The government has been accused of pushing through an NHS review to clear the way for an autumn election.

Read about it here, and my analysis of the on-going situation here.

What do you think? Has political expediency won the day? Are we heading towards an autumn poll?

And how would you feel if the PM chose to go to the country so soon after the last General Election?

Anyone got pre-election fatigue??

Comments

[Ronald Thompson, Cape Town SA 7 Oct 2007 15:48:38]

May I make a profound Suggestion for eradicate the super bugs from the NHS hospitals and Administration,
replace the loving healing Holy Bible ,Mr Brown stated that England Is a Christian country,so he should start running the country as such on christian beliefs and principles,Which will undoubtable remove quite a few supperbugs from the country thereby giving it a chance to heal again

[PETER \KENT/ 7 Oct 2007 13:52:00]

MINISTERS KEEP SAYING THAT THE TORIE SUMS DO NOT ADD UP THATS ALRIGHT THEY CAN BORROW THE MONEY FROM THE WORLD BACK SAME AS LABOUR HAVE DONE FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS?

[Bruce Hulmes / England 7 Oct 2007 12:51:20]

Carol Ann.
On sterotyping you are the typical Labour voter, driven by your own failings and jealous of others success.

[carol-ann liverpool 6 Oct 2007 15:34:47]

Bruce & Co

Oh Dear!!

Do you not understand the concept of stereotyping?

Are you a Sun or Daily Express reader - own a white van? Drink 10 pints of beer?

I Can't afford the Guardian, sorry!
Don't read comics (tabloids)
Like to keep more up to date than that.

[Bruce Hulmes / England 5 Oct 2007 16:03:46]

Carol Ann.
Not much of an attempt to back up your Beloved party. It was in the papers yesterday but may be not in the Guardian.
I feel assured you can scan the web and find the details without me having to do it. And remember to look up our league table position for arms sales you omitted that.

[The Morning Post 5 Oct 2007 15:38:10]

There is an article on the news here today which clearly demonstrates the point i made recently appro the NHS and its postcode prescription lottery. Some cancer patients have access to life saving treatments in certain areas, whilst those down the road may not! Having taxed and wasted billions of additional pounds in this service over the past decade, its disgraceful that this practice has been allowed to continue by New Labour. Is a life in Suffolk as an example any less precious than one in Kent? Both pay the same record levels of taxation under Gordon Brown, they should be entitiled to the same standard of healthcare!

[carol-ann liverpool 4 Oct 2007 19:09:29]

Bruce:

Re Best Health Providers

And your source is...?

The criteria is...?

[Bruce Hulmes / England 4 Oct 2007 17:25:00]

NHS under this government as slipped to 17th place in the league table of best health providers.Some East European countrie do better then us, but they only treat their own and do not attempt to buy votes by being the only world wide health service.

And under the same ethical governemt we have moved up the list of the worlds arms suppliers, to third place behind America and Russia. Now do you remember Robin Cook and his ethical arms policy, well it died with him.

[John Delaney Torquay 4 Oct 2007 17:08:13]

Phil Bristol wot you on mate cameron is a twit just realise Quote I am not using an autocue or a script just notes well who cares we will see at PMQs when brown rips him to pieces on his false promises

[The Morning Post 4 Oct 2007 15:03:02]

If the noble Lord has the answers to the NHS problems, why did'nt Gordon ask him to conduct this review years ago?

Why wait until weeks before an 'impending' General Election and a full ten years after New Labour came to power, proclaiming that we had just 24 hours to save the NHS?

[Effie 4 Oct 2007 15:02:42]

4 Oct 2007 13:12:39fie, I am sure that if there is an election this autum Gordon will promise pensioners a big increase from next April to get their votes and maybe an increase in their winter fuel allowance and a deduction in their Council Tax next year.

I am quite sure of that also and whatsmore it has always worked in the past with governments from all persuations.
What's new about that!

[ss 4 Oct 2007 13:12:39]

Effie, I am sure that if there is an election this autum Gordon will promise pensioners a big increase from next April to get their votes and maybe an increase in their winter fuel allowance and a deduction in their Council Tax next year. What do you think? He has already been trying to bribe the Army with Council Tax reductions and postage postage free food parcels from home. You never know, he might even promise them proper equiment to fight his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!

[Philip, Bristol 4 Oct 2007 13:02:49]

Oh we are all waiting for the PMQs Effie.

Pru can't run and he can't hide as he did before.

Cameron will crucify him (if Pru has the guts to even turn up). Perhaps he will do what Blair did and cut the frequency of PMQs. How about once a year...that should suit him....

[The Morning Post 4 Oct 2007 12:47:05]

An election is almost certainly imminent. Brown knows that the NHS is a mess after more than ten years of his Labour government and dispite the billions upon billions of additional funding poured into it! Hence this rushed, unfinished interim report, cobbled together in weeks, no doubt detailing yet another ten year plan. Where's all the money gone Gordon? Mixed sex wards are still with us, wards are still filthy and patients are still dying due to postcode prescriptions!

[Khalid 4 Oct 2007 11:39:30]

No matter what time of the year, the fact of the matter is there is always an operation going on within the NHS. Whether Lord D'arzi' report is premature or otherwise, the NHS has been through more surgical manoeuvres than you would care to think. So why would anyone want to argue the fact that this is another "Strange" report "Grace Jones"?

[Effie 4 Oct 2007 11:36:51]

I hope there will not be an election this November.
I would rather Brown waited and went through Cameron's new pledges with a fine tooth comb and highlighted all the U-Turns, spending pledges and contradictions.
If we do get one though I think holding it on either a Saturday or a Sunday would be a good idea.
My opinion is still unchanged, there is nothing I have heard this week that would make me think other-wise not even Dave's brilliant stage acting debut, only those really serious about politics would have watched that or any of the speeches for that matter, he will not go for it, he will leave Cameron dangling on a string and the Tories I still think will fall back down again at the polls. Start all the infighting again and not be able to do a thing about it in case Brown jumps them with an election.
To put it mildly he has them with the proverbials, he knows that and I hope he keeps them there until Spring.
I think his shoulders are big enough to stand a few taunts, at least this time he CAN answer back and have the LAST word. Unlike Cameron's cowardly practice at PMQ's when Blair was PM when he tried to crucify him knowing full well that he had no right of redress.

[Peter, Fife 4 Oct 2007 10:40:42]

Hansard

Alan Johnson

4 July 2007 : Column 962

“…Professor Darzi will complete an initial assessment in three months’ time to inform the comprehensive spending review. He will produce his full report in the new year, setting out a new vision for a 21st-century NHS, coinciding with the 60th anniversary celebrations…”

Now where’s my calculator?
Add three months to 4th of July 2007
Answers on a postcard to……..

[Peter, Fife 4 Oct 2007 10:30:30]

I think part of the clue lies in Lord Ara Darzi phrase "..."This interim report is the result of my discussions and sets out a vision for the next phase of the NHS..."

What I find astounding, based on a few fiscally challenged bribes and a stage monologue that Conservatives are yet again duped by David Cameron the young pretender; it would appear that more Conservatives than David Cameron are Shallow.