A blogless gap because I was a few days away in Italy. This does wonders for recharging the batteries but also for appreciating the UK parliamentary system. The people of Lucca in northern Tuscany are deep into the campaign for the forthcoming general elections . So many parties, so little time to find out what they all stand for. My friends there seem to think there’s a real chance of their former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, whom they call ‘Il Cavaliero’ (‘The Cavalier’ )being returned to power; but almost impossible to tell because of all the negotiations going on between multiple minor parties to form a winning coalition. The economic situation in Italy is dire and deteriorating. Italians compare themselves naturally with Spain and they see that economically Spain is in the ascendancy. There is a general despair that the only strong decision maker in politics is someone whose private behaviour may not be whiter than white but a lot of people will vote for a strong person to lead the government whatever his faults. It makes one grateful for the ‘first past the post’ system of elections we have in the UK and also the strong tradition of politics as a profession here. Those in favour of proportional representation should watch italian politics in action.

Flew home to find poor Lord Mancroft under stong criticism for his great speech in the debate I spoke in last week (see blog Quality of Care in the NHS). As is so often the case the media extracted a tiny bit of his powerful speech for unwarranted criticism. He was merely relaying his experiences and overall he described a picture I well recognise as someone who has been in the NHS for over 35yrs. I dropped him a note of support.