Labour’s task
LABOUR won power by promising major change — and voters are certainly ready for it.
So today’s big speech is Keir Starmer’s moment to set out exactly how he will achieve it.
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The time for rhetoric is over. We heard enough of that before and after the election.
And Labour’s ceaseless blaming of the Tories for all our woes — never mentioning Covid, or war — is wearing thin.
Britain demands the urgent solutions we were promised on housing, crime, immigration and the NHS.
We welcome that Sir Keir has a “reforming instinct”. That is exactly what is needed. There’s just one snag.
Where was the “reform” when the Government handed Aslef’s train drivers an inflation-busting pay rise while making shivering pensioners poorer just in time for a winter energy price hike?
Nothing was demanded of the militant union dinosaurs in return.
Nor of the BMA Marxists, representing junior doctors, in exchange for their 22 per cent.
And does the PM really expect Britain to believe Rishi Sunak left nothing but “rubble and ruin” which will take Labour a decade — a decade — to fix?
With inflation at two per cent, unemployment low, interest rates falling and UK growth the best in the G7?
Now heal this
IT is a source of national shame so many wounded people would rather treat themselves than endure day-long waits in A&E.
These injuries are not trifling ones — even some patients told by NHS 111 or a doctor to go to hospital choose not to.
More than half of those who rejected A&E preferred to suffer in pain at home.
Some in the survey we report today had broken limbs but simply made their own slings.
Britain is rightly proud of parts of the NHS.
But not the chaos in our jam-packed emergency departments.
Overuse of A&E is a problem, though many are there only because they cannot get a GP appointment.
The system is broken and Health Secretary Wes Streeting aims to rebuild it.
Excellent. Except Britain cannot wait ten years for a properly functioning NHS.
So long, Sven
WE’LL miss Sven-Goran Eriksson.
England’s first foreign manager may never have got our “golden generation” of gifted stars beyond a quarter-final.
But he had his moments — especially the unforgettable 5-1 thrashing of Germany away in 2001.
And the unlikely romeo’s off-field exploits certainly added to the gaiety of the nation.
Above all, he was a nice bloke who loved life and his family — but handled his terminal cancer diagnosis with great dignity and typical positivity.
RIP, Sven.
