Phil Kemp
speaker
48 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2011
last heard Aug 2011
Phil Kemp’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Well, Labour say the numbers show that in its first year in office, the coalition spent about £800 million less in real terms on the NHS in England than Labour did in its last year in office.
Now, the first thing to say here is the argument is over a relatively small amount of money.
What?
Nonetheless, Labour are right.
£800 million less might not be a lot, but it's still less than was spent last year.
Labour say the coalition broke its promise and they described that £800 million as a cut.
Now, there's two things to say about that.
The first is that the government describes the £800 million as an underspend, not a cut.
OK, hang on.
People are going to be laughing at that particular euphemism, aren't they?
I mean, underspend instead of cut?
Well, maybe, but remember that you can't guarantee that every penny of the available budget will actually be spent.
I imagine it's pretty hard to spend over £100 billion accurately.
You might aim to spend that much, but maybe in reality you spend a bit more or a little less.
OK.
I'll let them have underspend.
Do they have any other excuses?
Well, the government also says that because it took office a month into a financial year, it simply inherited the final year of Labour's NHS spending plans anyway.
And it didn't tamper with those plans at all.
It says its pledge applies to this year and subsequent years.
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