Monthly Column
Oct 2005
Oct 2005
This summer the main subjects on peoples lips seem to be ID cards and the loss of our local Hospital.
Regular readers will know I have an interest as I was born at West Herts, had my tonsils out and the A and E dept saved my life, so you could say, I’m biased. However, it looks as though through a combination of government policies, suggested mis-management and lots of land available for housing (whoops, did I actually say that - well wash my mouth out with soap and water), it could be curtains for having a general hospital actually located somewhere useful like near to a town centre and where residents who need the services provided actually live. It’s convenient for the motorway, public transport and even had a railway line alongside. It even has a nice new maternity wing and Accident & Emergency unit.
What it doesn’t have, is enough money to run it, which begs the question ‘why’. The Primary Care Trusts were set up during my short time on the Borough Council in the late 1990’s and I must admit their organisation (?) and attitudes left a lot to be desired even then. The problem, as with most of these ‘quangoes’, is they are made of of ‘worthies’ who seem to have an interest, but little else. It’s like the Channel Tunnel, it is decided that it must happen and someone is charged with doing just that, whether or not it is a good or right route to take. In that particular case, it was predicted huge profits could be made (good to get gullible banks on board) and everyone now wonders why it cannot even service the interest debt.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, a similar cunning plan was put into place under the guise of ‘devolving power down to a local level’ aka ‘ it’s a drain on resources, let’s get someone (in this case PCT’s) else to make a dogs breakfast and ensure funding is kept tight, so they haven’t a hope of actually achieving anything’. We know the situation cannot get better and, with luck, they can be convinced that the only way out of the hole and ensure a better position in another official bodies to do our bidding, would be to reduce local facilities. In Hemel Hempstead’s case, the close proximity of land designated for expansion can be sold off to developers and help fund the next generation of ‘super hospitals’ located centrally.
So much for local control!
Also, the Prime Minister seems to be loosing control of his government departments - or is it that being ‘economical’ with the truth is the politicians way of hanging onto power?
It seems that having been asked how many illegal immigrants there are in the country, ministers have said repeatedly that it was impossible to put an estimate on the number. Suddenly at the end of June (after the election, of course!), the Home Office seems to now be able to achieve the impossible.
Apparently you take the number of immigrants who filled in the 2001 census form, take this number from the the estimated number you first thought of (but didn’t tell anyone who asked), add in the number who pay tax and national insurance, deduct the number you know are here, but maybe should or shouldn’t, stick wet finger in air so the final number doesn’t look politically too bad and for good measure give the answer in a range lower that most ‘field workers’ reckon is realistic.
