Andy Burnham to Health
Fraser Nelson 3:09pm
Andy Burnham, that football-mad Liverpool lad, is to be the new boss of the non-communist world's largest workforce: Health Secretary. He has thus fulfilled the prophesy bestowed on him when he was named The Spectator-Threadneedle's "minister to watch" in 2006. Burnham was a former health minister (I interviewed him in Richmond House at the time) so will know the department a bit. My guess is that we will see as much inactivity from him as we did from Alan Johnson. Burnham found being Chief Secretay to the Treasury too taxing during his six month stay there, and seemed delighted to be made minister for fun when he was moved to culture. He'll have a lot less fun in the Department of Health.
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joseph
June 5th, 2009 3:27pm Report this commentIn the midst of a scrambled reshuffle this is probably a great appointment. Pro-change, pro-the-NHS, pro-reform.
Burnham will do good things for the health of the NHS and I predict the NHS will be good for Burnham's long-term political prospects.
Ethan
June 5th, 2009 3:39pm Report this commentBurnham is such a lightweight that even Lansley may be a match for him.
pommefrite
June 5th, 2009 3:44pm Report this commentYes, great appointment. I expect he'll find the cure for cancer in the few weeks he's there.
Simon Stephenson
June 5th, 2009 3:45pm Report this comment"Burnham found being Chief Secretay to the Treasury too taxing during his six month stay there"
We're not supposed to care if he could successfully run the tombola at a church fete as long as he's mastered the art of being a politician.
Dungeekin
June 5th, 2009 3:49pm Report this commentI could care less about Burnham.
What really, REALLY beggars belief is that Peter Hain is coming back.
That scraping noise is the bottom of the barrel being reached.
Dungeekin
Julian The Wonderhorse
June 5th, 2009 3:53pm Report this commentGood things for health? What, in the 5 minutes he'll be there? He'll barely have time to sharpen his pencil and rub his hands with alcohol wipes before the countdown to the election starts.
And with eyes like that he could do a wonderful impression of Princess Diana when she was filmed watching that heart operation.
He is a good guy though
Michael
June 5th, 2009 3:56pm Report this commentHe supports Everton - a big difference.
TomTom
June 5th, 2009 4:31pm Report this commentthe non-communist world's largest workforce:
When did Andy Burnham become CEO of Wal-Mart with its 1,800,000 employees ?
It's a real achievement and he should get a knighthood
Nicholas
June 5th, 2009 5:33pm Report this commentExpect more fascist health directives from this fascist.
Mary E Hoult
June 5th, 2009 7:42pm Report this commentI am delighted by the appointment of Andy Burnham I do hope now, the public voice will be heard and acted upon.
A Bradbury
June 5th, 2009 9:00pm Report this commentanother "lightweight blair babe" appointment.Good in front of a camera but lacks "grit".Why can't we have someone who has an understanding of how the "real world" works and not just another career politician/flunky? He (and most other flunkies would not last two minutes in a proper job.
BTW Mr Burnham is my local MP - roll on the general election!!
Oli
July 3rd, 2009 12:09am Report this commentA Bradbury: you use alot of inverted commas. That is probably because you are using convenient dialogue spouted by a million other people. Being a minister is not an easy job. What do you do for a job? Most other flunkies make thousand in the private sector which suggests they do pretty well in other jobs. Most MPs have previously been journalists bankers, publishers, consultans, and even railway porters. Nearly all of them scrub up pretty well academically as well, and between all 600 plus of them haved published a plethora of books and worked 90 hour weeks as a given. But none of this is the real world.......
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