Jeremy Hunt has finally ended his ‘AWOL‘ period, only to give a pitiful interview today to BBC News.
He told the BBC’s health editor, Hugh Pym, that ‘there are no excuses’ – after a winter of the Tories making nothing but excuses – before going on to blame everything he could think of.
It was one of the most embarrassing performances by a supposedly ‘senior’ politician since Michael Howard crashed and burned in front of Paxman – and he didn’t even have the excuse of a tough interviewer, as he was handled like fine china by Pym.
Comedian David Schneider nailed it when he tweeted,
Hunt says "no excuse" for NHS crisis before blaming ageing population, immigration, Labour, sunshine, moonlight, good times and boogie.
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) February 10, 2017
Hunt’s ‘solution’ to the NHS crisis was cringe-making:
We have a very good plan.
He was clearly making it up as he went along and banking on Pym not asking any awkward questions, which he duly didn’t.
Hunt is a weasel, weaselling as weasels do – his claim that any solution has to be ‘long-term and sustainable’ transparently means ‘don’t expect anything for a long, long time – but we’ll be charging for healthcare soon’.
But his admission that ‘the problems facing the NHS are completely unacceptable’ has one clear consequence – even while he and the government continue to dodge any admission that their chronic underfunding of the NHS and of the social care that previously prevented patients being stuck in the system and straining resources even further.
And it’s that ‘no excuses’ is exactly what the Tories have for not withdrawing Theresa May’s gross insult to the Red Cross.
Last month, the Prime Minister ‘thanked’ the Red Cross for its vital intervention into the NHS ‘humanitarian crisis’ – or ‘unacceptable problems’, as Hunt euphemised – by lambasting the organisation in the Commons as ‘irresponsible‘:
And Hunt’s admission today – euphemistic as it was – of the Tory-inflicted catastrophe in our NHS means that both he and May owe the Red Cross the most massive, grovelling apology in history.
Whenever you’re ready, Theresa.
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