Contrived Argument of the week ...
... was presented by Labour's former Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham during an interview on BBC news today.
He wriggled uncomfortably as he sought to justify the argument that his refusal to publish "risk registers" when he was a cabinet minister was in the public interest but that the present government's refusal to publish risk registers was to be condemned in the most apocalyptic terms.
Although I was not convinced by the distinction Burnham drew between "Strategic" risk registers and "Transitional" ones, this argument might have been worth listening to had it been expressed in more reasonable language, e.g. if he had accepted that there would be legitimate arguments for and against publication for both types of risk register but argued that the balance of public interest might be different from case to case.
As it was he sought to present his decision to refuse to publish risk registers as a responsible action but that of his opponents as a wicked plot to conceal that they are risking the destruction of the NHS.
This is exactly the sort of "when I do this it's good, when they do the same thing they are nasty evil villains" doublethink which is giving politics such a bad name in this country.
He wriggled uncomfortably as he sought to justify the argument that his refusal to publish "risk registers" when he was a cabinet minister was in the public interest but that the present government's refusal to publish risk registers was to be condemned in the most apocalyptic terms.
Although I was not convinced by the distinction Burnham drew between "Strategic" risk registers and "Transitional" ones, this argument might have been worth listening to had it been expressed in more reasonable language, e.g. if he had accepted that there would be legitimate arguments for and against publication for both types of risk register but argued that the balance of public interest might be different from case to case.
As it was he sought to present his decision to refuse to publish risk registers as a responsible action but that of his opponents as a wicked plot to conceal that they are risking the destruction of the NHS.
This is exactly the sort of "when I do this it's good, when they do the same thing they are nasty evil villains" doublethink which is giving politics such a bad name in this country.
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