The Poisoned Chalice - the NHS

Ok, I have finally succumbed to vulgar popularism, to add my thoughts on Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister. What is it going to mean for the country and the NHS?

I am afraid that I do not like Gordon Brown. I do not like him, because in 1997, he introduced double taxation on company pension shcemes; that is, taxing pension contributions as they were paid, and then taxing them again on maturity. He removed at a stroke, £5 billion per year from pension funds and overnight, people were left with pensions that were not worth the paper they were written on. Some of the Clyde workers found their pensions reduced by 80%.What was this money used for? Tax cuts and our membership of the EU.

I also do not like him, because he is holding onto National Insurance contributions, while the NHS is crashing down about our ears through PFI debt. At the moment there is a £37billion surplus in NI. That surplus is not static; it has increased year on year by £4-6 billion.

Having said that, I do not envy him. Brown has been handed a poisoned chalice, both in terms of Iraq and the NHS. It is interesting that he has singled out the NHS as one of his priorities for government. But it leaves him in a uniquely difficult position.

At the moment, every member of the Cabinet has a hospital cutback or closure happening in their constituency. Four of them are Scots; Gordon Brown, Alasdair Darling, Des Browne and John Reid. Labour has just been thrashed at the polls in Scotland and Remedy UK, the new junior doctors protest group, is gathering momentum, as a possible threat and source of political challenge. If he does not address the closures in these constituencies, Labour could lose very badly. But the only way that the situation is going to be remedied, is if Brown grasps the PFI thistle, and makes central government take over the funding for PFI projects. That is going to cost a lot of money. So what will he do?

Well, the answer's right here. Use the £37billion NI surplus. Use the £50 billion from pensions and give us a decent health service. And do it before PFI spirals out of control. Never mind tax cuts at election time Gordon; give us a decent NHS with some decent spending on it. And please lose your friends from the private health sector like Chai Patel, who have not done you or your party any favours. Who knows, you might win the next election on it, if you're lucky.