What a car crash interview that was for Rishi

[KenAdams]

Did anyone watch the Laura K interview this morning? I've tried to see the good side of Rishi (first British Asian PM and all that) but I just can't anymore. I fully understand now why people think he's out of touch.

He obviously uses private healthcare, so why not just own up to it?

No proper targets our deadlines for his bloody five point plan he keeps banging on about and a complete failure to acknowledge the gravity of the situation with the NHS.

Not usually a fan of Laura either but it's the first decent interview I've seen with Rishi actually being properly challenged.

His spokesperson said it's not in the public interest to common on whether he uses private healthcare or not. If you run that through Google Translate (Bullshitish to English) it means it's not in his interests for the public to know.

He's so weak.

Saw him likened to a walking suit the other day and it was accurate, there is just nothing charismatic or likeable about him and he has no substance.

I don't know why you're not a fan of Laura. She seemed a little timid at first but that's to be expected. Better to be careful and then find your feet than to make an ass of yourself before you know what you're doing. I like that she's calm and measured but holds people accountable. There's no bluster from her, so politicians have no excuse for getting hot under the collar and ranting, often a strategy for avoiding tough questions.

I just finished watching the Rishi interview and agree with you. I had never heard him speak except for a few soundbites taken from speeches and it was a shock to realize how bad he is at speaking. He sounded very stressed and defensive throughout the interview, trying to own Laura (even when she wasn't asking anything hard) and failing.

Yes, it was ridiculous when he wouldn't answer the question about whether he has private healthcare. We all know he does and he'd have been better off if he had admitted it or said "no comment" instead of stuttering and blustering his way through a bunch of bull.

Same goes for his response on the crisis in the NHS. Everyone knows there's a crisis and when the PM is focusing on not admitting it, we all know we're screwed. I don't understand why he even did the interview. Not one thing he said was good for him or us.

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I use private healthcare but there’s no private ambulances or A&E so if my family have an emergency we’re still done for!

I haven’t watched it yet but surely this was an inevitable area of interest in any interview so why wasn’t he better prepared? He so rarely says anything so why bother today if he’s going to make himself look like a bumbling idiot?

I am very grateful to people who use private healthcare if they can afford it and don’t clog up the NHS because it’s free.

No idea why he didn’t say that he has insurance for his family. No one would expect him to have the taxpayer fund his medical care. The more people who are able to afford move away from the NHS for their care, the better as it will reduce the burden on the service.

@AnneLovesGilbert, yes, I was thinking the same thing. Everyone knows how important this interview is in terms of calming people down about the NHS crisis and yet that's the best he could do. It comes across like we're totally **ed because even the PM can't come up with hopeful platitudes.

@DuchessOfPort, I'm definitely not grateful for people who have private care. I have dual citizenship with the US and know where this is going. The NHS will be left to kill people who can't afford private care and people who are lucky enough to have houses (not me) will be selling them to pay for care.

This are my thoughts on it too. Owning up and encouraging more people to reduce the impact on the NHS would have had much more of an impact than his deflection to the question.

once people who can afford to use private healthcare start doing so we are on a slippery slope to private healthcare. Before we know it the NHS will be a bare bones service for the poor and destitute and those with conditions that are deemed too expensive for insurance companies to treat.

I don’t think we’re a world away from that now?

The elderly do this anyway?

@Antst interesting to hear from someone from
the US though. I know healthcare there can be expensive but don’t really understand it in practice.

Its up on You Tube;

@PeppermintChoc, I'll never own a house but people my age are expected to pay to keep houses for elderly in care. The older generations voted for this and they're first in line for care. They are not the victims in this situation. If they'd paid their share, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

I was never a fan of Laura K and hated the way she fawned over Johnson and seemed too weak to ever challenge the bumbling idiot.

But I've been really impressed with her on the politics show (haven't seen todays yet) and also her interview with Cummings she did she wasn't as awful as she had been before.

I've always liked the way they challenge all sides on BBC radio 4 and seeing the BBC tv do the same is refreshing.

I'm hoping it's 2 fingers up to them because they were getting very good at always ignoring questions and reminding them they should be non partisan if they were ever challenged but expected the opposition to be grilled.

Ahh but there is one private A&E….. and it’s in London

@PeppermintChoc, healthcare is a huge problem in the US, even now that Obamacare has improved things for some people.

I can't have children because I couldn't get ovarian cysts treated when I was there. They'd grow and burst every few months (incredibly painful) and I had no idea what was even going on. I had "good" insurance and yet it cost $800 12 years ago just to get a painkiller after I had taken a taxi to the emergency room (ambulances are cripplingly expensive). I couldn't afford anything else. It was only when I had to go to Switzerland for work that I got care and found out what was going on.

My office-mate in my PhD programme had to declare bankruptcy after he got a $50,000 bill for breaking his arm in a bike accident. Again, he had "good" insurance.

I have a friend who is now an executive at a well-known, successful beer company. He has only just been able to afford insulin.

I could go on and on. The point is, people die because care for chronic conditions is unaffordable. Having to deal with insurance companies after a hospital stay is a full-time job. There are armies of insurance agents and billing people to pay.

It is beyond shocking the British people are letting this happen. I already hear (and have no doubt the Tories planned it) people saying that the NHS is so bad it should be killed off.

I agree with Caroline Lucas' take on Sunak's interview 'Rishi Sunak demonstrates that he’s someone who stands for nothing - no ambition, no vision - genuinely hard to know why he even wants to be PM'.

He's such a useless, nothingy sort of man.

The dismissive comment he made about the NHS themselves not recognising those numbers was absolutely shameful. He basically called the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (an organisation of NHS workers) a liar.

This is what the President said this week: "we think somewhere between 300 and 500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week".

Rishi Sunak is no better than Boris.

I’ll be devils advocate here and say I actually thought Rishi did a good job.

I don’t think anyone should be forced to identify details about their health, including whether or not he uses private health. Plenty of MPs, from the left and right, I’m sure have private healthcare. Doesn’t mean they are anti NHS. Just like I’m sure plenty of MPs send their children to private schools. Doesn’t make them any less supportive of public schools.

(but then I previously lived in America and experienced both private and help from the state care - was not the horror story people seem to think it is, so I’m fairly positive about private health ).

Rishi has taken a different approach to starmer in that he is focussing on short term policies in the run up to the election. He rightly hasn’t announced anything ground breaking because he realises we need stability.

saying all this, I’m a Labour supporter. But think Rishi actually interviewed well and has been dealt the worst hand in politics since wwll!

@Politicalwonderer, private healthcare is NOT the same here as in the US. It means something here if someone has rejected the NHS.

At least he knows he's on borrowed time tbf. The public didn't actually vote for him and the state of the country means that the tories are flatlining to such a degree that Starmer can pretty much put on a clown costume and dance through Whitehall shouting in Shakespearean language and he will probably win.
Thing is he's a billionaire and of course the tories are a rich bunch and out of touch but he lacks the charisma required to fool Bob and John from the local pub that 'he's just like them' even though in truth they aren't and never will be.

I think he should just be honest about it. I don’t think anyone would expect the PM (whatever their politics) to be faffing around with an nhs Gp.