JG's blog

Rather like yesterday's post about Gordon Brown and the Treasury, the attacks I am giving the NHS at the moment aren't borne out of partisan views or a fundamental opposition to the idea of free health. I believe it is very important that access for all to an efficient and effective health system is one of the most important aspects of a civilised and modern society. However, the days when the public purse can pay for the NHS alone and we can trust the Government (be it Labour or Tory) to manage and run the service efficiently and effectively are clearly over. The damage being done by refusing to enter real debate and worrying about a complete overhaul is far worse than the alternatives. And it's not just me or a few that think this, it is a view backed up by those who really know - those doctors and nurses who have to put up with a substandard environment every day.

The attacks on Gordon Brown's high taxation, high spending polices are becoming more and more frequent on this website. It it not the intention of picking losers to target individuals nor is it partisan. However, it is of course more likely that attacks will be made towards the Government as they are the ones in power actually making and implementing policy. It is also not without good reason that this high level of scrutiny and criticism is directed at the Treasury at the moment. The International Monetary Fund share the view that Brown's policies are unsustainable and have issued a warning - one that Mr Brown will do well to heed.

Regional Agencies, aka Quangos, are costing the tax payer £360m a year to run, double the level of five years ago. The FT reports that the typical cost for each region is put at £23m for the regional development agency, £3m for the regional assembly and £14m for government offices, which act as Whitehall's representatives on issues such as education and transport. Adding in the regional cost of other state bodies, such as the Learning Skills Council and the Environment Agency, takes the annual administrative cost to £200m for each region or £1.8bn for England as a whole. £1.8bn for an extra tier of government.

And back to an old favourite. The NHS and IT systems.

You have to hand it to him, Gordon Brown is a highly successful opportunist. If it can be taxed, it will be taxed and the less people realise what he is doing the better. The Dour Scot is famed for stealth taxes but it's the way he makes the most of changing circumstances (and gets away with it, it seems) that is most impressive.

As we all know, house prices have been rising at an impressive rate over the past few years. However, the rate at which buyers pay stamp duty has barely moved. So a house that was free from stamp duty a few years ago, is now ripe for the Iron Chancellor's very large hands and deep pockets. A survey by the Halifax has revealed the extent of the problem. Nearly 300,000 purchases fell into the three per cent bracket last year as the number of properties sold above its £250,000 threshold soared. Their figures show that over the past five years there has been a 281 per cent rise in the number of home sales in England and Wales above the £250,000 threshold. Kaching!

The NHS crisis is growing by the day - problems with IT systems, funding issues and misuses of funds, ineffective use of nurse and doctor resources, the list is seemingly endless. A story today has managed to combine all the worse parts of the NHS and highlights the desperate need for comprehensive reform of our health system.

What is going on in the Treasury? They are ditching plans to promote good behaviour among "young people". The scheme that was to bribe the worst behaved kids on our streets with a £25 gift voucher for good behaviour. Has common sense prevailed over No.11? Have they realised (albeit rather later than one would have hoped for someone who is touted as our next PM) that this was the most ridiculous hair brain idea to come out of their loony policy machine yet? Have they realised that wasting millions of pounds on paying off these so called anti-social youths with a gift voucher was never going to work? No. Of course they haven't.

Education. Education. Education. Remember that? What actually has Tony Blair done though to back up the sound bites? There was the city academies idea - 21 semi-independent schools that are largely funded by the tax payer and cost £25 million to build. And guess what, they are not working. They are actually reporting below average results in national tests for 14 year olds - and these are the government's own figures. 16 of the 21 schools have failed to reach the average for level five (the standard expected for their age).

The NHS has a pensions black hole that has risen by £61bn in just two years. That is incredible! According to the Telegraph the figures include an addition £2.7bn because, and I kid you not, the Government accidentally lost this sum on last year's accounts. You lose the car keys or on a bad day your mobile phone, you do not lose £2.7bn. There is a seriously incompetent accountant working for the government (though I suspect there maybe a whole army of them).

The Daily Telegraph reports today that John Prescott has (rather amusingly) "thrown his weight behind a growing campaign at Westminster to force a rethink of the decision to site Britain's first super-casino in Manchester". Apparently he thinks it should never have gone to Manchester and that the independent advisory panel got it wrong. Tessa Jowell was, apparently, "stunned" by the decision not to award to Blackpool. And now 100 backbench MPs have called for a reversal of the decision. And all I'm left to do is ask, so what??!!

Cowboy John Prescott did his best to get Greenwich the deal and failed. Those in Parliament felt that Blackpool should have got it, but in the end Manchester won because an independent body was set up to decide. Has this government really got its way now for so long that it will challenge everything it doesn't agree with? And with such arrogance. They have effectively set up a body to come up with an answer and if they don't like the answer they turn round and say you got it wrong. Why bother setting it up in the first place if you won't accept their advice? Why waste taxpayers' money with the time and effort it took them to reach an independent decision if you're not interested in the independent decision. This whole casino debate has been a nonsense from the start. It was clear that the government wanted Greenwich ever since Big John was pictured in his Texan hat. Others in the government have clearly wanted Blackpool. Unfortunately, the advisory panel didn't play ball and now that rootin', tootin' John Prescott is throwing his toys out. Pathetic.

A Chamber of Commerce report released yesterday has shown that the cost of regulation and red tape to small businesses is running at £55bn. 70% of these businesses believe that the government is not doing enough to help them. One of the comments from the survey was "A risk culture needs to be encouraged in Government – try making a pound instead of trying to save one". This really sums up the government - they do not trust anyone to be able to run anything and so put all the regulation they can in place to put in the safe guards. All in order to save money - but what's the point in saving a pound when your the cost of saving it completely nullifies what you are trying to do?

The average council tax bill is set to rise another 3.8% this year - an incredible 90% increase since Labour came to power! And surprise, surprise - the lowest rises are in the 238 districts that face elections in May, weeks before Gordon Brown is expected to take over as Prime Minister. The government is doing its usual trick of going easier on the key voters in the run up to an important election; however it will probably deal them the sucker punch next year to make up for the short fall. It stinks.

The hardest hit are the pensioners, who will face massive increases which will come straight out of their pensions - Gordon's other favourite trick: to give with one hand and then take it all back with the other. And what are we getting for this 90% increase? Considering we will probably be charged extra to have our rubbish removed in the coming months (another example of raising money with the old environment debate as a smoke screen) not a lot. We do have to pay £9bn for that £3bn Olympics we "won", I suppose. Expect to see many pensioners stand up to this in the coming months and be criminalised by the government - there are 90 in Devon alone, apparently, who are willing to go to prison over this. I guess that will mean our council taxes will have to rise further to pay the police and courts then... not that there are any spaces left in our prisons to put them.

If ever proof were needed that this government is using the environment debate as a smoke screen to stealth taxes and pushing through their agenda, then just look at how they are acting in their everyday lives. You would think a government overly concerned with the changing climate would be going out of their way to get the public to buy in to the green debate by acting responsibly themselves. But no. The number of miles Ministers are driving each year has risen sharply. And even more worrying, they are making us pay for their luxury travel.