Sir: Lord Hanson, when complaining about the media's cynical attitude
towards politi- cians, states that 'our spending on the National Health Service has risen by 63 per cent in real terms since 1976 . . . though it might be hard to credit any of this . . . on a Newsnight-type programme'. A 63 per cent increase spread over 20 years might seem good until it is compared with an almost identical increase in the ten years from 1966 to 1976, with Labour in power for six of these years. His lordship might also care to remember that in the six years of the Government's NHS reforms the adminis- trative costs of the service have almost dou- bled from a previously steady 6 per cent to 11 per cent of total costs.
Politicians whose reforms double the non-productive costs whilst proclaiming ad nauseam that the NHS 'is in safe hands' (remember?) and exaggerating the addi- tional funding deserve something more than mere cynicism, I'd say.
Roger Hole
Wynd House, Hutton Rudby, Yarm, North Yorkshire
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