By Dr Dolittle
INSTEAD of pushing for a new ‘local’ hospital that would benefit many of her constituents, Barrow’s Labour MP has this morning been trying to defend her Government for kicking it into space!
It didn’t end well.
Michelle Scrogham MP, self-appointed “protector of the NHS” may have needed paramedics to bring her round after a far from convincing “performance” on BBC Radio Cumbria’s breakfast show.
To backtrack slightly, on Monday the Labour Government sneaked out the damaging news that loads of new hospitals won’t be delivered as previously set out. (Not that we ever believed Bojo the Clown).
Only last year, Labour said: “We are committed to delivering the new hospitals programme.”
The update is that Lancaster won’t now be getting a new RLI until 2038!)
The ann0uncement was dropped by slippery health secretary Wes Streeting on Monday – the day Britain’s media was distracted by Trump’s inauguration and certain developments in the, ahem, case of the Welsh Choir Boy.
This shameless PR tactic to limit negative publicity, was reminiscent of: “It’s a good day to bury bad news” – a phrase used on 9/11 by a despicable spinner in the Blair Government as the Twin Towers fell.
It’s now transpired that South Cumbria/North Lancashire/Morecambe Bay etc won’t be getting a new RLI for another THIRTEEN YEARS – if at all.
Yet Barrow’s MP was more than happy to try and cover the arse of her Government on live radio this morning.
She appeared on the breakfast show, a programme which, despite cutbacks, is the last firing line left in Cumbria where local MPs are held to account LIVE.
Its capable host, Mike Zeller, turned up the thumbscrews.
“This delay, it has to be said, is terrible news for people in South Cumbria, isn’t it?” asked Zeller with his opening barb.
After an even bigger delay, Scrogham spluttered: “…Morning, erm, it’s not the news I was hoping for I’ve got to say.
“Erm, but we’ve been faced with delays and a lack of funding from the previous Government…”
Zeller then said: “I have to put it to you Labour DID commit to deliver these hospitals.”
The monosyllabic “ScrogErm” – sounding like she was speaking from a telephone box in Dalton Road – reverted to tiresome Tory blaming).
Zeller pressed further: “You did say in your manifesto, without caveat, that you would deliver this programme. I mean, you talk about honesty…shouldn’t you have been honest before the election to say it would need to be delayed so far into the future.”
ScrogErm – slapped back to factory settings – feebly resisted: “We can’t just promise…We could just say…we could have just said nothing…”
Absolutely excruciating but great accountability!
Remember the name: ScrogErm.
Result: Radio Cumbria 10, Barrow MP 0.
thecumbriachronic.co.uk 
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