Ambulance chasing

Ever so ‘umble Peter Black was back in action this morning demanding that public money is spent “effectively and efficiently”. The Lib Dem had pounced on news that Welsh Ambulance Service vehicles were still not suitable for active service – although there was no actual reported operational shortage.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that mental health experts have warned the ConDem coalition against the pace of planned incapacity benefit cuts. In an open letter to the paper, leading mental health charities and a senior consultant from the Royal College of Psychiatrists state that changes to welfare system are having a 'devastating' impact.

"We've found that the prospect of incapacity benefit reassessment is causing huge amounts of distress and tragically there have already been cases where people have taken their own life following problems with changes to their benefits”, says the letter.

They add, "We are hugely worried that the benefits system is heading in a direction which will put people with mental health problems under even more pressure and scrutiny, at a time when they are already being hit in other areas such as cuts to services”.

Bet you don't read about that one on Freedom Central.