We would seek to provide the resources necessary to fill vacancies for doctors and nurses. We would also work to clean up the environment and improve housing so as to tackle the root causes of ill health. Such a contract would contain a Service Delivery Agreement, to be debated and agreed in Parliament each year. The Contract would, for the first time in the history of the NHS, set out and guarantee the services a patient can expect the NHS to provide, at what level and within what time period. The rule of law is the key to freedom, opportunity and security.
Crime is an attack on all three.
Under the Conservatives, crime doubled. By 1997 conviction rates had fallen by a third, with only one crime in fifty resulting in a conviction. Yet the response of both the other main parties has been poorly judged. Fear of tabloid criticism permeates their policies. Authoritarian gimmickry is too often promoted at the expense of more effective measures to boost crime prevention, law enforcement and criminal rehabilitation.