The years worst kept secret of politics was finally revealed yesterday, the date of the general election is to be held on May 5th 2005. As if anyone didn't know. Hell, my polling card arrived two weeks ago.
I can remember exactly where I have been at every election since 1991, and who I was with. After our all night election broadcast on hospital radio in spring 1991, I had continued to spent both the 1997 and 2001 election nights with my friend Nigel.
That first year we stayed broadcasting until it became clear who the clear winner was, and it wasn't until about 6am that we heard that the Conservatives had retained their hold on power.
We also played our taped interviews with the 'Forward to Mars Party' candidate, all the main party candidates for Huntingdon (including the then prime minister, John Major), even the green party. I do recall my disappointment at being unable to secure an interview with Lord Buckethead though. (something to do with him being laid up after accidently swallowing some putty?)
In 1997, for entirely unrelated reasons, I had resigned my job the day of the election. As it became clear that the conservative party was due for their worst results in decades, Nigel and myself decamped from watching the television and sought solace in the local hostelry until we were too drunk to care. My abiding memory of that year is staggering around on a bright may morning at about 11am, with a blinding hangover and thinking that not only was it bad enough that I didn't have a job, but that the labour party was in power.
4 years later we both just sat in front of the tv with snacks, and watched the most uninteresting election for long time. Our respective wives wondering what it was that grown men saw in the fascination of watching election coverage on TV.
This year, will be the first time in almost 15 years that I won't be watching the drama of election night unfold with Nigel. For he ended up being a victim of Labour's policy on the health service. They may be pumping billions of pounds into the NHS, but they have an ever increasing number of targets to adhere to. This skews the health service towards treating those patients that they can get in and out more quickly.
A few months after the election, he developed a lump in his neck, and was referred for a biopsy by his GP. It was a few months before finally obtained his appointment. It was a couple of weeks later that it revealed he had thyroid cancer. Nice of them to let him know on Christmas Eve, but we can't blame the government for that.
Now, chopping out a thyroid isn't exactly a trivial job, so it was another two months before the NHS was able to fit him in for an operation, by which time it had grown to such a size they were unable to remove the entire growth, and he was subjected to a gruelling treatment of radiotherapy. Sadly, the length of time between being referred and being operated was great enough for the disease to spread throughout his body.
On the other hand, when I went to my GP last year with a 'lump' in a tender area of mine, I was referred and operated on within 8 weeks. Why? despite having an operation under general anaesthetic, it was a same day operation and looks good on the hospital statistics. In fact in the afternoon I was operated on, the surgeon also operated on another 5 people.
I know the care that he received was excellent, so we cannot blame the medical staff of the NHS for the consequences of what happened. But because the government would rather massage the waiting list figures to make it look like they are treating more people (i.e. cases such as mine), people who could otherwise survive with prompt treatment end up dead.
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