When a Daniel Hannan, Conservative candidate for the European Parliament called the NHS a mistake it was bound to cause offence. It also reminds us just what kind of people sit behind David Cameron in the Conservative Party.
Now John Prescott has intervened in the debate. He’s calling on David Cameron to back of sack Daniel Hannan.
My bet is that David Cameron will only respond if the traditional media pick up the story. It has been quite useful for the Tories to get an arms-length removed politician bashing Labour on USA blogs and talk shows. Tory bloggers have managed to hook up with their right wing counterparts in the USA in a way that Labour bloggers have not yet managed with their friends from the Democrats. It ensured that the Republican leaning talk shows could interview Hannan as the new internet sensation from Europe. And now he is arguably the voice of the British Conservatives in the USA, perhaps even more so than Mr Cameron himself.
The trouble for Mr Cameron is that Hannan has now gone over the top. He’s savaged the NHS – a key dividing line between Labour and the Conservatives. And very few people in the UK would want to adopt and American style market system for health care.
John Prescott’s intervention might just force Mr Cameron to comment on Hannan’s views. And if he distances himself, those Republican bloggers will not be happy.
20 comments ↓
I would suggest that the reason there has been limited link-up between Labour bloggers and the Democrats is the absence of similarity between the two parties.
Socialists generally vote Democrat in the Presidential and Congressional elections because of the rigid two-party system and anti-Republican, rather than embracing the Democrats as members of the Socialist International. Because they are not! I have read several times Bill Clinton characterised as being in much the same place on the political spectrum as Ken Clarke. Barack Obama is called a ‘socialist’ because he wants a public provided NHS and some redistribution, which makes him similar to One-Nation Tories.
The Tory cloven hoof shows itself again. Now just remind us who was the genius who thought up the Tory policy in the last election – you know the one about being able to take your money out of the NHS?
Thin stuff Tom and the absence of comment shows how uninterested in both “story” and blog people are, though I love the “Tory cloven hoof” idea above.By the way,over 2 million hits on the Hannan mauling of Brown.Got any plans post May 2010?
Why shouldn’t i be able to take my money out of the NHS? Why should i be forced to pay for an inneficient, wasteful service that i do not want.
But, er, the NHS has been a big mistake.
Tom
This is nothing more than a smokescreen for the scandal surrounding MP’s expenses that have been allowed to grow under a Labour government.
More importantly it arises at a time that Labour Ministers, including the Prime Minister have been found diddling the public purse in claiming 2nd home allowances while living in accommodation paid for by the public’s tax pounds and pence.
We will see a lot more of this as more and more crooked activities of the Labour government are uncovered.
John Prescott attempting a “moral” stance?This is beyond parody
[...] John Prescott: David Cameron should ‘back or sack’ Daniel Hannan → [...]
Isn’t it funny how the blue rinse blogs seemed so keen on Labour people commenting on Hannan before, but don’t seem to be so vocal now?
Side order of hypocrisy with that order mister?
I think Daniel Hannan is a foul upstart, ignorant to the vital health needs of ordinary people. In his book, The Plan, he says “allow patients to opt out of the NHS and instead pay their contributions into individual health accounts.”
21st Century Britain is not a Darwinian test case, Mr Hannan, where those on high salaries can opt out of the shared responsbility of National Insurance in order to look out merely for Number 1 at the expense of all others.
Unfortunately, we already have that inherited privilege in our education system, and it’s sickeningly unjust.
This is another example of why Labour people have to spend more of their Sundays and more of their evenings on the streets and on doorsteps. We have to ensure the Tories are not given the opportunity to dismiss our public services for their outmoded dogma “you’re on your own”.
We’ve written an open letter to Hannan – his views on the NHS aren’t just immoral, they’re economically illiterate too.
http://frankowenspaintbrush.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/making-me-iller-an-open-letter-to-daniel-hannan/
Hannan is pretty good evidence that it’s easy to be populist if you’re extreme. The reason his attack on the Prime Minister went viral was that it went beyond social norms. Video of someone looking someone else in the face and laying into him is highly appealing if you happen to agree with the layer-in, but is not conducive to substantive debate and not normally considered acceptable in social situations. Let’s face it, most videos which get to the top of youtube are not great debate – but kittens, sex, skateboards, people breaking the law, etc. Hannan was similarly popular not because he was right but because he was unusually rude – right in someone’s face.
It’s his self-same lack of acceptance of social norms which meant that he made such a crass statement about the beloved NHS.
I suspect that, like his previous speech, it also speaks to what’s going on in the minds of many Tories. That’s why Cameron needs to repudiate it quickly. All the more so because Hannan is widely being talked about as a future Tory leader (and more popular with Tory grassroots than Cameron).
It’s not a clause IV moment (they’ve still got that to come) – but it is a showdown between Cameron and the Party traditionalist. It’s a moment to find if Cameron’s got modernising substance or whether he is all glossy PR spin.
If and when David Cameron becomes PM I think we can confidently predict his government will be the most right wing since the war. They plan to slash spending, they fete people like Redwood and Hannan, they will engage in a head on collision course with the EU.
Don’t let anyone say they weren’t warned.
The problem is with hospitals like Stafford. With 400-1800 deaths due to errors at one hospital, its gets very hard to defend the NHS.
The last few posts have seen the left (Derek Draper?) rallying to a hopeless cause.They even attempt to parody Frank Field, a labour MP who was appointed to “think the unthinkable” by Blair, did so and was sacked, along with his cypher “boss” Harriet Harman, who never thought at all
Because the NHS is now over 60 years old we have come the take it for granted. In recent years I have had a number of friends and family require hospital treatment. Upon visiting them I am amazed at the equipment that we now have to treat people. I am also aware that without modern medicine which is free at the point of use that some of the women who are closest to me and thier babies would have been lost during childbirth. We now take for granted that if someone has an accident that they are taken to hospital and treated. My Granddad told me a horrific story of when he was growing up in the 1930′s of a neighbour who had an accident working for a local oil refinery where he got badly burnt. This gentleman was not taken to hospital and was left to die of gangrene. When I asked why he had not been taken to hospital he replied that people weren’t back then. The people who wish to do away with our National Health Service seem to think that they will never have an accident or long term illness and that they will always be fortunate enough to be in a well paid job.
Hannan is one bloke in the European Parliament who is totally unable to influence party policy. When it comes to Cameron’s political agenda, Hannan is at best a footnote. His attack on Gordon Brown was a one-off little showpiece and, while I enjoyed it immensely, it doesn’t make him any more important in terms of where the Conservative Party in the UK are heading.
Letters from a Tory: If you think he is just a “footnote” why has Party Chairman Eric Pickles announced that he would be inviting Daniel Hannan to give a keynote speech at the Conservative Spring Forum in Cheltenham, 25-26 April:
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2009/04/dan-hannan-to-address-spring-forum.html
Greg,”easy to be populist if you are extreme”.How can a policy that is popular be dubbed extreme?You talk as if Hannan has proposed slaughtering the first-born, whereas it is merely one of the Left’s sacred cows.You will be saying the NHS is the envy of the world next.
My wife and I sprang my aged mother-in-law from Hereford Hospital in October 2007.The female Geriatric Ward was placed at the rear of the hospital, in what had been condemned accommodation,Staff were uncaring, the ward shared toilets with male geriatric,the ward was dirty, patients’ pleas for assistance ignored and the nice shiny facade of the hospital, intended to make it look like a total rebuild, was occupied by Finance and Management.Behind the facade, the place was decrepit gloomy
Hannan appears deluded if he thinks slagging off the NHS is a vote-winner. It’s hard to find a Tory voter who doesn’t support the NHS, let alone an elector at large.
He’ll have to do better than this if he wants to stay in the limelight. Though it was a good speech he made.
Leave a Comment