Speeches by George.

“I accept that the Government are clearly not the architect of the current unacceptable state of affairs. However, may I encourage the Secretary of State to reflect again on our exchange at the Health and Social Care Committee just a month ago, when he resisted the recommendation of the president of the Royal College of…”

“So you have gone native in the new organisation and are taking their view. Do you think it would be not unreasonable for someone external who was looking at the state of the organisation to perhaps preface it with the word “shockingly”, considering the IT debacle?”

“We will move on, you will be pleased to hear, to the nature of the inspections that you undertake. A lot of it seems to be kind of forensic, and understandably needs to be forensic in nature, but to what extent are you sensitive to the whistleblowers when pursuing inspections on the basis of that kind of intelligence-l…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent case. Penzance, west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are all in my constituency, so I know that if there are problems on the link at Dawlish, that can multiply the impact of those disruptions for people in the far west of Cornwall. Does he share my concern that it seems that with …”

“That is a different matter, isn’t it?”

“Q9. Over the past 10 years, more than £500 million has been handed to holiday home owners in Cornwall through various tax loopholes, while local families are being evicted from their homes to make way for yet more holiday homes. As the housing crisis worsens, the six Cornwall MPs are determined to reverse this situatio…”

“Exactly. That is what he was implying.”

“I have a supplementary question on that. The figures that I picked up in Cornwall alone indicate that of the delayed discharges in the acute sector over the last year, only 25% can be attributed primarily to a lack of social care packages. Others are actually a combination of a lack of primary—”

“Thank you very much. That would be useful for us, because this is very central to the question we are asking. I think there is a fairly obvious answer to this question, so I will give you a minute to answer it. The Government have their three shifts—all of which I am sure are very agreeable to everybody—one of which is…”

“So in the cold hearts of the Treasury, they will look at the pension budget and this and perhaps make rather cold-hearted calculations on the back of that. I am sorry to be vague, but I was not sure whether it was Professor Darzi or someone else who indicated that if you improve people’s health and wellbeing into their…”

“I think you can answer the question I've been allocated relatively quickly. Therefore, I would like to ask a supplementary question on the back of what Joe was asking Andrew earlier. I think you have twice said that if we improve health and social care and people live longer, it will result in a larger social care bill…”

“I just want to work out, Andrew, whether you feel optimistic for Baroness Casey. From what you are saying, in the last decade or so, things have kind of muddled along. I am trying to interpret your language and your body language with regard to how confident you feel. Do you think it would take the media to slavishly r…”

“The Netanyahu regime continues to seek to justify its cold-blooded slaughter of Palestinian people behind the dishonest façade of self-defence. While the Minister asserts that the Government are taking an even-handed approach in this regard, he will remember that only two months ago the UK military intervened to protec…”

“I am not aware that those things have not already been rolled out. It is certainly a mantra that has been expressed by those on the frontline of the NHS, so I am not sure there is anything new as far as that is concerned.”

“And you will be able to balance that with your view that you do not want an overly centralised system. You want to let go but at the same time hold on.”

“There has been a reduction from 8% six years ago to 5.5% of the NHS pot going into community services. If you are going to reverse that, you can use the mental health investment standard, perhaps, as a means to achieve that. Can you now set us an indication as to what level you think that proportion should be? Can you …”

“But that is not what, for example, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine is saying. Dr Adrian Boyle is saying that, if every acute hospital had an additional ward for the admission of patients who are clogging up the emergency departments, that would relieve a lot of pressure. That requires more inve…”

“I suppose the shift from hospital to community is the holy grail question. For the 30 years or more that I have been involved in the politics of health, it has been a mantra or objective. The language may well have changed but, if anything, things have moved in the opposite direction. It is a laudable aim; everyone, ot…”

“In the far west of Cornwall, in a medical emergency we cannot look for additional support from the north, west or south, because it is sea. The urgent treatment centre at Penzance hospital was closed two and a half years ago, under the Conservatives, adding pressure to the only emergency department for the next 100 mil…”

“My constituency, which includes Penzance station, will be deeply affected. We are five hours away from Old Oak Common and will experience much of the pain with no gain. Just a fraction of the £67 billion being spent on HS2—for example, just one two-hundredth of that budget—could address the issue in Dawlish, which is t…”