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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Betting on whether or not Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Betting on whether or not Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018
William Hill have a market up whether Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018. I think taking the 2/5 on him being Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018 is the best option. Here’s why you’ll be getting a 40% return in less than ten months.
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Good morning from Mumbai, where it's scorchio!
However, even then Labour might find it difficult. Labour are the party of: "the NHS is a wonder of the world; all it's staff are saints and everything's perfect." If anything happens with that attitude, it cannot be the NHS's fault, and therefore politicians are in the bullseye.
The Conservatives are currently much more: "The NHS is generally good, but could be better." Not only is it more realistic, it also offers them a modicum of protection.
Still, anyone using the NHS should wake up each morning thankful that we have Hunt in the job, and not Burnham. The man who puts the reputation of the NHS over patients' safety.
...............................................................
FIRST ..
He was clearly heading for the top job even then...
And now a mere Cabinet Minister - How the mighty have fallen.
Indeed - Mrs May benefited from being in post 6 years. In a previous life we used to reckon the first two-three years of an assignment could be written off - learning, making mistakes, it was only from year three onwards people really started contributing (so of course, we moved people after three years...).
If you're worried about good governance, leave people in post as long as they are contributing or there isn't someone better suited to the job. If you're worried about rivals and internal factions, keep people moving.....
As deluded as a Corbyn supporter.
They claim full credit for its existence and never mention that the ball was set rolling under Churchill's coalition government. The fact that it has been run by Tory governments for the larger part of its existence never crosses their lips.
Instead they stick their fingers in their ears and seem to work upon the basis that if you say something often enough, it must be true.
It does however seem that the electorate have got tired of listening.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/us-billionaire-mercer-helped-back-brexit
quote.....Robert Mercer, who bankrolled Donald Trump, played key role with ‘sinister’ advice on using Facebook data...... unquote
Maybe we should rerun the vote
Interesting how 'Breibart' is now preceded by the word 'shadowy'
Hmm. Those odds are long. And yet, I can't see him actually winning.
Would work as a trading bet, if Hunt wanted to chance his arm.
http://news.sky.com/story/lord-heseltine-to-head-tory-rebellion-against-pm-on-brexit-10782525
It would also be a massive scoop for Labour if he were to go, so, barring a personal scandal or an inquiry/inquest pointing directly at his door, he's safe this year.
"You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job. Now behave yourself."
http://labourlist.org/2017/02/sadiq-khan-scottish-nationalism-can-be-as-divisive-as-racism/
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reid,_Baron_Reid_of_Cardowan#cite_note-39
https://youtu.be/nsCDAp_aFEg
Both TSE's tips are reasonable bets. The fact that he is rubbish, insults his own staff and cannot staff a hospital 5 days a week, let alone 7, is beside the point. Incompetence at the job (such as May controlling Non EU immigration) is completly beside the point. Incompetence has never been a bar to high office in Westminster.
I have always said Mid Staffs was not an isolated case. Read here how 10 years of warnings, five of which were under Hunt, were ignored about the Pennine Trust:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/scandalous-failings-pennine-acute-were-12467640
Just to remind you to sign this, if you've not already done so. It has been gathering momentum over the last week.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171869
The UK electorate was also led to believe that continued access to the EU single market would be likely if we voted to leave the EU. Many people believed this but the government has stated it will not be seeking to remain in the single market
Simply not true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjH4arIn-80
The only slogan on the side of the Leave EU campaign bus stated in large letters that if we left the EU, £350m per week could go to the NHS. The government has now stated that this will not happen so the reason thousands voted for Brexit and the democratic will of the people has been ignored.
Fairly marginal article though - Mercer made an introduction & presumably there was either a pitch or Alexander got paid for his work.
In an organisation the size of the NHS, there will always be mistakes. The important thing is for mistakes to be detected, corrected, and lessons learnt and spread. If possible, mechanisms should be put in place to prevent repeats.
Labour's policy seems to be to make the NHS into some sort of god-like organisation, infallible and perfect. This is a massively dangerous route to take, and directly leads to patient harm. Burnham's comments about the second Francis report is typical.
I accept this is an outside view, and that this time it might be different. But there's an element of boy-who-cried-wolf about all of this.
@skynewsniall: @lisanandy describes Jeremy Corbyn's response to Copeland as "inadequate", says party currently unelectable. See interview on @RidgeOnSunday
@skynewsniall: Rather difficult to dismiss Nandy's remarks as the ravings of a rabid Blairite.
We cannot expect the same health service in the long term if this doesn't change. The only question is when the crunch point comes.
I agree that the NHS crisis has been going since 1948, and I suspect we will continue to muddle through, with cuts here, rationing there, hospitals downsized everywhere. Scandals will continue. I voted against Brexit but agree it must be implemented, and the same goes for the NHS. The people have voted against funding it better, when given the chance and that too must be respected. It is the voters who have to live with the consequences after all, and Hunt is delivering that.
The other week I was headhunted for a job in NZ, in a delightful city that I know from when I worked there 25 years ago. I am sorely tempted, but it is a couple of years too early for me. Grandpa Fox and Fox jr need me here for a couple more years.
AIUI (from afar) the current big issue is the interaction between health and social care leading to significant bed-blocking by the infirm elderly with nowhere else to go. This is primarily a local authority rather than an NHS problem, but its leading to inefficiencies in the NHS as expensive capital equipment and staff sit idle. No-one is repaired to think outside their very small and tightly defined box, and so we are where we are. Someone needs to bang heads together, rather than praising the NHS as if it were a god.
As an example - rent out a large house for six months of winter, close to a hospital. Staff it with nurses from Manila on temp visas who live on site and earn minimum wage less an allowance for their accommodation. Transfer the bed-blockers there until they can go somewhere else, freeing up consultants, surgeons and operating theatres. This requires the NHS, LA, Home Office and planning authority to work together to arrange - something that's clearly not happening any time soon.
Thus the "boy who cried wolf" analogy is spot on. Even if there were some nefarious plan being hatched in the heart of Whitehall to sell the whole lot off to an American pharmaceutical conglomerate or some such thing (and I think we can be pretty confident that there ain't,) then pretty much the only people who would believe reports of it would be just the sort of committed Leftists who have already been predicting the end of the world - rather like a preacher from an apocalyptic cult who issues regular, and invariably false, prophecies of the imminent advent of the Rapture - for the last four decades.
The other half of the reason why Labour's NHS strategy won't work is even more obvious: namely, of course, that its leadership is literally incredible, nobody outside of the 10-15% of the electorate willing to seriously entertain a Far Left Government thinks it displays any degree of economic or broader managerial competence, and the wider Parliamentary party is gradually crumbling to rubble. Rather like the picturesque ruin of some once-great old mansion that's been gutted by a tremendous fire.
A great many voters are still suspicious of entrusting the NHS to the Tories. However, faced with a choice of management team - either Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, or Jeremy Corbyn and whoever the Hell's Shadow Health Secretary this week (I really can't be arsed to find out, and neither would 99.9% of voters) - then is it really any wonder if rather a lot of people prefer the former?
https://twitter.com/petermannionmp/status/835780156136566784
Presumably a day trip to Australia via the moon!!
If you're going to mix a metaphor you need to be Shakespeare to pull it off.
https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/chart/a-history-of-nhs-spending-in-the-uk
No one has explained what would happen if Parliament voted down Theresa May's deal following A50. How could we even start to undo all the negotiations including new legislation on work visas and meekly ask the EU, please can we come back. Complete nonsense
In all seriousness, sure few people will see he's said this and it won't change anyone's opinion, but who is his speechwriter and did they not think it a bad idea to describe Tory support as a tide, and a rising one at that given it needs stopping, the thing you famously cannot turn back?
At times, since 1948 the crisis has been about money, at times other things. I expect the crisis of staffing over the next decade is bigger than the funding problems. We simply cannot fill enough posts with enough competent staff, even when there are funds. Staffing shortages are why Whitehaven is losing its maternity and Paeds unit. I blame Hewitt for that, though no subsequent Health Minister is willing to sort it. Simpler to close units, as will also be the case in the Pennine Trust that I linked to.
Never going to happen, there's absolutely no chance that the ECJ will rule that A50 is revocable and we can somehow stay in without joining the Euro, Shengen etc. In two years and a fortnight, we'll be out.
The current focus is on Labour's woes being down to Corbyn; but I'd argue they are more that Labour doesn't have a coherent set of policies. Whoever is talking, they still have nothing to say. What if the new leader gets a hearing from the voters but they assess they are actually saying nothing.
Why hasn't anyone thought of it before?