Andrew Lansley

Here's an intervention from Owen Smith (MP for Pontypridd, Labour) from a Commons debate on the future of England's NHS:

Given the Secretary of State’s manifest interest in Wales, I invite him to come to Wales to meet some Welsh patients with me to find out at first hand which party they trust to safeguard the heritage of the NHS—Labour or the Tories. I suspect that the answer would be revealing for him. How much Welsh taxpayers’ money has been wasted on this needless reorganisation of the NHS?

Why is this little scrote even present during this debate, let alone asking questions; and why on earth will he get a vote on any legislation relating to the reorganisation of the Health Service in England?

This was Andrew Lansley's response:

The hon. Gentleman must know that the money available to the NHS in Wales is available to the NHS in Wales, and that it is separate from England. The Labour Welsh Assembly Government have made their own decisions about the priority that they attach to the national health service in Wales, and the result is, as the King’s Fund says, that they plan to reduce its budget by 8.3% in real terms. We are going to increase the NHS budget in real terms. The result can be seen in waiting times, which we were talking about. In England, the proportion of patients admitted to hospital who are seen within 18 weeks, according to the latest data, is 89.6%. He might like to reflect on the fact that the figure for Wales is 64.5%.

It seems like a reasonable response, until you understand that Andrew Lansley often talks and sends out press releases that give the impression that he is speaking about the NHS across the UK (see here & here), when in fact his remit is for England only. So perhaps Lansley is fully deserving of idiotic and pointless intrusions into English domestic matters from MPs who are democratically unaccountable to the people of England. Actually, given that Lansley doesn't support an English parliament, there's no perhaps about it, he deserves to have his reforms shat upon by MPs elected outside England.

David Cameron has pledged to support children's hospices in England. Good. And I say that without my usual cynicism.

But as usual the press release made no mention of the fact that this was an announcement about England.

Dear Mr Lansley,

I welcome the fact that you have pledged £10M to fund childrens' hospices.

From your press release it is unclear as to whether this is £10M for childrens' hospices in England or £10M across the whole UK.

Ensuring proper funding for children's hospices

Please could you tell me whether this £10M is pledged for England or the UK?

Many thanks,

Gareth

---

Many thanks for your email to Mr Lansley. I can confirm that it is for England.

kind regards
Connie

Connie Sturgess
Office of Andrew Lansley CBE MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Health

---

Thank you Connie.

Is there some reason the Conservatives never mention England on their website? Various stories that concern England are presented as if there is no territorial dimension - a casual reader would probably conclude that they apply to the entire UK.

For example.
Universities bailing out students due to loan delays
Almost 65,000 children a day are skipping school
Lansley calls for action to reverse public health time bomb
Curriculum changes will lead to children learning less

These articles relate specifically to England, yet they make no mention of that fact. I'm curious as to why.

Best,

Gareth

---

Unless we state otherwise our announcements relate to England, we will state UK/Scotland/Wales if the announcement relates to these. Most people understand that Wales and Scotland are devolved. Thank you for your comment though.

Merry Christmas!

kind regards
Connie

Connie Sturgess
Office of Andrew Lansley CBE MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Health

---

Thank you for the clarification. Given that it is a UK website - the website of the UK Conservative Party - I had assumed that announcements related to the United Kingdom unless otherwise stated. But as by default it is an English website that also carries UK, Scottish and Welsh announcements, I can see your logic.

Many thanks, and a merry Christmas to you.

Gareth

So there you have it. Anything you read on www.conservatives.com relates to England unless it explicitly states otherwise.

Having forgotten to mention the dreaded E-word in their first press release of the day, the Tories have now forgotten to mention England in the next two.

First up is Andrew Lansley reporting on the King's Fund Report into the English NHS.

Next on the rostrum of anti-English forgetfulness is serial dullard Michael Gove with a toothless rejoinder to the Government's proposed changes to the English primary curriculum.

According to Wikipedia Michael Gove has been called the "Tories' one-man think-tank". Oh dear! Bad news for the Tories if their one-man think-tank doesn't know what country he's talking about. Apparently he can't even pick up the Telegraph and educate himself as to the facts:

A major review of the primary curriculum in England recommends that computing skills usually taught at secondary school should transfer to the youngest pupils.

The BBC got it right too:

A major review of the curriculum for England's primary schools suggests that six broad "areas of learning" could replace individual subjects.

Michael Gove is a prime example of education gone bad. He has poor reading skills, an inability to communicate ideas, he doesn't know his geography and he doesn't listen.

When will they learn to say England?