Labour’s conversion to the cause of NHS reform is belated but hugely welcome – they must waste no time

A new NHS

FOR years The Sun has argued that ­nothing short of a total reinvention would save the NHS from its decline.

For years that was dismissed out of hand. Both major parties wanted only to pour in billions more and vaguely hope things improved.

Every problem was still blamed on a lack of funding . . . . absurdly so, since its ­budget soared under the Tories.

So we are overjoyed that Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting seem committed to the “biggest reimagining of the NHS since its birth”.

That they say it must “reform or die” and that extra money is not the answer.

The major report they commissioned from top surgeon Lord Darzi to diagnose its ills has delivered a commendably rapid verdict — and it is damning.

Spending is up, but productivity down.

Too much is blown on hospitals, too little on the front line, on GPs.

Waiting lists are nightmarish, cancer ­survival rates below those abroad and management shambolic.

Overall the health service is in “critical” condition, especially since Covid.

And only a Labour Government could take this on.

Mainly because voters trust them on the NHS more than the Tories.

But also, frankly, because Tory efforts at major reform would have foundered against an onslaught of hostility from the Left, weaponising it for electoral gain.

Labour’s conversion to the cause is belated, then, but hugely welcome.

They must waste no time.

Yet there is no guarantee they can ever pull this off.

Among many mountainous obstacles are unions who will kick, scream and strike over any changes to their conditions or extra demands on staff.

How can they be persuaded without vast new injections of public money?

We wish Mr Streeting luck. He’ll need it.

Fighting farce

THE Royal Marines are a violent fighting force trained for war, not a mimsy collective of sandal-wearing relationship counsellors.

Yet even their top brass have succumbed to corrosive woke lunacy.

So the names of lethal assault exercises are being softened to sound less aggressive.

How do our stretched forces even have staff spare to think this nonsense up?

Our global enemies will be quaking — with laughter.

Deadly error

AS sickening as it was watching sniggering villains set free from jail en masse by ­Labour, it’s about to get worse.

Convicted killers will be in the next batch let out early to ease overcrowding.

This is the Government’s political choice after dismissing alternatives.

But there’s still time to rethink.

They cannot let loose killers who should still be securely behind bars.