Last Saturday, the Politics Show talked of free parking at Welsh hospitals which was described as “…something widely welcomed across Wales and reported with envy by some English newspapers.” (See, we’re just being envious again, but when the shoe is on the other prosthetic limb, we should all be treated equally because the NHS is “UK wide” and run on a basis of “need, not geography”, see below).
What caught my eye was the paragraph describing the “UK Health Minister” criticizing the Welsh NHS, and a rebuttal by the “Welsh Health Minister”. So, I fired a letter off to the Beeb asking the following…
Sir
If Edwina Hart is Welsh Health Minister and Andy Kerr is the Scottish Health Minister, how can Ben Bradshaw be the UK Health Minister?
Are Scotland and Wales no longer part of the UK? Is it that Hart and Kerr report to Bradshaw?
If they don't report to him and Wales and Scotland are actually still part of the UK, doesn't this make Bradshaw the English Health Minister? If he is, why is he not called the English Health Minister?
Doesn't Auntie have to swear some kind of oath to report accurately? Isn’t she supposed to expose politicians attempting to mislead?
Yours etc.”
Veterans of the English Question know the answers, of course, but I wondered if those in power could justify the slight of hand. Just in case the Beeb didn’t reply (they didn’t) I decided to ask the Ministers themselves. I wrote to Bradshaw (English Health), Balls (English Children), Kelly (English Transport) and Johnson (English Health, again).
The main part of my letter asked…
“Do you have any jurisdiction outside of England? If you don’t, why is your office not called the Department of English XXXX, or Department of XXX (England)?”
To date, no one has responded. It seems a simple question, why do they find it so hard to answer?
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