Ed Miliband nearly got it right twice last week.
First he said the NHS Bill was going to be the Tories’ new Poll Tax. Then he said the same bill could become another tuition fees debacle for the Lib Dems.
You can almost feel him groping for the right political analogy. He knows it’s there, just eluding his grasp. So let me help him out.
Ed, you need to jam those thoughts together. The NHS Bill is going to be the Tories’ tuition fees fiasco.
We know a bit about how this works in the Lib Dems. You make some promises. You associate yourself personally with those pledges. You even start running advertising assuring everyone that everything is safe in your hands. And then, when you’re in power, you do the complete opposite. And the electorate crucify you for it.
Admittedly this has taken a little longer to pin on the Tories. I wrote a year ago, when reforms were first introduced, that this would happen and have been bemused ever since that folk haven’t been more livid that the promise of “no top down reorganisations of the NHS'” appears to have been a bit of a fib. Especially when the likes of Andrew Mitchell go on the BBC and assert (as he did yesterday) that Andrew Lansley had been planning this for 5 years in opposition. (Given how things are panning out, I use planning in the loosest of terms).
I guess when, generally speaking, the country has such a low expectation of a Conservative politician keeping a promise, it takes longer for the anger to really sink in than it did for us Lib Dems, for whom people really did have higher hopes.
Which brings me to the little matter of redemption.
A couple of weeks ago it looked like Cameron was going to seize the day, drop the NHS bill, fire Lansley, and paint himself as the man who saved the NHS. There was an open goal there. For some reason he didn’t take it. Who knows – maybe he really does believe in the reforms. Wouldn’t that be a turn up?
Anyway, Cameron welded himself firmly to the Bill. Which means there is a vacancy going for a political leader willing to grasp the nettle, kill the bill and save the NHS. Ed Miliband would love to take it. But he of course, has no power. No, it needs someone who could actually stop the Bill, negotiate some sensible compromises with the Tories and Labour – everyone agrees some changes would be a good thing – and go some way to restoring the faith of a nation in their political acumen. And their principles.
Hey, Nick. Carpe Diem.
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