As you listen to Liberal Democrats declare that they are riding to the rescue of the NHS I can’t help recalling a story I heard a while ago. It relates to Nick Clegg’s reaction to attending a service at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS. As well as prayers and blessings the service on 2 July 2008 included a speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the reverential playing of a sound recording of a speech by the founder of the NHS, Labour’s Aneurin Bevan. Clegg complained to friends that only in Britain would they turn an organisational structure into a cause for a religious service.
Clegg, you see, is rather more radical than some have recognised. In part, that’s because of his strong European roots – he was brought up by a Dutch mother, worked in Brussels for the European Commission and then became an MEP. British affection for the NHS stems partly from memories passed down the generations of what health care was like before it was created and in large part from a comparison with American healthcare. From a European perspective the NHS doesn’t look that special. After all you’re not asked for your credit card before going to hospital in France or Holland.
No wonder then that Clegg signed up to the Orange Book – published in September 2004 – which proposed that the UK should adopt a Euro style health insurance model. His ally David Laws – who’ll be back in the spotlight this week – wrote the chapter which observed that:
“The NHS is a system that fails to allow for the disciplines of choice, diversity and competition which can help to ratchet up standards”
The current NHS proposals were drawn up not just by the Tory Andrew Lansley but by his Lib Dem Deputy Paul Burstow. They were reviewed and approved not just by the Conservative Oliver Letwin but by Clegg’s soulmate Danny Alexander. The foreword to them was signed not just by David Cameron but by Nick Clegg too.
What we have here is a leader of a party in government who is quite happy to row back from something he actually believes in in order to catch a fleeting turn of public opinion. For a short while, Clegg appeared to actually be a liberal. This is quite unusual in a party full of lefter-than-Labourists and soft social-ists. Traditionally, the LibDems have courted the votes of people who think they are morally and intellectually superior to almost everyone else – people who revel in their opinions being non-mainstream.
It was always going to be a problem ifthe self-consciously eccentric were to end up in government. All governments, even those with massive majorities, have to compromise. Clegg, as we know, has had to compromise rather less than he expected: it turned out that he actually agreed with quite a lot of the reformers in the Conservative party.
Nick Clegg could have played his hand rather a lot better over these NHS reforms. Both coalition parties (and Labour too, don’t forget) promised major structural reform to move commissioning of health services away from Whitehall and towards where demand is actually created. This is not new, having been successfully piloted towards the tail-end of the previous Conservative era. In the face of the vested interests – who do not want reform because the current system rather suits them – Nick could easily have said “hey, you know what, these reforms will sort out some of the obvious problems in the NHS; they are definitely liberal reforms; and they appeared in both parties’ manifestos”. He could have added “I have been criticised for reneging on previous commitments, I am not going to renege this time”. In four years time he could have taken credit for the reforms when they are proved a success.
Alas, Mr Clegg has shown us how pathetically non-existent his backbone truly is. At the first glance of a spot of unpopularity he has wilted and started to read from Mr Blair’s book about focus-group politics.
Hilariously, Nick’s foolish behaviour has played right into the hands of the Conservative party. When enough LibDem MPs get bored of being on the government bench and pull the coalition down, Conservative candidates will be able to point to a list of things which the yellows have prevented from going through, will be able to point to a list of unpopular things that Clegg has tried to get through ahead of more pressing matters and say “give us a majority this time, please”.
Until that time, I am enjoying the distinct lack of noise from sanctimonious AV-supporters.
Clegg was to be a cog, but it is all typos, BE.
Evidently Clegg should be spelt Clog.