Why are Labour and the National Health Action Party playing so hard-to-get with each other?

This is a totally independent post and does not represent the views of the Socialist Health Association.

Despite being a rather corporate slogan, ‘diversity’ is much valued, and maybe Labour should welcome a new ‘kid on the block’? If the next big thing of 2012 was ‘muscular liberalism’, perhaps Labour should not adopt a stance of ‘divisive socialism’ against newbies, the National Health Action Party (@NHAParty). Why are Labour and the National Health Action Party playing so hard-to-get with each other? This issue has been all-the-more crucial to address with the imminent by-election in the safe Tory/LibDem seat of Eastleigh.

No doubt Labour will have a full frontal range of attitudes and emotions towards the National Health Action Party: in my circle of followers on Twitters, opinions have ranged from, “they’re definitely worth listening to” to “they’ll be lucky if they get 10 votes”. Labour cannot escape from discussing the NHS, even if it feels it can still play a ‘strong hard’, but much like all else they do they run the risk of taking Labour voters for granted on the NHS.

Dr Clive Peedell (@cpeedell) doesn’t want the creeping marketisation of the NHS to go any further. Andy Burnham MP (@andyburnhammp) was the person who ventured out into ‘NHS global’, so that Foundation Trusts could sell their products abroad under the NHS logo, and who continued the march of the NHS Foundation Trust machine.

However, Andy feels now ‘enough-is-enough’. Despite being from the Labour (and some would say “New Labour”) stable, Andy has signalled that he wishes to repeal the Health and Social Care Act (2012). Of course, reversing the changes in it presents a more formidable challenge, but Andy says that he wishes to reverse Part 3 of the Act. This is code for getting rid of the fact that private companies, to which the NHS has been increasingly outsourced, will not be ‘competing’ to do what the NHS is supposed to do, using the NHS logo to maximise their own shareholder dividend. The unfortunate effect of engaging domestic and international competition law has become the ludicrous situation where the NHS cannot be given any preferential treatment for fear of offending European law, ‘distorting’ the market and so on.

There are strong economic arguments for not running the NHS in a fragmented piecemeal outsourced fashion; not least the NHS can benefit economically from ‘economies-of-scale’ and there is hope that with the proper leadership it can further national policy. Unfortunately, Sir David Nicholson and his army have stayed in situ when cultural change, when – in fact – a new charismatic change leader, is need to drive a move away from his failed ‘efficiency savings’. Efficiency was managerial speak for a Frederick Taylor-approach to management, looking at productivity and activity, meaning that one Foundation Doctor would be running around all the geriatric wards for the whole-of-the-night while his or her colleague was doing all the geriatric admissions in Casualty, to save money. The fact that you cannot have ‘something for nothing’, a popular philosophy of Thatcher, is borne out by the 400-1200 deaths in Stafford, where the inaction by the health regulatory bodies has been striking, and the political reaction somewhat confused.

In innovation, it’s possible for a new entrant to dislodge an incumbent by a slight subtlety. That is the basis of the splendid body of work by Prof Clay Christensen at Harvard Business School. However, nobody is expecting the NHA Party, co-founded by Dr Clive Peedell, a NHS oncologist, to dislodge Labour. However, Labour have openly admitted that Eastleigh is 285th on their “hit list”, so many question indeed Ed Miliband’s wisdom in spectacularly losing a safe Hampshire seat.

We have seen coalitions can work for one of the parties within it. We have also seen single-issue parties getting MPs somehow, such as Caroline Lucas in Brighton. If you park aside the perceived differences of NHA Party and Labour, given that Labour is “the party of the NHS” with its own brand loyalty, it might be conceded that Labour not winning does not further the NHS debate. It is possible that, as a protest vote against the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the NHA Party do indeed have a fighting chance of getting one MP.

And what is the point of one MP? Well what is the point of a handful of Liberal Democrats? In practice management techniques, such as PRINCE2, it is customary for there to be a ‘senior user’ as well as a ‘senior customer’ on your project board. While many will balk at the idea of ‘customers’ of NHS, unlike Prof Karol Sikora at the weekend on BBC’s “Sunday Politics”, there is a lot to be said, arguably, for input from frontline doctors and other healthcare staff in the NHS debate.

To delve into business management speak, which has possibly crippled the NHS thus far, the NHA Party and Labour have important synergies in values and competences in their outlook on the NHS. Ironically, there is an active debate about how collaboration, as well as (or rather than) competition, should be encouraged. It might be time to ‘think the unthinkable’, and consider the vague possibility that Labour, while desperately trying to fight for an electoral majority in 2015 despite the statistical odds, might benefit from a strategic alliance, or partnership, with the NHA Party. This does not need to be a formal joint venture, but, to expand the business analogy, could be a clever way for Labour to reaffirm its commitment to the NHS and for the NHA Party to gain ‘market entry’. Given that the traditional media appear not to allow the NHA Party to discuss the agenda fully, this may not be a bad thing, I feel.

Please feel free to contact me on @legalaware if you wish to have a constructive debate about any of the issues therein. Many thanks.

http://blog.scrapperduncan.com scrapperduncan

Here in Brighton and Hove, the Greens won the biggest number of seats in the most recent local elections but not a majority on the city council. The Tories came second and Labour third. Us Greens were preparing to negotiate a pact with Labour to run the council in coalition but the day after the result was declared, Labour issued a press release saying that they would never work with the Greens.

I think that isolationist politics has got into their blood as a result of their collective memories of their experiences of coalition government in the 1930s. Certainly, when I was in the Labour Party, elder members repeatedly talked about what a disaster that was. Admittedly that was back in the 1980s. Although Labour has entered into coalitions in local government, the party’s instinct is to avoid this scenario.
Rod

A strategic alliance with NHA makes some sense for Labour in a constituency such as Eastleigh – Labour could eventually benefit from any increased prominence achieved by NHA when it comes to the 2015 election (when NHA target high-profile Tory seats).

But Labour should not to be trusted, particularly as there is very little internal democracy and accountability. No doubt the vast majority of LP members would have opposed Burnham’s NHS Global initiative (if they knew about it) but even so, there is nothing they could do to restrain the executive or hold it to account. And, if power is regained, Labour’s NHS marketisation ambitions will most likely be reactivated – this is suggest by their current docile opposition to marketisation.

Better for the NHA if they become an electoral threat – this is the quickest way to win influence in national politics, just think of how the UKIP tail wags the Tory dog.
http://www.facebook.com/rachel.hardy2 Rachel Hardy

1) The Green Party is not a “single issue” party, find it hard to think anyone with any interest in politics has failed to notice that ? 2) It was the Labour Party that put the NHS on the road to the danger its facing now so backing NHS party would have to be a huge admission they got it wrong. L/P have admitted getting some things wrong, which is good, but admitting they got things wrong with the beloved NHS…despite most people having their heads in the sand re threats to NHS, that could be political suicide. 3) Backing what ScrapperDuncan says, the L/P even those who consider themselves “left” are very arrogant, they believe they are in a club which is entitled, and are stuck in that. Despite the fact that many would kill for Green Party policies/ideas/ways of working they stick to what they know, don’t like change…stuck in their ways. Not even funny these days considering what we are facing and the cruelties already being inflicted on people, eg “bedroom tax” etc. etc. 4) But hope everyone realises, saving the NHS is pointless unless we save the planet as well, these things are not separate issues.
http://www.facebook.com/adam.clifford.5 Adam Clifford

The silence from labour and it’s leadership over the H&SC Bill has totally discredited them.If they cannot fight for the public interest,the public sector,they’re just another bunch of self-seeking politicians,no different from the tories.It is apparent that politicians dont want to rock boats,that politics is about politics,not about acting in the public interest.The present system doesn’t work/is useless except for donors and lobbyists and mps/lords with financial interests.Party politics castrates constituent/constituency representation.Who wants amateurs running the country?The present,and last bunch,demonstrates this in spades.The lack of it’s relevance is reflected in poor turn-outs.Continuing in it’s present form,politics will return the same tired,compromised,prejudiced incompetence[except in pr,politicing.spinning and corruption].
Time to change.
http://www.shibleyrahman.com shibley

@Ed_Miliband’s take on #Eastleigh today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/14/ed-miliband-speech-economy-tax-policies

“You have two choices in Eastleigh: you can vote Liberal Democrat or Conservative and have more of the same, or you can vote Labour. We will fight the election very hard. You can never tell with byelections … I want to send a message right across the south of England that Labour is a party for the south as much as the north, Scotland and Wales. That is what One Nation Labour is about.”

i.e. no mention of @NHAParty