Why the government has to give the NHS the promised extra £350m a week

Six months ago the country voted for Brexit, I mention that just in case you weren’t on Earth at the time and missed it. Personally I looked at the EU referendum from the point of view of my children’s future, and on balance I felt it was too big a risk for them. I still have many concerns about what the future holds for my kids growing up in a post Brexit UK, but now it’s done I desperately want to be proven wrong for their sake.

I also agree with the argument that without an overriding referendum vote to stay in Europe, then Brexit has to happen, it clearly would be undemocratic for it to be ignored. However, I believe without also fulfilling the promises that gained the vote to leave, then there is absolutely no mandate for Brexit.

If waking down the high street you saw a sign in a mobile phone shop window for an Apple iPhone with unlimited minutes, but then when you took the contract it came with only 100 minutes talk time, you’d take it back. You wouldn’t accept the contract and pay the money each month. The law would back you on that too, Trading Standards would soon be knocking on the door of the said mobile phone retailer I’m sure, as would the Advertising Standards Authority if they published that offer.

So what’s the difference? If they do proceed with Brexit without also fulfilling the promises which gained the vote, then it’s clearly dishonest. As it stands Teresa May’s government is cherry picking the messages they want to take from the EU referendum, but she can’t distance herself from those promises made to gain the vote, since she installed the very same people who made them in the heart of her government.

My final thought is that this time, if they do go ahead with such a giant swindle of the electorate, then it will take this country ever closer to a point of being so disillusioned with the political class, that there is a real danger the electorate will vote in an unsuitable opportunistic alternative. We only need to look to the United States and Donald Trump being elected to see that it can really happen.

With hospitals so overstretched recently, we clearly need the £350m extra a week for the NHS as promised for it to be sustainable, but also importantly to begin to restore some faith in the worth of the word of a politician, as right now I think most people would say a politicians election promises are entirely worthless.