Merry Christmas everyone

I’ve not posted a great deal lately, for a variety of reasons.  For a long while I thought that I was being haunted by the ghost of Mrs T after I likened her to the wicked witch.  That’s possible (I know it can happen because I read about it on Facebook) but I think there may be a more rational explanation: there’s not been a lot to laugh about in 2016.  John O’Farrell has argued that since the public are generally contemptuous of politicians, satire becomes more difficult, since ‘…there’s no pedestal to pull them off.’  In the New Year I plan to explore that a bit more fully, but belatedly I offer some brief thoughts on the Brexit process crudely linked to a Christmas greeting (which incidentally some of you may already have seen in card form.)

I don’t think anyone in government, Remainiacs and Brexiteers alike, thinks the Brexit process is going well.  Perhaps that’s the real reason why the Prime Minister was wearing brown trousers in those pictures.  Mrs May’s major contribution so far has been her breathtakingly perceptive assertion that Brexit means Brexit.  Well, yes, and Christmas means Christmas.  But we’ve still got to sort out whether we’re having goose or turkey, and do we really have to have Uncle Stan and Auntie Maud round every fucking Boxing Day?

If the Brexit process to date has revealed anything, it’s that nobody during the campaign, on either side, had any real idea what was going to be involved. The UK ambassador to the EU ruffled plenty of feathers when he suggested negotiations could take 10 years to complete, but not as many as Gary Lineker did when he suggested that ‘that wouldn’t be fair as most of the people who voted for it will be dead by then.’   There were outraged calls on the BBC to sack him for that gentle piece of satire – political incorrectness gone mad if you ask me.  

There’s not been a political issue in my lifetime that has raised such strong feelings, breaking up friendships, families, and marriages.  This has reached the point where people on both sides are keeping quiet about how they voted to avoid retribution from their opponents.  There will be tensions around many Christmas tables this year, as families get together for the first time since the referendum.  People will be looking at the uncle they only ever see once a year and wondering: does he think Farage is a really nice guy?

Here’s a tip. If you’re a remainer and you want to check if you’re sharing your Christmas dinner with a strident Brexiteer just ask them if they fancy any more Brussels – their response will tell you all you need to know.  Wishing you a great Christmas, and hoping that 2017 isn’t as bad as 2016.

An open goal...

OK so I'm with Jeremy C when he says we need policies not attacks on personalities, but once in a while what's a boy to do...

The Prince has got a job

During the election campaign, David Cameron announced that a key priority was to get the unemployed and work-shy off benefits and into a real job.  Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith announced today the government's first major success, as one of the country's biggest benefit claimants finally found useful employment.

I'm not a real cartoonist - just an occasional amateur; certainly I don't have the talent, commitment and above all the courage of Stephane Charbonnier and his colleagues at Charlie Hebdo.  But the attack on them was an attack on me, and anyone who tries publicly to express a view. Many, cartoonists, certainly those on the left like the Charlie Hebdo team, offered support for persecuted minorities, opposing for example western intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they - we - can't continue to express that support without our freedom of expression.

Je suis Charlie

Help stop Hunt balls

We're giving £2.50 to the Save Lewisham Hospital legal fund for each mug sold

The NHS, as a public service free at the point of use, is under threat.  Regulations introduced in March to supplement the 2012 Health and Social Care Act commit the newly established clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to put virtually all local health services out to competitive tender.  Widespread public pressure and criticism from across the medical profession forced Jeremy Hunt (always have to be careful how I spell his surname) to make last-minute revisions to the regulations. 

But they’ve not exactly improved things: for example, Regulation 5 now says CCGs can procure services from an existing provider without competitive bids only where they’re "satisfied that the services…are capable of being provided only by that provider".  But if a private provider thinks it can provide that service, it can challenge the CCG decision in the courts. 

A recent Tory policy paper suggested there should be an annual limit to the number of visits paid for by the NHS anyone can make in a year: beyond the ration, patients would have to pay.  Hunt was forced to declare that this was not, nor ever would be, part of Tory policy.  However, the idea is thought to be the brainchild of party chairman Grant ‘Alias’ Shapps, and Oliver Letwin, responsible for party policy.  Letwin it was who (reportedly) told a private meeting in 2004 that ‘…the NHS will not exist within five years’ of a Tory election victory.

Whatever, there are other more recent and tangible signs of government plans.  That well known standard-bearer of socialism, the Daily Telegraph, reported late last year that ‘more patients are going private because the NHS is increasingly cutting back on providing a range of treatments.’  It quoted Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, as saying it was “incontrovertible” that increased NHS rationing was behind the increase in going private, a trend she described as “very sad”.

But services don’t have to be threatened with privatisation to be at risk.  Medical opinion suggests that A&E services are unlikely to be attractive to private providers, as they’re too expensive – which is why they are being cut, all over the country.  One of the first to hit the headlines, largely because of a vigorous local campaign, was Lewisham A&E, which SIC reported on earlier ( At risk: an A&E near you).  Despite some local issues fundamentally the problem there is the same as that facing the other A&E services under threat: restrictions in funding leading to reduced numbers of emergency units, and – this is key – Hunt trying to act beyond his legal powers.

The Save Lewisham hospital campaign has secured a judicial review, scheduled for July.  The case essentially is that Hunt’s decision to substantially cut services at the hospital is unlawful: according to the campaign lawyer, ‘The consultation process… was flawed, the four tests Mr Hunt confirmed would have to be satisfied before any reconfiguration proposals could proceed have not been met, and the Secretary of State has misunderstood his own legal powers.’   (See Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign legal challenge).

A favourable decision in the courts would be great for Lewisham; but it could also help all the other local groups fighting similar battles – which is why we’re donating £2.50 for each of our Humpty Dumpty mugs sold to the campaign legal fund.