NHS jobs fiasco shows why respect for our MPs is so low

POLITICIANS are concerned at the low turnout of voters at parliamentary elections.

It is the duty of everyone to use their right to vote, we are firmly told. Our forefathers fought long and hard to ensure everyone was given this privilege, so why has the percentage of eligible voters fallen to such low levels? Why are MPs, in general, held in such low esteem by many people?

How often in recent times has the electorate gasped at the appalling ways that their taxes are tossed away; how often have ludicrous amounts of money been squandered on schemes which defy all logic; how often have people wondered just what has happened to common sense?

The treasured National Health Service has been severely hit in recent times with many A&E departments being closed, maternity services understaffed, surgical departments transferred to hospitals many miles away and a shortage of medical and nursing staff, etc.

A solution was found: the top-heavy layer of managers, who were deemed surplus to requirements, would be made redundant and a leaner and fitter NHS would emerge, with emphasis being returned to those who actually treat patients.

Ah, common sense is back. Oh no, wrong again.

Almost 4,000 of these redundant staff have been re-employed by the Health Service. After being given generous severance pay, many are now receiving lucrative new contracts. Obviously the severance pay they received will have to be paid back, won’t it? Don’t be silly, that would require plain simple common sense and all the signs are that common sense has been made illegal.

The NHS cannot afford to lose this money. Pay offers of only one per cent confirm this state of affairs. It is simply not in a position to throw other people’s money away.

Wrong again. They will keep the money they have only just been given to compensate them for the loss of their jobs, even though they’ve been re-employed. Whoever thought up this wheeze of wasting money? Perhaps the severance pay can be regarded as some kind of tax-free bonus, and, it seems, enable the recipients to become fully qualified new members of the ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ club.

Is this a new way of disguising obscene pay increases for hospital managers?

Compare this state of affairs with the recent miserly pay offer to health workers.

Then MPs wonder why the electorate has such a low regard for them.