Gordon Brown And MRSA

Under Gordon Brown as Chancellor, we had years of cutbacks in bed capacity, and private companies were hired to cut cleaning costs in hospitals.

Now, Gordon Brown as Prime Minister rides to the rescue, promising money to deal with the effects: MRSA and clostridium difficile.

If Labour had addressed the problem over the last 10 years, we wouldn’t have 5400 people dying from these infections each year. Or, if you wish, we have a Madrid train bombings worth of MRSA every 13 days.

It's part of a perplexing trend. What Labour considers its strengths (health, education) are among their greatest weaknesses.

Health -- NHS dentistry; 5 million people having clinical depression or clinical anxiety, and there simply not being an infrastructure to deal with it; MRSA/clostridium difficile

Education -- the expansion of faith schools, of city academies; allegations today on the lack of rigour of university courses; top-up fees; nearly 700 000 places in adult education being cut in 2006