I though to make this an open letter to Dr. Stoate, but decided
GP-UK might be more appreciative of it. I would have started
along the lines of:
Dear Howard,
you looked a total prat on Newsnight tonight as you tried to
excuse the machinations of the Labour government, which
continues to ignore any pre-electoral promises it made about the
Health Service. Perhaps in the Newspeak of this government, a
promise is only a promise if it is kept. If it is not kept,
then it was not a promise.
Shakespeare put this very well in "As You Like It" Act 1, Scene
2 -
TOUCHSTONE By my knavery, if I had it, then I were; but if you
swear by that that is not, you are not forsworn: no
more was this knight swearing by his honour, for he
never had any; or if he had, he had sworn it away
before ever he saw those pancakes or that mustard.
Howard, when your electors voted for you they were hoping that
you would be a goad to the government and not simply a
mouthpiece. With a Government run by the Cabinet, the role, if
any, of the backbencher must surely be to ensure that the
Government behaves in an honourable way, in accord with what was
expected of them at the election, and not just to apologise for
their failings. You know they were wrong to raise prescription
charges, and mealy-mouthed explanations about the proportion of
this rise in relation to inflation will not have impressed many
people.
I am sure that many doctors, on seeing a colleague elected,
would have thought that the hopes and fears of the people of
this country might have found a champion, but instead we find
you sent out as an apologist.
Another quote "All power corrupts ......"
John McGough
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