struck a secret deal with Tescos and arranged for thousands of junior doctors to work behind the tills, another explanation is that she is completely incompetent and is lying to parliament. I choose to believe the latter.

This comes on the back of a leaked document that has been released by the fancier in full which reveals that the DoH is frantically panicking by trying to arrange for some unemployed juniors to work in VSO (Voluntary service overseas) posts. How on earth these posts will feed families and pay the mortgage is not mentioned, funny that.

That brings me on to an excellent broadcast on Channel 4 news tonight which had the lovable lord *unt, sorry Hunt, squirming in his sweaty jockstrap. This man is no stranger to lying and he didn't betray his reputation tonight by sticking to his guns as regards the potential junior doctor unemployment, he was adamant that many thousands would not be unemployed come August.

The sums are very simple. It can be easily gleaned from the MTAS website that there are 34,249 applicants for 18,100 jobs. It is hardly a giant step to conclude that, given the small number of applicants from outside the UK, there is likely to be several thousand unemployed come August.

That would make both Patricia Hewitt and Lord Hunt liars. It seems to be a bit of game of 'follow my leader' in the labour party these days, doesn't it?