The Tony n' Dave show, catch it while you can

A few thoughts from the penultimate Cameron v Blair show. The Prime Minister has a new phrase, “the end of waiting as we know it,” which doesn’t mean waiting has ended at all. He’s sharply reduced the number waiting over six months. But the median inpatient wait for an NHS operation is 5.4 weeks, exactly what it was in March 1994 (not that they publish these figures). I’m afraid that’s waiting, and as we know it. But, again, the knockabout was classic. Blair’s swipe at Cameron “he has the imprint of the last person who sat on him” had environment minister Ben Bradshaw clapping with delight. “I’ll miss him,” said Cameron. And to be honest, so will I. For sheer entertainment value, Gordon Brown has a lot to live up to. 

UPDATE: I've had a couple of emails about the above figure on hospital waiting times. I can see why it doesn't ring true: govermment likes to fake progress by using "number of people waiting over 28 weeks" or somesuch as a proxy for NHS performance. Yet median NHS operation waits (outpatient, not inpatient as I incorrectly said above) tells a different story. It rose from 5.4 weeks in 1994 to 6.0 weeks when  Blair came to power. They peaked at 7.7 weeks in 2000 and stayed above 7.0 weeks until Mar05. When market-led reform started to kick in, it fell and was back down to 5.4 weeks last December.  So it's not quite the "end of waiting as we knew it", Blair should have said "back to waiting as we knew it under John Major." A bit like youth unemployment. And if you look at Hospital Episode Statistics the NHS wait is even bleaker.
 
As far as I know, the above data is not published online, or in any government document. If anyone out there knows different, please let me know!