Among the wordage over how the Welsh NHS has been disgracefully underfunded compared with its English equivalent in the last six years are two surprises.
The first is that the Welsh Assembly Government has admitted to this hugely embarrassing fact without anyone resorting to a Freedom of Information request - and that the only official explanation on offer is that the gap is “a legacy of the underfunding of Wales as a whole”.
Of course, such a bizarre rationale opens up a whole new other set of questions, such as could you please remind us who was in charge during this period of underfunding, etc. But the uncharacteristically stupid transparent response has also prompted speculation that Welsh ministers have decided to emulate the softening up process effectively deployed so far by their ConDem counterparts in Westminster in advance of spending cuts.
The second surprise, arising from a Lib Dem comment in the same article, is that the ubiquitous Peter Black has been quietly dumped from his health spokesperson perch by newcomer Veronica German. The effect of this very quiet transition – which somehow did not even merit a mention on his blog – is that both Black and German are credited as holding almost identical shadow portfolios on the Assembly website.
The upshot is that Black still managed to find his way onto BBC Wales radio this morning to speak on the health underfunding issue – but in his brand new incarnation of finance spokesman.
Then again, confusion does seem to beset Welsh Lib Dems at the moment. No more so than over comments by national party chief executive Jo Foster, who amazingly seemed to predict at last week’s IWA conference that Kirsty Williams should not plan on becoming a (real) minister after next year’s elections. The implication is that the party expects to fare very badly in Wales as a result of its power-sharing deal with Cameron.
Perhaps a more apposite footnote to the situation however is the irony that Aneria Thomas, the first baby born under the NHS and named after Aneurin Bevan, is now facing a £50,000 bill for the care of her late relatives.
5 Comments:
VG can't be that highly regarded in her new job as it was Kirsty who responded to WAG plans to reintroduce assumed organ donation plans with an opt-out. She also writes about it in Freedom Central.
I think you will find that Kirsty was responding to an announcement by Carwyn Jones - and not the health minister. Protocol and all that.
I think you've hit the nail on the head as regards motive. This so-called admission plus Jane Hutt's announcement that spending cuts will go ahead this year is indicative of bad news in coming weeks. I predict that this will be a barbecue summer for the quangos.
So Veronica German becomes an AM on 2 July and is immediately installed as Welsh Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health, Local Government and Equality. Amazing.
Well at least the prententious tosspots have stopped describing themselves as "Welsh Liberal Democrat shadow ministers".
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