NHS will pay the May way

Our PM declares we need a longterm plan for our NHS and “we cannot afford to wait”.

That’s after 13 years of chronic Conservative underfunding with a £20billion black hole and a freeze and cap on nurses’ pay.

Theresa May is not noted for long-term thinking or even carrying out her so-called statements, which change daily.

She declares she wants to raise more money for the NHS’s 70th anniversary. But the Tories have spent 70 years trying to undermine its hospitals and staff.

Since the National Health Service was established by Labour in 1948 – bitterly opposed by the Tories – it has mostly been managed by Tory governments, lurching from crisis to crisis, especially the 18 years under

Our grandkids will be coming round today for our traditional Easter egg hunt in the back garden. I usually put the eggs out the night before so they can start early. But it’s a race as to who’ll hunt them down first – the grandkids or the

foxes!

Thatcher and Major. By the time they left power, people waited 18 months on average for an op.

Under Gordon Brown, Labour poured a huge amount into the NHS, restoring it to the European average healthcare expenditure. It cut that wait to 18 weeks.

Labour then proposed further taxation by putting a penny on National Insurance, ring-fencing it for the NHS. This was bitterly opposed by the Conservatives.

Now May is considering the same thing. She says she wants a 10-year programme with extra taxation funding to be spent on hospitals and social services.

As we see so often, Theresa May and Theresa may not.

If she’s really serious about helping the NHS she can reverse her cuts to corporation tax, inheritance tax, the bankers’ levy and capital gains tax that will cost the UK £70billion by 2022.

By all means increase National Insurance to pay for our NHS. But don’t do it to subsidise tax breaks for a privileged and wealthy few.