The Johnson government has suffered its first, and quite humiliating, U-turn. As has been widely reported, despite Johnson's staunch defence on Wednesday of the charge made to migrant NHS workers to use the facilities which they have come here to help provide, yesterday the government had to backdown on this issue and cancel the charge.
This matter is, for a number of reasons. Firstly, and very obviously, it matters to those who have been affected, many of whom are on low pay and for whom this was a massive additional tax charge. That was grossly unjust, and I am delighted that it has been reversed for their sake.
Second, this matters because it makes it clear that there are now many others who are also making this deeply unfair tax payment, quite inappropriately and despite the immensely valuable contribution they are also making to the UK economy, as a result of which they are already paying the same taxes as everyone else. The gross and deliberate injustice that the government is creating as a consequence is even more apparent when one part of the charge has had to be cancelled. The demand for change will not go away, and as awareness of the injustice grows, the inequity of the situation will become even more apparent.
Third, this government promotes casual, but entirely deliberate racism. I have no doubt that it does this because it thinks that it is popular. There are, however, always points where the reality of injustice becomes clear. This charge is a case in point: there is an injustice, and some Conservative MPs could not face it with good conscience. They were pivotal to this process of change. I hope that this will not be the last occasion on which they suffer such doubt: there will be many others when the failure to live up to that most basic of moral instructions, that others should be treated as you would wish to be treated yourself, will require them to speak out.
Fourth, it is very apparent that the government misjudged the mood on this issue, at least within Westminster, but very likely in the country at large. The paradox of the Prime Minister imposing an additional tax charge on those whom he had personally praised for seeking to save his life has not gone unnoticed. Given that the whole, supposed, appeal of Johnson was his ability to communicate, matched by a supposed Kennedy or Clinton like ability to read the public mood, the failure to do so in this case is significant. If there ever was a Midas touch, it appears to have been lost. With this government only a few months old, and in deep crisis, not least because of the very obvious incompetence of so many of those in the Cabinet, this is profoundly worrying for the country, whatever your political persuasion. We urgently need competent government, and we very clearly have not got it.
In its place we have a Prime Minister who appears intent on hiding from public view.
And we have a blunt refusal to face reality, not least over the potentially catastrophic consequences of refusing to extend the Brexit transition.
Whilst it is not just those who have come to help the NHS who face economic stress: maybe one in four people in this country will be unemployed soon, with many others facing reduced income.
When competent government is one of the touchstones for confidence in such situations we lack it, and once more, whatever your political persuasion, that matters. If, as seems to be the case, we have a government that is almost clueless as to how to act when the right thing to do is readily apparent how can they be trusted to make the right judgement when facing issues as complex as those now being addressed? I suspect that faith in their ability will continue to fall.
This government will have to make a great many more U-turns before it falls, as I now think that it will inevitably do.
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I think we have the ultimate Teflon government. They can make as many mistakes as they like but the criticism is washed away and they start each day refreshed and cleansed. If Johnson called an election tomorrow the opinion polls would point in his favour. He could avoid all interviews and waltz to victory in six weeks time regardless of the death rate. He does not need a manifesto, the entire media machine is geared in his favour. Where has the anger of the people gone? Where is the anger that caused the poll tax riots. Where is the Occupy anger? We have a nation being fed bromide in the tap water. I’m afraid the landslide at the last election has destroyed any hope in me that things can get better. They can only get worse but what is really worrying is how bad do they gave to get before the electorate realises what has happened.
Give it time
We’re still in shock
If only a few thousand more people die they’ll come out of this very well
If many more do and there is a second wave then they won’t
One gross aspect of this policy is that it impacts on those who are the least likely to need NHS treatment as they are, on average, younger than the general population. Another is that if it is per person a family is more severely impacted, especially if there is only one wage earner, and are children exempted? There is no relationship to ability to pay and it is being increased by 60 percent in October. They are being taxed twice as they already are paying income tax and NI.
A truly disgusting, repulsive and repellent policy that should apply to no one, not just NHS workers and carers.
The first thing I thought of when I heard this was that they were scared – apparently some form of legal case is already being made by representatives of the NHS staff who have fallen to Covid because of lack of PPE and it is emerging that there is a slow take up in the media about the supposed ‘protective ring’ around care homes (more like a noose to be honest).
All of this brings all that debate in the early 2010’s about Lansley’s Health Act sharply into focus for me. Have the Tories wheedled themselves out of culpability already? The FTPA also seems to be able to protect them from polling retribution – I think that it was introduced because the Tories (and anti-Statist Blue Labour) knew that they were going to be really extreme this time and needed something to help them finish the job that Thatcher started.
Incompetence? I don’t know about that Richard – I just see a bunch of extremists to be honest scrabbling to undo their callousness and hubris because of winning yet another election. They think that they can do anything they like – that is their problem – and biology has undone them. Now its up to the Country to remember or forget at the next election. Calling them incompetent to me is too nice. Everything they have created right now is created on purpose – acts of commission – guided by their idiotology (sic).
To me, the Tories are just evil bastards, plain and simple. They have taken huge risks and it has not paid off – but it just might if the electorate let them off (which is still probable).
Keir Starmer said last night ‘It’s all very well clapping our NHS staff on a Thursday but then charging them to use the service on a Friday?!!!’ Hopefully Labour might stop scrapping amongst itself and offer a viable alternative when we vote again.
Thanks.
There was a long piece by Alastair Campbell in the New European in the last week about the prime minister’s – and, more generally, the government’s – communication failure and fundamental incompetence over coronavirus – turning a crisis into a catastrophe . See https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/alastair-campbell-on-how-coronavirus-became-a-catastrophe-1-6654652
Thanks
Where *is* the PM? He gets a daily opportunity to address the nation, yet sends out the likes of Oliver Dowden, George Eustice or (god help us) Grant Shapps instead. (At least it isn’t Grayling.) Johnson hasn’t done it since 11May. Other than his lacklustre weekly Commons appearances at PMQs, he is invisible. Perhaps he is still recovering from the coronavirus, perhaps it is life with a newborn, perhaps there is another reason. Don’t you think he looks tired.
Of course it is ridiculous and obviously wrong (not to mention counterproductive) to require those working in the NHS to pay a fee to access NHS services. They are mostly young and healthy and not using the services much anyway, and (even if non-doms) they will be paying taxes here on their UK earnings (and VAT on goods and services, and council tax, etc etc).
There is a point about health tourism (rare but it happens), or charging tourists and other temporary visitors who fall ill (perhaps recovering from their travel insurance). Many are amazed when they get free care and would be willing to pay something. But do we really want to stop people at the door to ask about entitlement? Perhaps we should just accept that treating ill people for free is the purpose of the NHS and stop asking our health workers to act as tax collectors and policemen.
Do we want doctors to do this?
Why?
Of course we don’t want doctors to ask for payment details first. No doubt other people could be employed to check identity documents and ask for bank details or credit card numbers. (No, I am not really suggesting this. It would be an abomination. Just be thankful we don’t live in the US.)
That said, while the NHS does very well with its budget, we should not blithely assume the way we have arranged our so-called “free at the point of use” system (except for dentistry, and opticians, and prescriptions, and social care, and except for the rationing limiting “use”…) is the only way to organise it. There are many countries with excellent, largely free, socialised healthcare systems but with a degree of mandatory insurance or co-payment (compare France, or Germany). Each choice comes with its own pros and cons, and we should be conscious about the cons that come with the undoubted pros of the NHS, and be open to the possibility of doing things differently. The middle of a pandemic is perhaps not the time to do this.
One common con is clear: they cost more than the NHS
The aim is not to spend as little as possible, is it? Perhaps spending a bit more (but wisely) might achieve better outcomes.
“Given that the whole, supposed, appeal of Johnson was his ability to communicate, matched by a supposed Kennedy or Clinton like ability to read the public mood, ….”
Really. Is that why he’s PM because the electorate is now so easily gulled they think this man is a statesman? (Not that Kennedy wouldn’t have proved to have feet of clay if he’s been allowed time to show them, and Clinton was a truly mixed bag.) This is where celebrity culture gets a society. Steve Bell in the Guardian had him nailed long ago as an arse in a wig.
True…
Today on radio 4 this morning got close to calling out the government when Paul Nurse (head of Crick Institute) – was scathing about the lack of transparency and collaboration in government circles. The line was poor so not all of it got through – hopefully more of what he said will come through.
And as for ‘protective ring’ from Matt Hancock – did not most of the country do a sharp intake of breath? I guess not as another report suggests up to half the country is mired in conspiracy theories about Covid.
Now we’ve been told Dominic Cummings wilfully broke the rules on lockdown and Downing Street is refusing to comment. Is there no end to this government’s amateurish incompetence?
This is pantomime farce on steroids not government!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/22/dominic-cummings-durham-trip-coronavirus-lockdown
Then there’s this:-
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-infections-uk-transmit-covid-19-cases-boris-johnson-a9528581.html
No limit at all it seems