The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

34 The Sunday Times November 28, 2021

NEWS

The left claims Tories have been planning to

privatise the NHS. If only there had been a plan

Robert Colvile

policy reversals are common across

Whitehall. But recent health secretaries

haven’t even been able to agree on

whether their job is to run the NHS or to

hold it to account. Sajid Javid, the latest,

finds himself shepherding through

legislation drafted by Matt Hancock,

based on proposals from Stevens, to

undo Lansley’s changes. Stevens himself

has now been replaced by Amanda

Pritchard. And all this while the health

service struggles to cope with the

consequences of the pandemic.

To his credit, Javid and his team

understand the issues. They are

explicitly studying the lessons of the

education revolution, and have even

brought in Barber to advise them. They

are rationalising the quangos. Workforce

and digital transformation are being

brought back under the control of NHS

England. Funding is being shifted

towards primary care and prevention.

The question is whether these

reforms end up representing a

movement or a moment. The charge

from the left is that the government has a

long-term plan to move the NHS towards

privatisation. The real problem with the

health service is that there hasn’t been a

consistent plan at all.

@RColvile

said, ‘Let there be Gove.’” Or, to quote

Johnson, opening one of the first free

schools in 2012: “The secretary of state

for education has added a new word to

the English language: ‘I give, they gave,

he gove.’”

But Barber is right. Gove’s reforms

were dramatic, and overwhelmingly

positive, but they essentially

turbocharged the Blair agenda. Indeed,

while the churn in education secretaries

has been ridiculous — imagine a

company having 17 chief executives in 33

years — there are key themes that

repeatedly crop up, starting with Baker

and Keith Joseph in the 1980s: tougher

basic standards; devolution of budgets

and responsibility to the front line;

clearer accountability; better training

and leadership; a willingness to

intervene when schools are failing.

As a result, while things are still very

far from perfect, the education system

has had significant improvement. As

Barber’s report says, “There are now

many more good schools than 30 years

ago, far fewer bad schools, vastly more

good teachers and far fewer poor ones.”

Which brings us back to the NHS.

The health service, like education, has

been through repeated reform over the

past 30 years. But it is hard to discern

O

ver the past week a rather

magnificent conspiracy theory

has been circulating on the

left. It holds that the prime

minister’s speech to the CBI on

Monday was a Machiavellian

masterstroke. By getting the

pages of his speech the wrong

way round, and securing days of

negative headlines, he ensured the

public failed to pay attention to the

Tories’ NHS reforms. In the words of the

Labour MP Jon Trickett, “Peppa Pig was

a media distraction to disguise the

handover of your NHS to private health.”

This theory is a rare example in

politics of the double fruit loop. Its

validity depends on a crowd-pleasing

prime minister deliberately tanking a

key speech, in the service of a cunning

plan that doesn’t actually exist. Experts

agree there is absolutely nothing in the

Health and Care Bill that moves the NHS

towards privatisation. In fact, it reverses

previous expansion of choice and

competition. So, of course, Trickett has

attracted thousands of retweets.

In fact, there’s a more interesting —

and important — story to tell about NHS

reform. And it ties in to a new

Foundation for Education Development

report by Sir Michael Barber, who has

been Whitehall’s go-to expert on policy

delivery for the past 20 years, setting up

“delivery units” for both Tony Blair and

Boris Johnson.

Barber and his co-author interviewed

14 of the 17 living education secretaries,

from Kenneth Baker to Gavin

Williamson. And they say two

unfashionable things. The first is that

these were mostly good people, trying

hard to do their best for the country and

its children. And the second is that,

despite their very different personalities

and priorities, they largely shared an

analysis of what was wrong with the

schools system and how to improve it.

Yes, there is a clear pattern of radical

reformers — Baker, David Blunkett,

Michael Gove — being followed by

“consolidators” with orders to calm

things down. But whether they were

tapping the brakes or the accelerator,

taking the motorway or the side roads,

they were heading in the same

approximate direction (with long-

serving juniors such as Andrew Adonis

and Nick Gibb helping greatly with the

navigation).

This may seem heresy to some

Conservatives. Their narrative of

education reform essentially goes: “In

the beginning was the Blob. And God

A map of the NHS’s

organisation looks

like a conspiracy

theorist’s

whiteboard

map of how the health service was

organised. It ended up looking like a

conspiracy theorist’s whiteboard.

“The NHS has suffered badly from

swinging between radical centralisers

and radical decentralisers,” admits

Jeremy Hunt, Lansley’s successor as

health secretary. He argues that

reformers have never managed to find a

way — as happened in education — to

combine empowerment with

accountability: to devolve power and

funding to those on the front line while

making sure they get results.

But some of the discontinuities are

more basic still. Andy Cowper of Health

Policy Insight points to the decision in

2006 to fix a short-term funding crisis by

slashing training budgets, which

contributed to staff shortages that still

plague the NHS. And even when there

has been strategic thinking, he says,

there has been little consensus about

fundamental issues: “The problem today

is not just rising demand, but a shortage

of supply, in terms of the capacity of the

workforce. But the assumption from

politicians often seems to be that people

just haven’t been shouting at the NHS

loudly enough.”

This isn’t just a problem with the NHS.

High turnover of ministers and repeated

anything like a golden thread. Blair

imposed rule by targets, while throwing

money at the system in general and

waiting lists in particular. Andrew

Lansley took things in a completely

different direction (for which nobody

now has a good word). Simon Stevens, as

head of NHS England, ripped up the

Lansley reforms in favour of greater

integration, via the bill that is now going

through parliament. Layers of

bureaucracy have been added and taken

away, quangos and incentives created

and then abolished. In 2017 the King’s

Fund think tank attempted to produce a

Mad cyclists need

to be regulated

A leading retailer of e-scooters

thinks they should have

numberplates, and your poll

suggests that readers agree

(News, last week). But why

stop there? Bicycles should

also be registered.

Recently I almost

demolished a lunatic cyclist

who was weaving through the

traffic in a badly lit London

street at breakneck speed. His

cycle had no lights, he was

wearing dark clothing and no

helmet and he was running

red lights.

I have no problem with

cyclists who observe the

Highway Code and behave

with due regard to other

road-users. But the fact is that

many don’t, and we should

deny them the opportunity of

being an accident statistic.

David Sorton, Billingshurst,

West Sussex

Real-world experience

Like many, I am a cyclist, a

pedestrian and a car driver —

and I have used e-scooters in

Paris and London. I can say

that e-scooters are the worst,

dangerous to oneself and

others. Yes, they work well in

the promotional videos, on a

clear road with no bumps or

holes — but the real world is

very different.

Neil Fletcher, London W1

Lazy lanes

Adult e-scooters are a lazy

and frankly embarrassing

way to get about, but if these

wheeled menaces are to

become an established part

of the urban transport scene,

planners need to supply them

with their own highway

channels. Pedestrians or

cyclists (who actually have to

put physical effort into their

travelling) should not have to

share pathways with them.

Kate Perez, Cambridge

that they do — and that

women’s choices, by

default, should always be

treated as sacrosanct — is an

insult to our feminist

foremothers.

Teenagers and young

women are still being told

that attractiveness and sexual

availability are intrinsically

linked to their worth. What is

sad is that it’s now their

fellow women who are

pushing this idea.

Nellie O’Toole

Middlesbrough

Last week we explored the debate on nudity and feminism

Our canine correspondent in

the Magazine has a devoted

following — and readers quite

like to know what Andrew

Cotter has been up to as well.

Last weekend he was

pressing the need for would-

be owners to adopt a rescue

pet rather than buy a puppy.

But it’s not always that easy,

as Amy Jackson explained:

“Adoption agencies have

started setting the bar way

too high. We’ve had our track

record of three successful

adoptions waved aside as

irrelevant because the dog

may be left alone for four

hours rather than three.

People are being turned away

because their fence has been

extended with chicken wire

rather than expensive

panelling.” “Absolutely,”

agreed Yorkshire lass. “Our

daughter was desperate to

adopt but the rescue charities

wouldn’t consider her.” Tom

M recommended “Many

Tears Animal Rescue in

Wales. The staff will deliver

your dog at stops on the M1 if

you are far away, save dogs

doomed for kill centres and

have a realistic rehoming

policy.”

Now, what links

Bolognese, Maltese, pug and

papillon? They are all toy

dogs? That’s true, but the

answer we were looking for is

that they formed a question

in the BBC quiz show Only

Connect, which turned out to

have an ardent following

among readers. Stephen

Fletcher was one of the

faithful and boasted: “Very

occasionally I get one of the

questions correct.” “Me too,”

said John — The Original:

“Very, very occasionally I get

a question the teams don’t

get.” “We call those

Connectobombs,” cheered

Christopher Jackson. The

questions are certainly tough,

but Nigel Evans lamented:

“ts thn swrs strg glw th.”

We published gritty photos

Last week we asked:

Should e-scooters be required to have numberplates?

From a poll of 7,551 Times and Sunday Times readers

This week’s question:

Would you buy a fake Christmas tree to save the planet?

Have your say at sundaytimes.co.uk/poll

1919 Nancy, Viscountess

Astor, wins by-election to

become first female MP

1990 Margaret Thatcher

gives resignation speech

from doorstep of No 10

2000 Netherlands passes

bill to legalise euthanasia,

the first country to do so

Liddle difference

Rod Liddle worries that giving

up smoking has caused his

personality to change,

making him a sanctimonious

twerp (Comment, last week).

He shouldn’t fret. He has not

changed at all.

David Simpson

Darby Green, Hampshire

Short shrift

The acronym Hogo — hassle

of going out — is a new one on

me (News Review, last week),

but it calls to mind an

acquaintance of mine who

was a busy general manager.

He would sometimes tell his

secretary that for the rest of

the day he was in a CBA

meeting and could not be

disturbed. He rightly

assumed nobody would ask

what the meeting was. If they

had, they would have learnt

that CBA stood for “Can’t be

arsed”. It worked a treat.

Keith Nicholson

East Boldon, Tyne and Wear

Character assassination

Matthew Syed’s warning

about the dangers of social

media is welcome and much

needed (Comment, last

week). The insight echoes

words found in Othello: “Who

steals my purse steals trash

... But he that filches from me
my good name ... makes me
poor indeed.” The fact that
the lines are spoken by the
duplicitous Iago does not
detract from this truth.
Terry Carter, Edlesborough
Buckinghamshire

Appreciating assets

Further to your piece “The

great retirement” (Business,

last week), I’d argue there’s a

simple reason many people

have left the workforce since

Covid: they have realised that

life is precious. Many have

thought, “I’ve enough to

retire on — why keep

working?” As the Gospel of

Matthew says: “You know not

the day nor the hour.”

The Rev Dean Henley

Driffield, East Yorkshire

Climate of fear

Robert Colvile refers to

research showing that young

people are worried about

bringing childen into a world

of uncertainty due to climate

change (Comment, last

week). Let’s hope the feelings

remain: if so, catastrophic

climate change is less likely.

Chris Mills

Ryton, Tyne and Wear

Blowing the wrong way

Jamie Nimmo’s engaging

interview with the head of

SSE described the financial

games played with wind

farms by multibillion-pound

energy companies (Business,

last week). But it did not

mention the vast subsidies

included silently in the bill of

every household. These

represent a huge transfer of

money from the poor to the

rich. Until they are removed,

the plutocratic bosses will

happily play their self-

indulgent financial games.

Philip Sullivan

Lutterworth, Leicestershire

Comfortable seat

Ross McKean says that the

“mediocrity” of MPs is due to

the low salary (Letters, last

week). I could not disagree

more. They are far better

paid than the vast majority of

British people (whose taxes

pay their salaries), and surely

a high salary is the wrong

motive for entering public

service in any case.

Pete Dorey, Bath

Free pass

I greatly enjoyed the tale of

Oxford dons helping the son

of the dictator Ferdinand

Marcos to pass his exams

(News, last week). When I

was studying in Poland in the

1980s, the son of a prominent

communist functionary failed

his exams. Pressure was

exerted, and one candid

examiner wrote in his exam

book: “Knowledge of subject:

zero. On the orders of the

chancellor: pass.” I guess that

is why communism fell.

Andrew Fedyszak, London W11

Armando Iannucci is 58

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of British life since the 1960s,

and a picture of a 1970s male

stripper caused much mirth

in Hermes: “The girl with her

hands covering her face looks

like she’s about to have a

stroke ... but she couldn’t

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Your comments from

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Kriss Akabusi, athlete, 63

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Motown, 92

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I write from Hastings, which Sian WilliamsSa a s, broadcaster, 57, b oadcaste , 5

you featured in two very

different reports last week:

one on the help offered to

migrants by locals, the other

echoing the government’s

increasingly shrill rhetoric of

crisis (News, last week).

There is no refugee crisis.

The overall numbers of

asylum seekers are down from

last year. The 24,000 who

have crossed the Channel

have done so because they

have no other route: formerly

they might have taken a flight.

Here is what your revered

writer the late AA Gill wrote

when he watched refugees

being tenderly welcomed on

the Mediterranean island of

Lampedusa in 2013. “The

reason the Lampedusans are

kind and good to these

desperate visitors is because

they can be. They’ve met

them and they see them; the

reason we can talk about

‘them’ as a problem, a plague

on our borders, is because we

don’t see them. If any of these

refugees knocked on our

doors and asked for help, we

would give it ... because we

are also good and kind.”

This kindness is what we

are seeing in Hastings, where

the outpouring of support is

overwhelming. If we do have

a crisis, it is a crisis of the

attempted and wilful

destruction of our empathy —

which, nevertheless, burns

very brightly in our town.

Dr Felicity Laurence, Hastings

Firm hand

As a taxpayer, I am appalled

by the number of illegal

migrants flooding into this

country at my expense.

Welcome to the land of milk

and honey — let me shake

your hand.

Draconian but humane

measures are required. Illegal

entrants should be first

housed in detention centres,

not hotels. Those who are not

provably fleeing persecution

should be shipped back to

their EU country of entry.

Those who knowingly employ

illegal migrants should be

heavily fined.

All illegal migrants are

perpetrating a fraud on those

migrants who seek to enter

this country legally.

Nigel Duckworth, Dartmouth

Lost control

Boris Johnson said Brexit

would allow us to take back

control of our borders. Now

you report that as members

of the EU we were able to

transfer hundreds of migrants

a year back to the first

member state they entered,

whereas only five of the

migrants who reached Britain

by boat this year have been

returned. The arguments over

hard Brexit or soft Brexit now

seem irrelevant: what has

been delivered is just a very

badly thought-out Brexit.

Graham Davies

Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

Mettle of Hastings

The pictures of Hastings

residents helping migrants

make me feel proud to be

British. We have created an

attractive, free society, which

many people want to be part

of. Welcome!

Bob Riddler, London E14

Free ride

“HM Coastguard has been co-

ordinating search and

rescue,” you report. Why is

the coastguard setting out to

provide a taxi service for

those who willingly put

themselves in danger? In

effect, they are being assisted

to enter this country by our

own government.

Thomas Bidwell

Newtown, Powys

My town won’t let

the migrants down

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BIRTHDAYS

CORRECTIONS &

CLARIFICATIONS

Better plate than never

Last week I was driving at

30mph up a hill, only to be

overtaken by an e-scooter.

What’s needed is regulated

roadworthiness standards;

speed restriction;

numberplate; mandatory

insurance; and, dare I say it, a

test before one can use these

devices.

Paul Lishman, London SW16

NO

89% 11 %

YES

READERS’ POLL

Posing nude is a

feminist betrayal

Your article “Blurred lines:

can selling your body ever be

empowering?” (News Review,

last week) was a perfect

illustration of the problems

with “choice feminism”. The

decisions over whether to

post nude or semi-nude

pictures, to set up an

OnlyFans account or to take

part in pornography do not

exist in a vacuum. To suggest

Never safe, never free

This choosy-choice

empowered rubbish is not

feminism. Just because a

woman is making a choice,

that does not make it a

feminist act.

If you are taking part in the

business of women’s bodies

being sold to men for their

sexual gratification, you are

perpetuating a world in

which women’s lives are less

valuable than men’s pleasure.

A world in which women will

never be equal, will never be

safe and will never be free.

Feminism is about tearing

that world down, not

propping it up.

Olivia Smith, Manchester

Lust comes first

Alongside the feminist issue

of empowerment for a few

successful women, we also

have the feminist issue of

modern slavery, which is

alive and well in our cities in

the form of vulnerable

immigrant women who are

tricked and trafficked into sex

“work”.

It is hard to see how people

can support one and

campaign against the other —

when it is male lust that

facilitates both.

Claire Skrine, London W1

Mandatory jabs

will save lives

Austria’s decision to make it

mandatory for citizens to

have the Covid vaccination is

a good one (“Austria erupts as

protesters decry vaccine

‘dictatorship’”, News, last

week). Yes, the policy is an

infringement of human

rights, but this works both

ways. Surely citizens should

also have the right to travel

on public transport, attend a

concert and so on without the

risk of contracting a deadly

disease; and to go to hospital

without finding they cannot

be treated because it is

overflowing with antivaxers.

David Simmonds, Woking

No, Vienna

That’s Austria off the bucket

list, then. One would have

thought the country had had

enough of compulsion, but

clearly history is low on the

Viennese curriculum.

Charles Foster, Chalfont St

Peter, Buckinghamshire

Mask action

Why does the government

not mandate the wearing of

masks in public indoor

spaces? Last week a meta-

analysis of 72 studies found

that mask-wearing is

associated with a 53 per cent

reduction in infections. The

UK has little room for error as

we head into the colder

months and mask-wearing

could reduce the risk of a full

lockdown — so why are we

waiting?

Pam Johnstone

New Forest, Hampshire

Tunnel vision

Mask-wearing is still a

condition of carriage on the

Tube in London, but many

selfish people don’t comply

and it is simply not enforced.

It’s an ugly part of UK culture

that some are so uncaring of

others and assert their

“right” to do as they like. It is

my right not to get infected by

people who do not wear

masks — and who put a

cherry on the top by

coughing for the entire

journey.

Alison Cousins

Tooting, London

Put growth on

the back burner

Was Oliver Shah on holiday

for the first two weeks of

November, when the Cop26

climate talks took place? He

writes, “Going for growth is

our only way out of this

quagmire” (Business, last

week). But even our present

levels of consumption vastly

exceed what’s sustainable on

this fragile planet. He gives a

cursory nod to tackling

environmental issues in his

prescription for the UK

economy — “electric cars and

green energy” — but the

vision is business as usual

with different technology.

The economic approach of

the 1980s is no answer for the

2020s. It’s what got us into

these social, economic and

environmental crises.

Baroness Bennett of Manor

Castle, House of Lords

London SW1

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