I liked this post on Twitter this morning:
The point made is wholly appropriate.
Streeting wants to cut spending very much more than he wants to employ doctors to meet healthcare demand.
To describe him as a small-minded charlatan is to be kind.
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But why the hell doesn’t the BBC interviewer ask him about the 20,000 doctors needing training places.
He is a bastard, Starmer is a bastard, BBC interviewers are bastards.
And I don’t use bad language.
Let me guess was it the “award winning journalist” Laura K?
Thank you, William.
Fun fact for you: LK’s husband, James Kelly, was seconded from McKinsey to the Cabinet Office during the Cameron premiership. This was at the same time as LK was business editor at ITN and political editor at the BBC. Was that potential conflict of interest disclosed? No. Was Labour interested in mentioning? No.
Hi Richard
My newsfeed via Netvibes to your blog stopped working around 11th March. It was strange you hadn’t been posting. Now I realise you have been!
I tried to cut and paste the feed as it now appears on the Netvibes settings- it has failed. My other feeds appear to be working.
Any idea what has happened?
Thanks
Pat Baker
No idea!
I will ask me tech guy.
Google blocked access t9 that feed – they think it dangerous
We think it might work now, but suggest you use another feed reader – there must be a bug in that one
Best
Richard
Or someone wants to shut you up? Paranoid? Me? Of course I am! Richard, I rely on you for a lot of news, I bet lots of other people who don’t talk here do as well. I really hope I’m wrong of course. Best wishes to you from rather grey and dismal Liverpool – at least it isn’t raining!
The football is not going well for Liverpool though…
Oh well, that’s life! I’m not a footie fan meself, but husband is watching it… Though he’s a Tranmere Rovers fan since he grew up close to their home ground. Which some random American is trying to buy now! Grrr!
I am a member of City of Liverpool FC – long story
As a Forest fan (well, sort of) I could not care less about Liverpool and another cup competition that will earn money for the usual suspects, although I would hate to see a great club like Ipswich go down again. I actually fell out of love with footie ages ago because it all seemed to be about money, speaking of which……..
………viz a viz Streeting – this is yet another way to make the NHS under perform and justify what comes next as far as I am concerned. This young gentleman is disturbingly earnest about doing the wrong thing.
This is the Divestment State in action again.
It would be nice if someone were to come and save us, but I don’t think it’s going to happen to be honest. We’ve sleep walked into something really unpleasant I think.
I still have hope
But not for Ipswich
I live just the other side of the Tyne from Newcastle. My husband is a Geordie. I don’t remember getting home from the pub last night.
🙂
It’s been a long time
The same is true of nurses. We keep h earing there’s a shortage, but it’s a shortage of jobs. Hundreds if not thousands of newly qualified nurses unable to get jobs in nhs as there are no vacancies and lots of job freezes. They are having to take unqualified posts or go to the private sector. Some leave the country.
Thanks
“Wes Streeting is only interested in money”
nope.
Wes is interested in himself and in what the country can do to help himself.
I think for him they are the same
The situation for junior doctors is crazy, my daughter is one and will be applying for a training place next February to train in intensive care medicine, but is very doubtful about getting one.
She started medicine late after travelling and working random jobs for a few years, retook a-levels then came top of her year at Bristol and has had consistently brilliant feedback since. She absolutely loves what she does.
She’s currently doing a year in Australia, having missed opportunities to work abroad because of covid and fully intends to come back….but if she doen’t get a training place who knows? ….. (I really hope she does!!)
What a waste of all the talent and knowledge in her cohort, and all their hopes and dreams, when they should be receiving encouragement, support and reward for what they do…..and they were all training through covid often working in incredibly difficult and demanding circumstances. My daughter saw a lot of people die and was involved in facilitating end of life conversations via smartphones or i – pads, even as a student or when working shifts as a health care assistant.
They deserve better, like so many other people!
And what a loss to this country!! It really does make you weep…or rage!
What a loss to the uk populace!!
So much to agree with.
Good luck to her.
Judith B
From what I saw happening in the Sudan on TV recently, your daughter’s talents might be better off used there, there seems to be plenty of work. I say this only thinking about the waste of her training that is all.
Thank you, Judith.
If not here, perhaps your daughter could consider France and Belgium where there are shortages. Further afield, Mauritius and South Africa, but only as their production lines are fodder for Europe.
I say rage. Why? The people in charge do this deliberately. They are that callous.
CS thank you for the suggestions! – though language may be a problem? she wasn’t a particularly diligent student at school….only in dance and photography.
I remain optimistic for the moment about her getting a place because of her track record but would be very sad if she were forced to go abroad. Selfishly I would miss her and her lovely partner, also a doctor at the same stage, particularly as she’s my only offspring! Unless of course they could take me with them! …..I like the sound of Mauritius
But I really feel for the many who may be in a slightly less advantageous situation but have put in 7 years of hard graft – it’s so demoralising, it makes no sense and is, I suppose, another instance of what is happening in many different spheres.
And people wonder why there is a mental health crisis!!
And a shortage of doctors!
To be honest I find very little that makes sense at the moment in politics, policy and the world at large……though around me there are many good people doing good things….doing their best in spite of everything.
It is so absurd we that we train people and then abandon them in this way.
And the reason why? Totally under qualified physician associates are being employed instead of- and they are totally compliant.
This is all about money, as usual. And control.
But we don’t NEED doctors.
We’ve got Wes Streeting, who apparently can tell when people are faking mental ill health to avoid working so they can live on Universal Credit and PIP. He doesn’t even need to talk to them (but he might get the DWP to have a quick snoop at their bank accounts, you can’t trust these unemployed types).
Great to see Labour taking a chainsaw to the NHS, and squeezing the poor for every penny they’ve got.
Thank you and well said, Robert.
One of my cousins has Down’s syndrome. Luckily for her, she lives in Mauritius, has a close knit family around her and, since birth, gets a monthly allowance from the government, school / workshop* paid for by the government and even holidays paid for by the government. Marie-Agnes is 37 and attends a workshop for adults. *With specialists flown from Europe regularly to check in.
Europeans and Americans, not just wealthy ones, are moving to the island and marvel at what the island offers.
Someone on Twitter described him as being ‘shark eyed’.
Eew, once seen, never forgotten.
Thank you and well said, Richard.
Some years ago and quite contrary to the evidence, Streeting said the NHS was not a Labour, but a British achievement, and looked forward to working with Tories to reforming (sic) it. He seemed to enjoy not giving the Attlee government / Nye Bevan any credit. It seemed suspiciously like preparing the ground for greater privatisation.
I’ve never met the young man, but hear from those who have that he gets a bit excitable when challenged on policy and on his qualifications for opining on such matters.
Much to agree with