“Cooking up” Lib Dem campaigns and the marvels of modern technology

In today's Hounslow Chronicle Nick Clegg is giving his backing to the campaign to save Kingston Hospital. This is AFTER the whole "plan" was exposed as a Lib Dem sham:

http://timmymc.blogspot.com/2010/02/nick-clegg-and.html

This is a bit rich given that Alex Smith, editor of this very blog, has cooked up a basically identical campaign for Jeremy Corbyn MP called "Save Whittington Hospital"!

Although in that case of course it's a proud Labour A&E acheivement somehow at risk from the Lib Dems!

Also, the lib dems have their own campaign to save the Whittington, fronted in part by their own mp lynne featherstone.

Actually that's not true. There is rich evdence, including a public meeting we held this week in which the option was
not denied, which shows that the Whittington threat is very real indeed.

So Alex, what was it about thirteen years of New Labour Government and administration that means that hospitals across London, including the Whittington, are having to shed vital Accident and Emergency and Maternity services?

On your Save the Whittington website you don't once acknowledge who's been running the Department of Health for more than a decade. A bit of an oversight?

Also strange: Mr. Corbyn (a real Labour politician) normally isn't so shy about laying the blame at the feet of Ministers, where it belongs.

Apologies for busting the bubble on this but get a grip Max. As a card carrying member of the Labour Party in Kingston and Surbiton I am aware that proposals DO exist to close the maternity and A+E unit at Kingston Hospital, they are part of a raft of proposals being looked at. Somehow you as PPC in the seat don't know or understand this, this is quite bizarre. I assume if you did you'd oppose them rather than take what looks like a clear fudge by the hospitals chairman.

Yes its fun Danny boy embarrished himself in such a pathetic way but you know the local political scene well enough to know that persons personality is primed for such idiocy. Yes the Libs can be OTT sometimes but on this occasion you would be better off ensuring the local party protects the A+E and Maternity units rather than pretending the idiot Falchikov is some kind of campaign guru.

Oh and both my children were born there.

The Chair of the hospital trust said it was "inconceivable" that either unit would close. I've seen a few fudges in my time, but that doesn't sound like one to me.

I've yet to see any convincing details of "Labour's secret plan to close Kingston Hospital" beyond the commissioning of a report by NHS London to consider services in south west London that has yet to be written, let alone seen by a minister.

I'll bet you a gallon of beer the chairmans position shifts very soon..You can trust me on this or you can believe the idiotic bousting of Falchkov..I agree on the "Labour's plan" stuff, can't see how that helps Davey against the incompetant Tory but equally without Maguires amusing dissing of Falchkov (who frankly gets what he deserves) our No1 concern would be and should be now, getting a cast iron climbdown from the hospital/NHS London et al...and if Davey also gets some credit for that, rather him than Whately. On this one occasion Max and you have seen plot where you should be seeing opportunity to defend a core value.

In the Conservative manifesto you'll see that David Cameron pledges to stop A&E closures (while also pledging localism, and an end to political interventions from the centre - he's definitely a marketing man, being able to promise two opposites at the same time).

However, he also pledges to allow "new providers" to provide maternity care. Note, not existing private providers (who are presumably already chasing the money of those who insist on private care), but "new providers". Those "new providers" will get NHS money (the Conservative policy is "any willing provider"). Any money that goes to these "new providers" is money that will not go to the maternity unit at Kingston Hospital. (The reason is that hospitals are now paid by "payment by results" which basically means that they get paid per treatment, per appointment, so if patients use another provider, the hospital's income shrinks).

I don't know the details of the situation of the maternity unit at Kingston Hospital, but if people are speculating now then there must be some uncertainty and therefore I think that you can pretty much guarantee that the unit will close if Cameron "reforms" the NHS. Sadly, you'll find that Cameron's "reforms" will result in an over all decrease in the hospital's income and so other units will close.

Cameron's plan for public health are even worse - the Conservatives say that they will mandate that "an increasing proportion of contracts" for public health provision must go to private providers. Kingston Hospital will have some public health provision (the majority of its work will be secondary care) and so it will lose funding due to that Cameron privatisation.

Sorry to bring such bad news to you (and Michael) but a Cameron victory will be disastrous for your hospital. All the more reason to fight for a fourth term.

And there was me thinking that those nice Lib Dems had taken to emulating Gordon Brown's Dirty Tricks Dept.