Andy Burnham's listening tour is an elaborate stunt to secure social media clout, according to Robert Fisk, who argues the Prime Minister would do well to chase a fix instead of clicks.
Politicians and hospital media opportunities
Politicians love a hospital media opportunity. They stroll in, shake hands with someone on a ventilator who doesn't know who they are nor why they are there, and then announce a policy that won't come into force for three years. There's a bonus visual point because hygiene rules on the wards mean they have had to roll their sleeves up – and they desperately hope everyone watching will think it means they are getting on with the job.
Fisk wonders whether Burnham will do the same this month on his so-called listening tour, where he's supposedly travelling across the UK to hear how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting people. But it wouldn't look great on his TikTok if he's sat in a hospital where the walls are crumbling, and rats stalk their prey in the depths of the basement. So he'd probably end up in a fancy new building, like the one at his so-called world-leading cancer hospital.
The real cost-of-living issues
Fisk says this goes much deeper than asking hospital chief executives why they let the coffee shops in their buildings charge £2.35 for a jam doughnut that looks like it came out of a "five for a pound" packet two days ago. It's much more than just wondering why hospital parking is so expensive.
It's people having to retire early because they cannot cope with the pain, and can't manage to juggle work and hospital appointments. It's the benefits system that is not giving enough support to the people who truly need it. And it's coping with who you are as a person, and not being the same as you used to be.
But these issues are all too tricky for politicians to truly get to grips with. So instead, he could be assigned to meet with someone like Fisk.
A personal perspective
The statistics suggest Fisk will be dead within two years, so you could argue that if he's not going to live very long, then he doesn't have a long-term health condition. Two years because he started chemotherapy for incurable bowel cancer three years ago this week, and supposedly, he only has an 11% chance of living longer than five years. So he says he doesn't have time to appear in a TikTok video where he wonders whether Burnham will ever burn some ham or if he just favours rating crisps in pubs.
But the one thing he'll always have time for is to tell him how the cost-of-living crisis is dire for the people spending their time fighting the Grim Reaper. His main priority is trying to stop the cancer cells from spreading all over his body, so incurable does not become terminal. But he can't go to his appointments naked, and has had to buy many new outfits since diagnosis, as his body has changed due to steroids and other medications. And the cost of getting to hospital has increased over the years.
Like everyone, he tries to cut down on food to save money, but sometimes his cancer-riddled body needs some morsels of sustenance. And let's not forget the cost of heating homes. Thankfully, he doesn't feel the cold as much as some cancer patients, but like everyone, he's feeling the pinch.
The purpose of the listening tour
These issues are very much the same as the ones you and your loved ones have been experiencing over the past few years. They've been well documented, and nothing Burnham's predecessor wasn't aware of. So why does Andy Burnham need a "listening tour"? Is it all just an elaborate stunt to get more followers on his social media accounts? It certainly seems that way.
