The Guardian notes this morning that:
Keir Starmer has said it is “frankly beyond belief” that resident doctors would strike during the NHS's worst moment since the pandemic, in remarks that risk inflaming tensions with medical staff.
No, it isn't.
What is beyond belief is that:
- The NHS has been so underfunded that corridor care is now standard.
- He treats increasing the profits of US drug companies as more important than providing care in the UK or paying doctors decently.
- Thousands of doctors are unemployed in the UK, degrading the profession and the morale of all doctors.
- The fundamental causes of ill health - from the corrupting impact of antisocial neoliberal capitalism, to the consequences of excessive interest rates on stress and homelessness, to the obesity caused by ultra-processed foods - are all left untouched by the government.
- NHS England is being dismantled with total disrespect for the staff involved.
- Scandals continue because of the use of perverse incentives within a so-called NHS market structure that burdens the whole service with costs, artificial divisions and false narratives, all of which prevent the delivery of real healthcare.
- He continues to promote a growth narrative that alienates people who rightly feel they are expendable cannon fodder in the economic system he promotes.
- He refuses to tax wealth to counter the inflationary effects of the level of spending required for the NHS.
All of those are beyond belief.
That sound-minded people of good standing and possessed of professional judgement consider that Starmer, Streeting, Reeves & Co. are the threat to the NHS is not beyond belief. That is a reasonable conviction.
Starner's problem is simply stated. He has no credibility. His ideas are worthless. His insults are petty. He is supporting a corrupt system of economic management. And he refuses to address these issues.
Of course, the doctors are angry enough to strike. They can work out where the problems are and why there are excess deaths every day in the NHS, whether or not they are there. The failure is Starmer's now: he has to own it. And as he won't, they have to point that out.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Starmer lacks the cojones to do what he believes in deep down. He’s fundamentally neoliberal and wants to go for an SHI system perhaps with the NHS being reduced to A&E and communicable diseases. Take-up of AI is much higher in the private sector for obvious reasons. A Martian looking down from above would be surprised he’s even in the Labour Party frankly.
I don’t think Starmer believes in anything deep down as he has no depth.
As has been said here before, he is a manager, not a leader.
Thanks to a broadsheet newspaper this morning (the prize crossword) – and my knowledgeable husband – I learned a new term this morning. “Pathetic fallacy”. It means attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object. Much like describing Starmer as ‘a manager’ ie a human term.
This might not pass Richard’s moderating process…
It did
The man of hidden shallows
I am sure it has nothing to do with the hundreds of thousands of pounds the Labour party has received in “donations” from private healthcare companies. It looks like corruption to me.
Revealed: Labour ministers took donations from Big Pharma and US healthcare lobbyists
https://privatisation.everydoctor.org.uk/revealed-labour-ministers-took-donations-from-big-pharma-and-us-healthcare-lobbyists/
Labour has had FOUR times the private healthcare donations of every other party
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/04/22/labour-private-health-donations/
Health secretary keeps taking donations linked to private health
https://goodlawproject.org/health-secretary-keeps-taking-donations-linked-to-private-health/
Thanks
Sir Keir Starmer otherwise known as Sir Kid Starver.
Starmer lied to get into power.
He broke his promises.
He decided that he should ‘accept life as he found it’ – he capitulated under the mess the evil and spiteful dog in the manger Tories left behind. This was a key moment that will define him in history.
He looked the Gorgon in the face, blanched and took some free tickets to go off and see a concert or some football matches with his missus instead.
Let us be clear. Yes, Starmer has contributed to the end of the NHS and much else.
But what this ‘politician’ has actually done in this country is to end politics itself – the negation of the contemplation, development , negotiation and implementation of ideas to make life better.
Starmer is the complete anti-politician; the complete pig in the poke for those who fell for ‘it’. I never did – and that is the only good thing I can say about the whole affair.
“Starner’s problem” & that of his cabinet is that they are corrupt to the very core. They are funded by private health, they are salami slicing the NHS so they can say: see it ain’t working – private can do it better. It is happening before people’s eyes – if the option is a service provided directly by the NHS – or “outsourced” then it is outsourced and – “brown enevlopes” head in Starmer & his crew’s direction. Actual cash? nah – “brown envelopes” can take many forms and Starmer ain’t so stupid as to take cash. A vile corrupt zionist – that’s what Starmer is.
The news on TV last night reported what Streeting was saying about doctors. I was having a bit of a rant at him (I don’t think he could hear me). Does he really not understand what damage he’s causing (including deaths)? The government should be held to account (which is what the desperate striking doctors are trying to do).
Going back in time to 2008, probably a significant step in the salami slicing, the term used by Mike Parr, of the E.N.H.S, was the process started by Andy Burnham, later Secretary of State for Health, when he began the process of privatising Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Cambridgeshire. A task later completed under the coalition Government. A failure which ended in 2015, when the hospital had to be brought back under E.N.H.S control.
Now Andy Burnham is being touted as a replacement for Keir Starmer. Do voters never learn?
“Seizing on Burnham’s previous role, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, tweeted: ‘Disappointing news on Hinchingbrooke, but @andyburnhammp must stop playing politics – he signed off decision to allow private sector operator.’ ”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/09/circle-hospital-private-firms-nhs-report-poor-care-hinchingbrooke
This is not to say that the private sector can’t run efficient and caring hospitals they do in the United States but the cost per capita is twice that of the UK.
And outcomes much, much worse. Do we really want Starmer or Streeting signing us up to a system were A &E check your credit card or insurance before treatment?
Apparently since Starmer came to office 18 months ago the Labour Party has lost 100,000 members largely because Starmer has carried on implementing Tory policies. He can’t be that bright can he not to clearly see the two are linked together!!!
“Not Clear Keir” is obviously on his way out!
It’s a staggering measure of failure.
I believe they won’t reveal how many members they have. The Green Party is closed to overtaking them, but no-one knows what the exact figures are. What we do know is thousands have left and many others have been thrown out.
There is scant evident that Labour’s media communications are that sophisticated, but the cynic in me smells some pre-emptive news management and the ghost of the pandemic past.
Critical capacity within the NHS has been severely reduced to the point it cannot cope with higher than usual winter flu outbreak. It’s started earlier than usual this year and may peak over the ‘slow news’ holiday period and sadly young children seen particularly vulnerable to this strain. So if and when the news channels are leading with pictures of trolley full hospital corridors and testimony from distressed parents, Wes Streeting will be able to say things would have been worse had he negotiated to delay strike action, or distract and make the actions of resident doctors the story. Win-win.
Some helpful fact and stat filled reporting from the BBC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yq9wr3pnro
Thanks
Excellent as always Richard
I think you hit a huge issue with the so called market in the NHS. I suppose it’s a neoliberal attempt to introduce a market to what fundamentally should be a public service led by clinical need. From recent experience with dealing with 3 different doctors at my GP surgery the NHS is chock full of what Professor John Seddon would call Failure Demand….hes stated it could 10 weeks to make a real difference to the NHS if this was addressed…you should do a video with Professor Seddon….
Noted
A great post Richard, as ever.
I dont usually post links but I someone sent me this from facebook, which I thought the best ‘analysis’ of the appalling people we have in government. I had not heard of the lady who wrote it, but I think what she written is absolutely spot on.
https://www.facebook.com/helenbuzdugan/posts/pfbid035t6az81s4q6kKuTib3w11f1o4QNodVSpFAQdsyr65pRvhJoN7PugQDQFnaP7v5p5l
Very good
Thank you for this link, Edward. Helen Buzdugan’s analysis is beyond shocking and her section on the precariat is heart-breaking.
I’m glad you said “counter the inflationary effects of” rather than “fund”. Nice phrasiology.
I take care.
I wrote a tame letter to the Guardian on the same theme.
They don’t publish what you so clearly express .
We have a problem.
Newspapers are conduits of propaganda.
Legitimate protest and contestation is vilified and muted.
The Labour Party think media skills are what are required to get re-elected.
Thanks
Spot on Roger.
Newspapers and TV now are just very very sophisticated PR. Accountability, actually doing something, proper journalism – long gone.
I am pretty certain that one of Starmers first actions was stop dead in its tracks any hope of resurrecting the Leveson Inquiry Part 2.
Thank you for putting words to the despair I felt reading Starmer’s ridiculous comment.
What is unbelievable is that we are apparently being led by someone who has no love for his country or the people who live in it.