Manifestos Unwrapped 2. The Liberal Democrats: Can we trust politicians who are failing to focus on NHS privatisation?
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Do you know much about the Lib Demsâ policies this time round?
To be honest, until I sat down to write this piece, I didnât know an awful lot. I knew that they had some new policies for carers which sounded great, and that they were prioritising mental health in their plans. Beyond that, I was mostly in the dark. I had, on the other hand, seen a lot of pictures and videos of Ed Davey doing stunts - lifted high above the air, falling off things, speeding down water slides⌠Curiously, when I looked these up, Iâve found that the Lib Dems have an explanation for why he has done each of these.
The BBC & Sky have reported on Daveyâs attempts to catch the public attention:
âAfter launching his party's general election manifesto, Sir Ed Davey jumped on a rollercoaster and rode on a big swing. His aim: to show the Liberal Democrats are on a rollercoaster ride to gaining seats, with a big swing to the party from the Toriesâ
When he visited Tunbridge Wells and completed an obstacle course, âHe told supporters and activists âto keep motivated as the campaign still has a long way to runââŚâ
The Sky piece above also says: âHe claims his stunts aren't just for fun, but to make a political point. For example, he made a splash in Lake Windermere to highlight his party's campaign against sewage in the UK's rivers, lakes and coastlines.â
As a political message, the example with the sewage is quite clever if the context is clear. Itâs a subject the public cares deeply about, and desperately requires attention from politicians beyond the General Election. But what politicians intend to communicate with a political stunt doesnât always equate with what the public think when they see it. I wonder if there are people watching these stunts from Ed Davey at the moment,and thinking heâs not taking things seriously? After all, weâre living through a time of polycrisis; the NHS is on its knees, many people are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, and thereâs the ever-present, woefully ignored climate emergency too. Does whizzing down a waterslide with a journalist communicate the right message?
Another politician who became well-known for their political stunts in recent years was ⌠Boris Johnson. Given everything that Johnson got up to, and everything the public has been forced to put up with from politicians in recent years, youâd think Ed Davey would distance himself from tomfoolery and playing the clown. Still, it can be hard for the smaller political parties to attract attention during election season, and perhaps the stunts are as simple as that; a way of drawing eyeballs and cameras at a crucial time.
In this new series, Manifestos Unwrapped, Iâm looking at each of the major political party manifestos one by one, and analysing their proposals for the NHS, because I thought it might be helpful to you. The NHS is one of the most important issues for the public, and a lot of grand promises are being made; so I thought Iâd cut through the noise!
First of all, hereâs a quick recap for anyone who missed it. The link below is to Thursdayâs piece, about the Conservative Partyâs offerings for the NHSâŚ
âŚand today I'm going to take you through some of the key points in the Liberal Democratsâ 2024 manifesto and explain their merits or limitations.
The first thing to say is that the Liberal Democrats have an extremely high opinion of their plans for the NHS. In fact, at their manifesto launch Ed Davey stated:
âThis is a manifesto to save the NHSâ
Of course, this is music to my ears, so I opened up their manifesto website with trepidation, hoping to find an ambitious plan which would reverse the relentless degradation of our public healthcare system which politicians have conducted over the past 40 years. âSaving the NHSâ after all doesnât just involve pumping in more funding, or managing to recruit more staff. It would require an elimination of the corporate elements that have been allowed to infiltrate this public service and use it for their own gains, it would require a proper across-the-board pay rise for all NHS staff, and it would require an overhaul of the facilities (many of which werenât fit for purpose 30 years ago, let alone now).
In short, I was disappointed. This is a manifesto of many, many bullet points, some of which sound thoughtful, and hopeful, and a real step forward. But ultimately the plan is missing some key things, and many of the proposals feel impractical.
Unbelievably - and I was so staggered by this that I re-read the manifesto points three times in case I had missed something - NHS outsourcing of patient services is not mentioned once. Not once! Alarmingly, it is as if they donât realise the extent of NHS privatisation that is already embedded within the systemâŚ