Politics - Letter to Gordon

Dear Gordon

My wife and kids would like to thank you. You’re a parent now, so maybe you’ll know where I’m coming from.

But never fear, now I am going to be spending less time at home and more at work, I thought I should let you in on something, as one husband/father to another.

I’m not happy. But why, I hear you say, why, (and its not my problem anyhow, you say.)

Well you see, it goes like this.

I’m a GP. I see patients- the kind you like to think of as, lets see now, the electorate. And I see their families. And I see them for 10 minutes at a time, some of them often, others less so. I even get invited into their homes and told their hopes and fears and concerns, I know all about their families, and pets and neighbours and employers and schools. I tell you, it beats the 2-second handshake in the street on a walkabout, meeting all these ordinary, average, members of your electorate. Just think what a politician could do with this kind of access.
Ah you say, but the public doesn’t really trust politicians you know, that kind of exposure would be too much.
They do trust me though, the polls say so, you know all about polls don't you.

So Gordon, here how its going to be now. I am going to share with my patients, your electorate, what I feel about you, the way you handle the NHS and the way you treat me and my family. I can do spin too. But the people trust me. I don’t do sound bites, I do common sense and telling it as it is.

Lets talk about numbers. You like numbers don’t you. You know all about numbers.

There are 2 numbers, roughly rounded down. The first is 500. That’s the rough number of people I see in a month. Not all of them vote, but they all know someone who does and I’m sure I could encourage better turn out too. The other number is roughly 30000. That’s the number of gp's you have alienated. Do some multiplication Gordon.
Funnily enough it’s a viral thing you see. Starts small, builds, slowly, I tell enough of my patients what I feel, all the GPs tell enough of their patients what they feel, and suddenly enough of the electorate have been told. And that’s when the electorate want to change. Change the incompetents running the country. That’s you.

Say hello to Sarah and the boys when you see them, wont you.

Yours sincerely

Dr Paine

(14/3/08)