“I’m gonna find the man who’s selling the NHS and kick him in the goonies” – what @RufusHound‘s son said to him ahead of our euro launch.
— NHA Party (@NHAparty) April 27, 2014
Clearly this should have read ‘goolies’ ideally, but part of the joke might have been that the remark was made by a six-year old (Rufus Hound’s son).
No offence therefore to any Arsenal fans!
In as much the NHAP has a ‘poster boy’, it is Aneurin Bevan.
Numerous offerings from the NHAP have elaborated on a theme of how good it would be if the ‘fight for the NHS’ , which no-one really expected, could pay due respects to the origins of the NHS and the “spirit of ’45”.
The NHAP had its launch for the European elections this morning at the Roxy Bar and Restaurant, Borough High Street, London SE1.
Previously, in the campaign trail, there had been eyebrows raised at something which came from the NHA Party’s direction.
Rufus Hound, a confirmed atheist, is without doubt a compelling force to be reckoned with.
Hound, who announced his desire to stand for the NHA Party on the BBC “Jonathan Ross Show” at the end of January 2014, had made in parody the remark, “David and Jeremy love your children so much they could just die, squealing in ecstasy”.
Even candidate Louise Irvine had been asked about the general area of comment by Andrew Neil.
But Irvine gave an explanation for the comment, and Neil was clearly going through the motions in political discourse.
Here is Louise Irvine’s pitch from today.
Hound explained beyond any reasonable doubt that the comment had been meant as a joke, making a passing reference to Toby Young of ‘free schools fame’, and son of the very influential Labour peer Lord Young.
One of the biggest bits of news of the day was that Marcus Chown, @marcuschown, author of “What a wonderful world: one man’s attempt to explain the big stuff” and other hugely popular science books, announced his intention to stand in the European elections. This is a major coup for the NHA Party as Chown has a remarkable social media presence.
A recurrent theme, unsurprisingly for the European elections, was how the transatlantic trade treaty between the EU-US could, unless properly negotiated, give excessive negotiating power to multinational corporates.
This is now a significant issue in the way the NHS is run, as it potentially takes away too social, economic and political sovereignty through what is technically known as the ‘investor protection clauses’.
It has been frustrating for many that there has been thus far little discussion of this matter in the traditional media, though the people I spoke to this morning, quite unrepresentative of the usual general public, were extremely well informed about the issue.
Dr Clive Peedell MRCP, one of the Co-Leaders of the NHA Party, is a Consultant Oncologist (Physician) in the NHS, with insights into how marketisation in the NHS has gone catastrophically wrong.
He kicked off with the issue this morning:
And resuming the football theme, Hound likened the NHS to a “political football” which was “gradually becoming deflated due to all the kicking by all the major political parties.”
It is inconceivable that the NHA Party will form the next Westminster government on their own, but they have never had public aspirations for that. Because of the way that the European elections work through proportional representation, they have a chance to make an impact in the European elections, though heavily disadvantaged by lack of interest from the mainstream media.
But these are issues which resonate with many.
For example, many people are concerned in the stranglehold that the private finance initiative, criticised recently by Margaret Hodge MP in the influential Public Accounts Committee, has had on NHS policy.
Various frontline nurses explained to me their concerns about unsafe staffing, in not being able to deliver the care that they would like to deliver.
One candidate has even been a registered nurse for 35 years, now specialising in the tricky area of pain management.
The unanimity in the ‘efficiency savings’ in national policy weighs heavily against them.
The analogy to football may not be the right one.
Rugby may be more suitable. It’s possible that an incoming Labour government might have to pick up the ball on May 8th 2015, and issues such as the notorious efficiency savings, PFI and even TTIP might have to be settled by the Chancellor of the Exchequer rather than the Secretary of State for Health at the time.
So continuing the sporting analogies, the ball might end up out of Burnham’s court, and this would indeed be very disappointing for many grassroots activists in the meantime.
But, notwithstanding, the NHA Party, whatever their ultimate fate as individuals, are clearly a bunch of plucky determined individuals who feel they’ve made the correct diagnosis, and do not wish to step back and do nothing. They should be given enormous credit for that, at least.
