Shroud-waving Lib Dems in South Wales West have been trying very hard to engender a panic over the future of cardiac surgery at Swansea. Having convinced themselves that the unsubstantiated threat of further NHS centralisation in Cardiff is a vote-winner – or more accurately, a Labour vote-loser – they have breathlessly set about trying to induce outrage among the punters.
Their big problem however is that no-one is listening. The anxiety expressed by candidates sounds to BBC and Western Mail ears to be very similar to Plaid’s dire warnings of hospital closures. Few of them see much wrong with centralising things in the capital anyway. On balance, the threat to free IVF treatment in the city is seen as far more newsworthy and it’s a real doctor making the claim.
Another unhelpful factor for the Lib Dem strategy is that most electors who saw last weekend’s lurid headlines of threatened services simply regarded the story as another is a series of negative accounts seen in recent weeks. Worse still, the local paper changed tack after a ministerial mouthpiece pretty much dismissed the allegations - albeit by proxy.
As things stand, and based on feedback gained from the doorsteps by various parties, the cardio business is actually far less of an issue for people than the amount of litter & fly-tipping linked to fortnightly rubbish collections which Lib Dem-controlled council introduced a few months back as a major saving environmental initiative. Ho hum.
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