The Government and G.Brown in particular are always ready to trot out a litany of claimed successes of the last eleven years of New Labour. The recitation is beginning to sound a little hollow, as if they themselves have stopped believing it as well now.
This week two significant dents to their achievements were revealed.
1) Nearly 10 people every day are dying from the superbug "Clostridium Difficile". In 2006 6,480 death certificates mentioned the bug, compared with 3,757 in 2005, a rise of 75%. This was the result of the Government telling doctors in 2005 to record the health-service-acquired infections on death certificates. Why were doctors reticent before?
It is a worrying statistic. We, especially the elderly and sick, are now more likely to die from a hospital acquired bug than from a road accident.
2) The quality of education in primary schools has worsened under New Labour, despite massive sums poured into it. Is there any surprise that there are also problems at the secondary level when so many young people reach secondary school with an inadequate facility in numbers or language?
This week the Prime Minister has been getting tough with supermarkets, over the number of plastic bags they issue. Dare I suggest that his priorities are misplaced. With a failing education system and people dying in thousands from infections acquired in hospital, surely he should be making greater efforts in these directions?
On the other hand, his meddling may have made the problems worse already?
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