why

imagine, if you will, you are just waking up. the bed is all roasty toasty. the memory of a great dream is still fresh. it is a moment of perfect contentment.

bliss.

imagine, if you will, that dream being scattered to the mists of memory, that contentment being shattered. that bliss reduced to a puddle of poo.

imagine it.

yeah that’s how i felt the other day. walking up to the voice of a taxpayer’s alliance (tpa) spokesman wittering on about how the national health service needs to become leaner and more effective. which is just their way of saying that the nhs has to open itself up to for profit organisations that will make money out of illness while providing a lesser service.

once down that road there is no turning back.

and we only have to look at the success that the railways have been to know where that road really leads to.

not that it matters to the tpa – they are the sort of people who have private health coverage sorted, not that it affects their call for changes in the nhs.

what annoys me about the tpa is that they get coverage.

any coverage is too much.

but when my morning listening is ruined because the bbc have given the tpa a spot on the radio then i am irked. especially as the tpa would be happy to see the bbc disappear. not that the disappearance of the bbc matters to them as they are the sort of people that not only have sky subscriptions but they have seats on various media companies board of directors.

there is the rub. last time i looked there was little, well i mean no, information about where the tpa gets it’s funding from. this wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for their called for more transparency from government. i guess it is a case of do as i say, not do as i do.

normally that wouldn’t matter but as they are so keen to portray themselves as spokesmen for the rest of us, then i want to know where you are getting the cash from. i want to know who is funding you so i know just what is behind your campaigns and what drives  your research.

but i would settle for the bbc introducing them as a right wing think tank who are minted and not a bit like the people they say they represent.

still i have learnt one thing from their website.

"what to know

comingsoon."

says it all really.