Opinion

Tom Kelly: Rishi's plans don't add up

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants a new focus on numeracy – but could start with his own government
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants a new focus on numeracy – but could start with his own government Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants a new focus on numeracy – but could start with his own government

“We need to re-imagine our approach to numeracy.”

Let those words sink in.

They were uttered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It’s his big policy idea.

An idea laid bare by a man who has been in an administration which couldn’t competently use an abacus between them.

The Tories have been in power for 13 years. In that time, it’s calculated real income has fallen by 20 per cent. That pensions, the safeguard for retirement, have lost around 40 per cent of their value.

More recently, inflation, rising interest rates and spiralling energy costs have seen average mortgages rise by around £500 per month and some home heating bills are as high as £1,200 per month too.

Let’s not forget the £37 billion poured into a failed track and trace system which was criticised by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. A system whose aims, said the committee, were “overstated or not achieved”.

Or the £8.7 billion wasted on unusable PPE during Covid.

One couldn’t make this up.

Remember too, that great post-Brexit opportunity which saw a previous Tory government award ferry contracts worth millions to a company with no actual ships.

If there needs to be re-imagining of an “approach to numeracy” it should start with the Conservative cabinet.

As one opposition MP said: “The taxpayer will be picking up the tab for all of this financial mismanagement for years to come.”

And whatever you do, don’t mention the Brexit word.

The negative financial impact of Brexit to the UK is incalculable. The international and reputational damage to Britain is irreversible.

And yet, the political advocates of Brexit shamelessly have the effrontery to blame Leave voters for having “unrealistic expectations’ of the benefits of Brexit.

There’s an old expression which is very apt – “those fellas couldn’t lie straight”.

Former PM John Major was right in his assessment that the NHS would not or could not remain safe in their stewardship.

They denuded the NHS by stealth. Starving it of resources both financial and human. And it’s not just about underpaying doctors, nurses and care workers. The Tories have left health service staff demoralised and feeling undervalued.

The current crisis within the NHS is over-demand and under-capacity.

Critically-ill patients are stuck in ambulances or being treated in corridors while other dischargeable patients are clogging up hospitals wards because there are no social care packages available to support them at home. This is was a foreseeable consequence of axing beds and not better integrating the health and social care sectors.

OECD reported the average developed country has a bed provision of approximately 5 per thousand inhabitants. The UK has less than half that ( Germany has 7.5).

This demonstrates why the NHS cannot deal with a surge in admissions due to pandemics or a new flu variant. It simply doesn’t have the capacity.

Add into the mix the dramatic fall in the number of care workers available.

Age UK estimated in 2020 there were 104,000 care workers from EU countries. There are around 110,000 unfilled care jobs in the UK. One in three care workers leave their jobs each year.

The post-Brexit residency and work requirements are robbing the health care sector of an available workforce on the doorstep of the UK in the EU.

The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has said there are nearly 3,000 nursing vacancies in the HSC and a similar rate of vacancies in the independent nursing home sector. This is simply staggering and frightening.

The much-vaunted Bengoa report may be part of a longer-term solution to planning a better health care system but it’s hard to have confidence in the concept of larger regional hospitals when those very hospitals such as ‘The Royal’ and ‘Craigavon’ are at the point of collapsing.

Better outcomes both at Stormont and Westminster will only come about when the calibre and commitment of politicians improves or changes. Currently Rishi’s plans don’t add up.