GREETINGS to you all from Badger’s sett readers. The recent downpours have been distressing as they have compelled Badger to have his annual bath unexpectedly early. Nevertheless, one makes do with the cards dealt and so Badger’s loofah and coal tar soap have had an early excursion. Being the frugal sort, Badger likes things that last a long time and is prepared to pay a little extra for durability (but not the price of Bryn Parry Jones!). And that readers is where Badger has some issues with current trends in our public life.

If everything is based upon providing the minimum for the least then the world of public service provision has gone mad. Time and time again across the UK demented ideologues have tried to treat essential services like public transport and its infrastructure. policing. prisons, health, and education as though they are things that could and should be delivered by private money for private profit. Successive governments of whatever stripe have bought into the lie that “the discipline of the market” is all that is needed to make public service delivery fairer, better, more efficient and — of course — cheaper. There are other factors that are important to public services. not least of which is the service element itself.

Forgetting the fact that public services often deliver essential services free at the point of delivery (please note, Badger did not say “free”) and that people depend upon those services to learn, live
and survive is to ignore that most important service element. Taxpayers are relieved of part of their income, whether directly or indirectly, and some of that money goes towards providing them with public services. Far too many people have bought into the fallacy that all human relationships are shaped by calculations of profit and loss and that a service is a product to be delivered like a bag of crisps or a fizzy drink. No wonder economics is called “the dismal science”, readers. And it is cost-cutting that is at the heart of the Welsh Government’s drive to cut health services in our county. Badger does not blame the Board for the direction of that policy.

That would be like pelting the monkey when the organ-grinder plays a false note. The Welsh Government “reviewed” health care in a report it commissioned and with terms of reference it set. It received the outcome of its rigged review and over the last few years it has imposed its wishes across Wales. Readers. virtually every strategic decision coming out of each and every consultation. has come up with the result the Welsh Government wanted. It’s a miracle, readers. Or not. if like Badger you are somewhat less inclined to think that Mark Drakeford and his predecessors are wonder workers. Goodness knows, readers. how many hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money have been wasted on the con job perpetrated by Welsh Labour on the people of
Wales. Its “review” has always been about cuts. The aim has always been to trim the budget. For all the fine words from the Bay uttered by Welsh Labour ministers, the outcome boils down to slashing services in the vain hope that not too many more people die as a result. Faced with a gaping hole in its health budget, the Welsh Government has decided to pack it with “efficiencies” and “service improvements” and artists’ impressions of maternity suites that look like a Premier Inn without Lenny Henry.

All the glossy pictures in the world will not save one life or deliver one child safely into it. Mark Drakeford promised a safety net not an artists’ impression of something not yet even built (Did the unit closing come as a bit of a surprise. Health Board?) Nothing can hide the fact that Mark Drakeford’s “robust safety net” is held together with something less than a lick and a promise. How lucky is Mark that the Senedd isn’t sitting so he can be asked about it? It is the nature of nets that they have holes, readers. Mark Drake ford’s net has hole. One bloody big one and nothing else. Lies, damned lies, and politicians’ promises. It’s almost enough to make Badger think that Mark Drakeford is an extremely large hole, himself. The Board is still recruiting staff to staff the magic ambulance it says will replace a dedicated maternity ward with consultant cover. As for specialist equipment, that will presumably materialise at the same time as the specialist staff to crew the magic ambulance. The Health Board has the advantage of being unelected. Welsh Labour Senedd members and aspiring Labour politicians do not. Which one of our local Labour politicians will be the first to say that the Welsh Government has treated, is treating and will continue to treat Pembrokeshire’s voice with contempt.

The first transfer from Withybush took  two and a half hours. Badger does not know how mother and baby are doing. but Badger hopes it is well. And if it is. it will be thanks to those doing a difficult job in impossible circumstances. The credit will not go to the Health Board and still less will it go to Welsh Labour in Cardiff Bay. Every life lost in transit that could have been saved in Haverfordwest; every mother hoicked away from her family and friends at a distressing and difficult time; every child kept in pain for a minute longer than necessary. The Health Board and Welsh Labour can have the “credit” for those. And when they are given the proper “credit” for ripping apart caring communities they might just realise that while they know the cost of everything. readers, they know the value of nothing.