Oh, dear. It seems that the so-called leader of the official opposition in parliament Sir Keir Starmer is determined to lose Labour the next general election.
On top of the repeated criticism by both political commentators and the public over his flip-flopping stance on a wide range of issues from brexit to the cost of living crisis, he’s getting himself into trouble over the current problems at the strife-torn National Health Service. In an interview on the BBC, he made it clear that a potential future Labour government will not spend extra resources on the NHS unless the organisation in his words, reform to survive.
This will understandably anger already highly-stressed staff working in the NHS, which is having deal with a record staffing shortage leading to problems at A and E departments with longer waiting lists for both routine and vital operations. There also has been a shortage of medicines and patients are having to face longer waits just to make an appointment to see their GP. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting agrees with Starmer, arguing for the expansion of private provision to tackle the crisis. Both of them simply don’t have a clue over how the NHS operates. Both successive Conservative and Labour governments have subject the NHS to persistent reorganisation since 1979, and with a few exceptions, has seen change for the worse.
Starmer clearly feels that he has to win over the support of so-called floating and right-wing voters, while at the same time neglecting the views of the Labour base if they want electoral success. However, this could rebound on him when many potential voters, desperate to get rid of the Conservatives, will decide to either vote for the other alternatives (Greens, Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru and independents) or just stay at home on election day, because they will rightly feel that nothing will change in the UK…. and those same commentators wonder why Labour could once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory… the NHS… and the nation… will be seriously screwed.