Shoulder operation becomes political
Health, and whether increased investment is reaching the front line, was the key spat between Labour and the Conservatives this week.
Conservative leader Michael Howard first raised the case of pensioner Margaret Dixon at Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday. He claimed that her operation had been cancelled six times, something he said was systematic of Labour’s failure to get investment to the frontline.
Labour hit back, saying that the NHS as a whole was improving and dispatched Health Secretary John Reid up to the hospital in question to investigate for himself – whereupon he suggested Mrs Dixon was being used as a political pawn. And, the row rumbled on into Friday.
This somewhat derailed the focus on Labour’s major set-piece launch of the week, their mini-education manifesto. In this, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly promised a tailored curriculum for each pupil, with parents given a greater say.
Overall it was a busy week with all of the main three parties making major policy announcements.
The weekend started off slowly, with the Conservatives pushing their twin messages of cutting public sector waste and standing up for the rights of the “forgotten majority”. As such they published plans to merge all sports administrative bodies into a single one-stop-shop. They followed this up on the Sunday with a promise to stop criminals profiting from publishing.
Sunday also saw the re-emergence of the perennial debate about the relationship between the Chancellor Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Tony Blair. On the same day that a poll was published suggesting that Labour’s popularity would increase if Gordon Brown was leader, campaign co-ordinator Alan Milburn was forced to deny that there was any rift between him and the Chancellor.
In terms of policy launches, the week got into its stride with the publication of the Liberal Democrats’ alternative Budget which promised, among other things to scrap Council Tax, and raise the current Stamp Duty threshold.
Friday saw the political agenda ramp up once more with the Green Party conference, the Liberal Democrat spring conference, the Scottish Labour Party conference and the Sinn Fein conference all opening to various degrees of controversy.
