Editorial Monday 20 February 2012: Piss-poor politics and the four Fs

It doesn't get any better for poor old viral-prone Andrew Lansley (saviour, liberator).

He monumentally mishandled an encounter with a protestor outside Downing Street, smirking and failing to engage on a heroic scale.

The debacle was fast-compared on Twitter to this classic extract from BBC TV satire The Thick Of It, where a protestor asks the hapless minister about "cleaning up your own mother's piss".

Perhaps inevitably, this mash-up of these two has started to make the rounds.

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Click here for details of 'PM Cameron - Mr Lansley's "as one" or assassin?', the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

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Meanwhile, Politics Home deputy editor Isabel Hardman tweeted from a briefing from the Number 10 spokesperson in response to recent events. This spokesman said that some concerns being aired by the professions about the Bill were some concerns were because "people do not necessarily understand what these reforms are...they are responding to the myth".

With a pleasing symmetry, this really brings us back to piss, and the taking thereof.

It is startlingly dismissive to the professional bodies to suggest that they have all been taken in by the power of myth.

There are myths, of course. There are misunderstandings, too. For misunderstanding and myth to flourish, the growing conditions of poor communication, opacity and uncertainty are required.

The Health Bill has provided these in spades.

But it is to ignore the significant efforts that many individuals and organisations have made to read the White Paper and Bill and understand what it may mean.

It is also to patronise people, whose support is needed.

And it reminds me of nothing more strongly that the old line of warning (born on overcrowded football terraces), which says simply "don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining".

It is piss-poor politics.

The four Fs
I honestly thought this couldn't get better, but it just has: HSJ have exclusive coverage of the Prime Minister's "four Fs" of commitment to its NHS reform, discussed at the meeting today.

These are the Government's commitments to the founding principles of the NHS”; to “funding” (i.e. annual real-terms increases for the Parliament); to "making it fit for the future”; and to “freedom for local decision-making”.

Founding principles can be argued to align with the Bill's stated intentions, if you ignore the internal market.

Funding has been done to death: it's a rise, and it's as small as can be.

Fit for the future is pure political rhetoric.

Freedom for local decision-making?

Best ask long-time clinical commissioning supporters NHS Alliance and NAPC about that one.