What a load of Balls

So Gordon Brown thinks the solution to to the problems in the NHS might be ... more reorganisation!

According to Brown fanboy Ed Balls this is because:

"The track record so far has been about devolution in important areas of policy - on monetary policy, on financial services policy, on local government and regional policy too," he told the BBC.

Well call me old fashioned but I prefer to judge people on the basis of what they have actually done, rather than what they say they might do in the future.

The Brown/Blair Government could have devolved power in the NHS at any point in the last 9 and a half years. They could have done this within the current structure, or any one of the many structures that have existed during that 9 and a half years.

They could have done this at national level, by letting the existing national bodies get on with the job, or they could have genuinly develoved power to the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) when they set them up.

Instead what we have seen is Government dictac at every stage and at every level.

In this area we have seen PCTs forced to sign contracts with private companies that have resulted in NHS money being poured down the drain. When some of the few genuinly independent minded local members of PCT boards try and take decisions that they believe are in the best interests of their communiities they are bullied into making the right decision or hounded out.

Does this strike you as being the work of someone with 'track record so far has been about devolution in important areas of policy'? Thought not.

In local government it means that local authorities are encouraged to draw up mission statements, Local Area Plans etc. But if they include things that the Government (or more usually the civil servant inhabiting their regional office) doesn't like they are told to change them.

The sad thing is that I think many Labour Ministers honestly believe that they have devolved power.

What a load of Balls.