The government’s latest diversionary tactic is a gimmick called ‘health week’. Given the state of the NHS, that isn’t wise
Have you noticed that this is the government’s “health week”? Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has appeared twice on Radio 4’s Today programme to try to make it fly, yet somehow it has failed to distract from other Westminster dramas.
Hoping health might act as a useful shield was an odd manoeuvre, as the NHS is the bad news story that will dog the Tories through the next election. But where else can No 10 turn, to which crippled department, for an iota of good news to distract from all the other bad news? Blank denial, upending the truth, is the Boris Johnson way: at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, he boasted of his government’s “fiscal firepower”, just as the OECD told the world that the UK is heading for zero growth, bottom of the league (bar Russia).
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
