Did anyone hear BBC Tees this morning? They were discussing stoke care in Darlington.
A consultation has been started on concentrating the care in Durham and removing the specialist care from Darlington. No decision has been made (Yea right) but according to the spokesman "No change is not an option"
So if the choice is leave it as it is, or move it to Durham, BUT, No change (ie leave things as they are) is NOT an option, then all that is left is moving the unit to Durham?
Why can't people see these "consultations" are meaningless exercises to provide a pseudo-democratic smokescreen for decision that are already made!
Mind you Darlington has been a fairly safe Labour seat since Alan Millburn took it from the Tories in 1992, although the vote fell by 13% when he stepped down in 2010 taking it below the 50% level for the first time since 1992. Durham however is a definite Lib-dem target so the cynics amongst us might look for the political advantages and disadvantages of moving the health care provision from one town to another. Wasn't it Labour who relied on political heat maps to make these decisions. Closing facilities in solid labour areas (like Hartlepool), where the electorate could be relied on to vote labour no matter what, and moving the facilities to marginals or target seats (like Stockton) to bolster up weak support. The Tories are no different, it's just different heat maps so different decisions.
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