The National Health Action Party (@NHAParty) have an excellent chance of winning Chris Huhne’s seat Eastleigh, and here’s the rub, the Conservatives’ very own Lord Ashcroft has provided an excellent explanation why.
Chris Huhne, Lord Ashcroft, the Tories, the LibDems and the NHA Party create a “perfect storm”:
This therefore shows the popularity of the Conservatives in decline, but not as massively in decline as the Liberal Democrats.
I certainly don’t think Eastleigh voters are unintelligent: I just think they’re incredibly badly informed.
According to Lord Ashcroft from recent polling evidence, “Conservatives lead on getting the economy growing and creating jobs, as well as dealing with the deficit. Moreover, voters tend to credit these policies to the Conservatives, not their junior partners. Overall, Cameron and Osborne are more trusted to run the economy than Miliband and Balls by a wide margin – but Lib Dem voters are no more likely to choose the government team when Nick Clegg is mentioned alongside his coalition colleagues. If voters see the campaign in terms of national issues, then, the Conservatives are in a very strong position.”
That Eastleigh voters care about national issues is of massive interest. The general election in 2015 is likely to turn the phrase ‘it’s the economy stupid’ on its head, as ordinary voters prioritise what is happening in the NHS as important. This is of no surprise with Labour and the Conservatives having rewarded failure in a management based culture, where people such as Sir David Nicholson and his ‘set’ have been winners, despite deaths estimated in the region of 400-1200 at Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust.
It is a barefaced lie that the “deficit has been cut by a quarter”, and this is borne out from many different sources which are dead easy to Google. The most recent figures show that current borrowing has fallen by just 6.4 per cent since 2010, while net borrowing has fallen by 18.3 per cent. The coalition reduced net borrowing by 24 per cent between 09/10 and 11/12 but only by slashing infrastructure spending by 42 per cent and tipping the UK into a double-dip recession and, perhaps, a triple-dip recession. The UK Statistics Authority have asked the Government not to repeat the fraudulent claim that NHS spending has gone up, but the Government has ignored their request.
So voting for the Conservatives on the strength of national issues such as the economy is total bunkum.
Even Lord Ashcroft provides himself an adequate explanation for why the NHA Party could in fact do extremely well:
“Despite their disdain for the established parties, voters are very reluctant to vote for independent candidates, however much they may like the idea in principle. Both the main parties could at least form a government, and will have policies in all areas that have some chance of being implemented. In practice, independent candidates largely serve as receptacles for protest votes.
Recent years offer two notable exceptions: in 2001, Dr Richard Taylor was elected in Wyre Forest on a platform of restoring the Accident & Emergency unit at Kidderminster Hospital, and in 1997 Martin Bell was elected in Tatton on a platform of not being Neil Hamilton. These examples show that for an independent candidate to win, they need an issue that is very local, very specific and very popular. They also need the connivance of at least one major party – Labour dropped out in Tatton, and the Liberal Democrats did not stand in either seat. None of these conditions are in place for Dr Peedell’s group.”
The NHS is continuously an important issue, and so is Chris Huhne.
Chris Huhne dramatically changed his plea this week by pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice over claims that his ex-wife Vicky Pryce took speeding points for him 10 years ago. The judiciary absolutely loathe the criminal offence of perverting the course of justice as it threatens the very foundations on which the English legal system is based.
In October 2012, it was reported that, through papers unearthed under the Freedom of Information Act showed, in June 2012 4.8 per cent of patients waited over six weeks for diagnostic tests, against a target of 1 per cent. “Capacity issues in endoscopy, ultrasound and cardiac tests have impacted performance significantly in June. This will incur some small contractual financial penalties for the foundation trust.”
A&E performance in 2011 was reported as extremely bad at Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust, where several target breaches around waiting times both for elective treatment and in its emergency department had been reported also. The acute trust was given a red rating for its time to initial assessment in accident and emergency, which was recorded at two hours and 19 minutes for the 95th percentile – against a target of 15 minutes. It was also over the target of a one-hour median wait to treatment, with an average of one hour and 21 minutes.
The NHA party candidacy at Eastleigh will also be a first electoral test for the government’s Health and Social Care Act, which was primarily drafted by the Conservatives on behalf of the corporate lobbyists, but driven through last April only with support from Liberal Democrats like Chris Huhne in the Commons and decisively in the Lords.
Party co-chair Clive Peedell (@cpeedell), a cancer specialist from Teesside, said:
“We believe the Eastleigh by-election offers a huge opportunity to radically alter the nature of our broken political system. For too long the three main political parties have betrayed the trust of the UK public in a tide of political sleaze and dishonesty.
The LibDems in particular have betrayed their grassroots supporters by supporting a Conservative-led coalition that is undermining and privatising our public services with no democratic mandate, and pushing forward an austerity package that will cause long-term damage to our country.”
