Be Radical. Send For Milburn.
Jerry Hayes thinks it is time to bring back Milburn to finish the job on health.
11 Feb 2012, 11:34
Time to get rid of Lansley?
The only part of Tim Montgomerrie’s piece on the NHS Bill that shocked me was that only three cabinet ministers were sick of the sight of it. I would be stunned if most of them didn’t want to quietly bury it on unconsecrated ground, with a stake through it’s heart, topped with six foot of reinforced concrete to make absolutely sure the bloody thing doesn’t lurch like an extra from Shaun of the Dead into our hospitals.
Actually, the Bill is not all that bad, it is just incomprehensible to most people, including those who will have to implement it. I had a long chat with the Chief Executive of one of the country’s largest Hospital Trusts recently. She was not the slightest bit hostile to the Bill, she just wanted clarity so that she could plan ahead.
Of course, the last refuge of the political scoundrel is to blame poor presentation on what is in reality a political turkey. Yet it is a total failure of communicating what the Bill will do that is fraying ministerial tempers. We know what Michael Gove is trying to achieve in Education, because he has kept pounding out a simple and consistent message. And what is it we are trying to achieve in health? Is it a radical plan that wrests power from bureaucracies and places it in the hands of those who are most in touch with their patients needs? Or is it a watered down set of compromises which won’t deal with the underlying problems of the NHS and will cause the coalition endless grief to patients and governments? I haven’t got a clue. But I know how it is being abused and misre presented. Worse, if Cameron is not too careful people will begin to believe the dangerous and quite wicked scare stories put around by Labour that our NHS is being sold to city slickers who will sell off the most profitable pieces and start charging people for their treatment. That is the very first lie that has to be nailed quickly before it gains traction.
So Cameron’s options are limited. He could abandon the whole project which will be an embarrassing U turn, lead to resignations and give a scalp to Miliband. This really would be a disaster. A quick political fix which would look like funk and won’t deal with the underlying problems in the NHS. He could muddle on. Another disaster. It would be a slow political death which will make the Liberal Democrats panic and do something silly.
But there is another option. It is radical, it is dangerous, but it might just work. Give Alan Milburn the chance to finish the job he started but was thwarted by Brown. It would take the wind out of Miliband’s sails, please the Tory right and might persuade the Lib Dems not to descend into funken silliness.
This was first floated by Rachel Sylvester in the Times this week. She is not a fool. This was a well researched piece with the whiff of Downing Street authenticity about it. It was a toe in the water with an opportunity of denial at a later date.
And as for Andrew Lansley? Not a sacking but the opportunity of a move. And certainly not a humiliation if it can be avoided. He is a decent and able man, but a technocrat not a communicator. He was given a second chance but has sadly blown it.
I fear that the whole of the credibility if not the survival of the Coalition depends on what strategic decision Cameron makes in the next couple of weeks. It is a defining moment. It is a game changer. Muddling on is no longer an option. Be radical. Send for Milburn
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Jerry Hayes
Jerry Hayes is a former Conservative MP and leading barrister defending and prosecuting high profile cases
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Comments (3)
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Jerry,
What fascinates me about this Milburn story is there seems to be an assumption in some quarters that what Milburn was proposing in 2003 was essentially no different to what Lansley is proposing now, merely that Milburn would be better at the presentational aspects.
My own view is that the two sets of proposals are significantly different. Milburn's 2003 plans essentially involved giving 'foundation hospitals' the same sort of opt-outs from the NHS as academy schools have from the state education system. They did not envisage GP fundholding (which New Labour had already abolished by that point) and they did not, initially at least, envisage the same extension of the private sector into healthcare, although that might ultimately have been the end result.
To my mind, reverting to this kind of approach now would involve a considerable rowing back from the Lansley proposals. So while Milburn would be a better salesman - he could hardly be a worse one - it would still look like a U-turn to many.
13/02/2012 10:56For point Paul. But the way Milburn is spinning it one would think that he was far more radical than Lansley. Anyhow, it unlikely to happen. The trouble is the inherent problems with the old system will be blamed on the new system kicking in. A bit like the Poll tax in Scotland which was scuppered mainly due to revaluation.
13/02/2012 18:47What an arse you are Jerry.
14/02/2012 23:01