"If the new government is serious about government making a real difference to people’s lives, then they must do things very differently," says Craig Whittaker
Former Conservative MP Craig Whittaker outlines the failings of the previous government to tackle NHS backlogs
The latest backlog figures for people waiting for treatment on the NHS show the highest since records began in 2007.
The challenge for the new Labour government is whether to tackle the root causes of this backlog head on, or just do what most governments do and throw yet more money at it.
Where I live, The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust has a brilliant Chief Executive who works differently to many.
He commissions space within the private hospital sector to ensure things like hips, knees and cataracts are dealt with in a timely fashion.
I had a partial knee replacement this year and was not only offered the operation within two weeks (after physio and injections failed) but was given three dates to choose from.
This is not about additional money but how differing Trusts prioritise. The whole NHS system has become a postcode lottery because of how differing Trusts prioritise.
My advice to the new government is do not be fooled into believing those who ‘shout loudest’ but take the opportunity to make a real difference with policy. Real change.
Real root and branch reform for the greater good, no matter how unpopular the choices. With the super majority they have, they can make a real difference if they grasp the nettle. If they continue in the same vein, they will lose generational changes for the benefit of the many.
The previous government got to the stage where anything that was difficult, they avoided.
Instead, they chose ridiculous policies which they perceived to be popular, but in reality, they were ill-thought-through and doomed to fail and achieve nothing.
There are numerous examples, but I will point to two policies in particular. The Gambling White Paper and The Generational Smoking ban.
The Gambling White Paper has an entire range of things in it that will force the general punter to the black market. One of the biggest issues is ‘Frictional Credit Checks.’
First, there currently is no such thing as a Frictional Credit Check but that does not seem to bother the Gambling Commission which will press on regardless.
Ask anybody in any pub in England whether they will bet through a regulated company if they must produce documents (pay slips or bank statements) to put a bet on their favourite sport.
The solution for them is easy. There are a few hundred sites online where there are no checks or limits. You can even use your credit card on these sites where you cannot on regulated sites.
British punters using unlicensed sites has more than doubled in just two years, from 220,000 users to 460,000 and the amount staked is now in the billions of pounds. The evidence of human behaviour when gambling is over-regulated is clear to see. Look no further than what is happening around the world.
Norway introduced a state monopoly for all gaming coupled with restrictions on stakes, affordability checks and advertising, which resulted in a black market that now accounts for over 66 per cent of all money staked.
In France, where online casino games are also a state monopoly, black-market gaming accounts for 57 per cent of all money staked. In Italy, where betting and gaming advertising is completely banned, the black-market accounts for 23 per cent of money staked.
A 2020 Royal Decree in Spain put a near total ban on gambling advertising – leaving Spanish players unaware of where to bet safely – the black market there now accounts for 20 per cent of all money staked.
In the same year, Denmark placed tight restrictions on legally licensed operators offering customer loyalty rewards such as bonuses – that lead the Danish Tax Authority to warn of a possible nine per cent increase in the black-market share.
And finally, in Sweden, a national survey found 38 per cent of consumers who had chosen to -selfexclude from legally licensed operators reported still being able to bet online with unlicensed operators – circumventing any player protection measures.
The Generational Smoking Ban was equally ill-thought-out.
When I was an MP, asked in the Chamber how this will be policed. The Minister of the day thought the answer was to give Trading Standards an extra £30million to police the ban. This very same Trading Standards which in 2009 had a budget of over £213million but today only a budget of £126million. A service not just ill, but on life support.
Ask anyone in their local pub who smokes whether they pay over £15 per pack for cigarettes (the current average of a duty paid pack) and they laugh at you. The illicit trade in tobacco in this country is huge, the government estimate it at £3billion per year in lost duty to the Treasury, and that is a guestimate. This loss to the Revenue is ‘Policed’ by trading Standards.
There are already 100,000 young people under the age of eighteen in this country who smoke. They smoke when it is already illegal to do so. Why did the Conservative government think a generational ban would work when this is the current environment we deal with? No mention in the bill of anything around cessation for the 6.4 million smokers who would benefit the health service by stopping.
LATEST OPINION:
I am an ex-smoker who used Heated Tobacco products to cease smoking, but this is banned under the generational ban. No recognition of the huge differential in health risks between burning and heating tobacco, instead they do not recognise how people like me managed to quit because they treat everything to do with tobacco as the same. They were just rolling the dice on an ill-thought-out, ill-perceived and unenforceable policy.
If the new government is serious about government making a real difference to people’s lives, then they must do things very differently. Total reform of the Health Service which is now unsustainable and ditch the ill-perceived populist agenda which just will not work either.
The Tories squandered a large majority, let us hope the new Labour government’s huge majority produces real reform which makes real differences in our lives and stops with the perceived popular agendas which are ill-thought-out and unworkable. A good start is with the NHS.
