Oh dear Dave...

Our Prime Minister's PR antennae, seldom wonderful, seem to have been extraordinarily anaesthetised lately. He will never be a man of the people. He just isn't one but nor is Ed or little Nick.They can't help it .None of them have ever really ever been out and about with real ones. As result he has always struggled a bit with understanding human reactions outside the various bubbles he has inhabited (Eton, Oxford, PR, Westminster) . Usually though advisers have managed to steer him around the deeper potholes.

Not these last couple of weeks.

First there was the visit to John Lewis and his speech to staff saying that generally he only shopped at Waitrose because, to paraphrase down to the real meaning, he found a better class of people there. To rub it in and make sure that Sainsbury staff and customer understood the reality he went on to say that he only used their Chipping Norton branch because the town didn't have Waitrose. Not clever for a man whose biggest albatross is a common belief that he and his party are toffs and only really for toffs.

Then there has been the case of Culture Secretary, Maria Miller and her slightly overpaid accomodation allowance.  The independent parliamentary commissioner for standards recommended that she should repay £ £45,000 .This was reduced to £5,800  by the Parliamentary Standards Committee whose three non MP lay members have no vote . No reasons were given, at least publicly .They also found that her attitude to the investigation had breached the parliamentary code of conduct and insisted that she apologise to the Commons. She obliged flatly in 34 seconds flat. In length and style that simply wasn't good enough . It raised a furore and gave the Opposition a sitting duck house. To make it worse and add to the damage, in an old style display of ranks closing around mates, many senior Tories defended Ms Miller in her decision not to resign her cabinet post. All seen as very honourable within the group maybe but Dave should have been told that this one was insensitive, potentially toxic and gaining hostile legs amongst a public whose distrust of politicians , and especially Tory ones, is a major issue. Here was the opportunity for him to square his jaw and say resolutely that he and the party had zero tolerance in these sorts of case and she must therefore go. Instead he flunked it and very went out on a very public limb by firmly supporting her. Today she has resigned . That makes Dave's support  an image tarnishing ,vote losing waste of time. He should have anticipated the end game and gone straight to it. The affair now becomes not just an understanding issue but one of judgement one too.  As a footnote Mr Cameron said he hoped she would be back in the cabinet in due course. Again, oh dear.

Parliament has just arrived at the Easter Recess and this afternoon members will be flowing out of the doors in end of term, caps in the air mode. There must be a sense of weary relief as they do so and a feeling in the Cameron camp that it hasn't come a moment too soon . The boss presumably at some stage will head for the harsh world of real life in the Cotswolds. Dangerous. He may have to go to Sainsburys for heaven's sake. 

Historic dessert at Windsor?

Last night HM Queen Elizabeth hosted a dinner at Windsor Castle for Irish President Higgins. Among the diners were representatives from Northern Ireland including former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

The dessert may have raised an eyebrow or two:

"Vanilla ice cream bombe with Balmoral redcurrent centre"

Hmm.  Phillip's choice?

Posts on 1) Britain's High Speed Railway,HS 2 and 2) Aspects of and issues around MH 370

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Normal coverage of the world of politics and nonsenses will resume shortly.

Britain's health service ,-A question of service and professionalism

Twiga was summoned for a routine test at the local smart PFI-funded medical centre today. The unsurprising result was that a short consultation with the doctor is required. No problem one might think. The doctor's office is just along the corridor and he is said to do the admin on Wednesday afternoons. Isn't that the province of the recent additional overhead titled the "Business Manager"? What does he do? God knows,- or may not. Sorry no appointments available before mid April says the receptionist and no bookings are being taken beyond that because the person who sets the programme up is away until next week .OK, well how about talking to him on the phone, the new sort of initial appointment anybody calling up gets?  "We've got a slot in ten days time".

That's the level of service,-seamless not,- now experienced day in and day out by the clients of what leading politicians of all parties call "Our wonderful NHS". Little Nick said the other day it was one of the things he loved about the UK. Ed and Dave are similarly dewy eyed whenever the three letters, N,H,and S come up. Fair enough ,it has served them well, and some parts are indeed excellent for everyone but its organisation and administration are particularly dire. All too often it simply doesn't understand that it is a service business. It is also highly unlikely that any of these three gents has recently had to enter its portals as a normal mortal and had to sit on hard plastic chairs in A&E awaiting the target time of four hours.

Not so long ago it was all very different. The local practice was housed in much smaller quarters, did a lot more for minor injuries (GP's surgeries generally don't do stitching now so send anything requiring it to A&E adding unnecessarily to the waiting times there.In South Africa many ordinary chemists have someone to do it). The doctors lived in or near the community, were on call 24/7 and patients seen on the day,- or night. That was part of the professionalism and ethos of being a doctor. They were reasonably but not excessively rewarded for their time and expertise . Years of sleepless nights came with the job, along with enormous respect among the population at large.

Then along came G.Brown driving his answer to everything and in reality nothing, the money sprayer .In came new contracts removing 24 hour responsibility (and with it the true essence of professionalism,) and giving a lot more money in exchange for a suffocating burocracy and external control and targets over almost every field of medical activity. The old notion of public service went out of the window and and although the doctors now feel much richer they and those they should be serving are actually a lot poorer. 

The EU and Britain- The simple issues.

For anyone groping for the nub of the problem Britain has always had with the EU, French President Francois Hollande has cone up with a quick reference statement giving absolute clarity.

"Initiatives for Europe must first be agreed between France and Germany".

There it is pure and simple.

The second issue is that whereas France and Germany both aim at an eventual political union into a kind of United States of Europe, initially probably federal and eventually centralised, Britain has never wanted more than a Common Market. That, apart from De Gaules' original veto of British membership is why Britain was much happier for a while to go with the alternative European Free Trade Area (EFTA). Unrealistic fears of exclusion from European markets led to the UK eventually seeking,-and gaining,- membership of the EU. This also resonated well with the British political left who saw it as the way to almost indelibly impose European based socialism on the country's society and economy.

Since joining the EU the question of eventual union has been the largely unspoken of elephant in the British living room. Politicians have left the issue under the carpet and remained in denial that EU legislation and other moves have been moving inexorably in a federalist direction leaving national parliaments increasingly in roles akin to those of large county councils.

Unless it gets to grips openly and publicly with the issues soon , the UK will find itself at the eleventh hour and fifty ninth minute that in its state of denial it has sleep walked it into an imminent political union. That's why the pressure is on for a Referendum. Unfortunately the way the issue has been tacked makes UK calls for renegotiation of treaties make it look isolationist and in conflict with the EU itself. A far better approach would be for it to declare itself pro-EU but a different EU in which a free trade and generally cooperative area and not political union the ultimate objective. Many other European nations, especially the Nordics, would be also be much happier with this than living under Mr Hollande's Franco-German superstate. Even Mrs Merkels and her electorate probably don't fancy living under or even alongside Mr Hollande.

British cancer cure rates low,- we design it that way.

British cancer survival and cure rates are some of the lowest in Europe . They are way below what could reasonably expected in a country whose National Health Service is second only to the Chinese military as the world's largest employer.

Why? No doubt large numbers of people across the NHS and in large government buildings will be looking into this question.

They don't have to look far for one basic fact.

The state's monopoly supplier of free health care has a target of  commencing treatment within 62 days,- that's two months,-of diagnosis. The simple fact is that every day lost in getting it under way can see the cancers grow or spread . This seriously diminishes the chances of a favourable outcome. The patients' chances of survival decrease by the day.

This is nothing to do with "the cuts". It's about processes, a lack of sense of urgency, administrative inefficiency, poor systems and systems management.

There is no non-human reason why the UK should be down there with the worst in Europe. The problem is that humans design and allow it it to be.

Midnight in the Gulf. A British politician's nightmare?

Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague, recently transited Dubai on his way home from a conference overseas.

Unfortunately he and his entourage were almost certainly whisked off the aircraft , away from the crowds, and straight into the VVIP lounge, to await their onward flight in opulent isolation. 

Like many politicians and even leading business people who travel the world but see and feel  nothing, they would have benefitted enormously from having instead sat in one of the coffee shops in the impressive, no expense spared glitzy main body of the building and surveyed the scenes around them. They would have found it a lot more interesting than the sterilised world of the lounge. While stirring their lattes they would have found that, even in the middle of the night, they were looking out at an endless stream of the world's population from its business people and professionals, holidaymakers to its contract workers of all descriptions criss-crossing the terminal and the world between flights north, south, east and west. Rich, poor, genders, occupations, nationalities, colours, religions. They are all there with a multitude of purposes. They have come from somewhere but need or want to be somewhere else, to find a job, make money,support or build better futures for their families, go on holiday, attend a family or business gathering, or just go home. Some are elated, some sad, some fresh and ready to go, others tired from long hours already spent en route .The dynamics of the world are on view as people stream and swirl around the terminals, escalators, shops, cafes,information desks. Around it all is energy, determination and a sense of purpose. And it's midnight or later.

Just lifting their eyes to the 24/7/365 departure boards would have been an education for the party too. Flights leaving all day and all night in a steady stream. Lists of destinations unknown to even Europe's busiest airports. The penny/cent might have dropped. You can go from almost anywhere in the world to almost anywhere else with just the one stop and a minimum of hassle via Dubai or increasingly its near neighbours, Abu Dhabi and Doha. And overtaking on the inside track there is fast growing Istanbul now the gateway to more international destinations than any other airport in the world.

Having taken this all in, Mr Hague and party might not have slept so well on the onward flight to London, timed of course so as not to get there during the night curfew. Had they dropped off , nightmares about interminable planning processes, everlasting environmental objections and debates including concerns about bats, newts, anything other than the human need to do business and to travel, all leading to unlikely-to-ever-to-be built 3rd runways at the world's former greatest international hub might have woken them up screaming in frustration and in a cold sweat. But then they might not. The civil servants in particular might have been breathing sighs of relief that nothing was likely to happen in their lifetime. To many of them that's what a successful career looks like.