John Prescott's top fifty. {5} l

Continuing on. The last of John's fifty things Labour have achieved since 1997.

{ in the comments of I have been set straight on a number of issues, like waiting lists where I foolishly looked at NHS figures, but had no idea that there is a wait to be put on the list. D'Oh..imagine falling for that old fiddle BQ. There were more too, so maybe a post later on which will also include the Tories response to Labour's "What did the Millennium's do for us?"

41. New Deal - helped over a million people into work {At a cost of 3 billion pounds to 2007."Almost half of the young people who take part in the Government's flagship welfare-to-work programme return to claiming benefits within 12 months" Should have just given them the £300 each. Plus the figure is nearer 200,000 I believe. 800,000 people have been through the New Deal at least twice? Hardly a success. No credit}

42. Over 1.5 million child trust funds have been started { And a shocking waste they are. The idea that people would top them up has never materialised. Basically GB has given future 18 olds a deposit for a scooter. Why? }

43. Free eye test for over 60s {Free for all in Scotland. And free parking when you go to get them. + children, people on low income and people suffering from or predisposed to eye disease could always get them. anyway, partial credit, you should have just made them free for all.}

44. Five, six and seven year olds in class sizes of 30 or less {Really. My two are in classes of 31 and 33. Am I the exception? On the back of a fall in the number of children it was a pretty easy target. Shame that immigration damaged your numbers or you could have got a point.}

45. Free entry to national museums and galleries {Yep. should have shut the VAT dodge earlier than 2005, but it was a good cultural policy. Full credit}

46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled {So glad we can afford it! Money to India to help their cash starved space program. Money for China, to give them a lift because they aren't really a powerhouse. OK so its all about 'HELP' for our exports but really... zero credit except for excessive waste.}

47. Cancer death rates down by 12 per cent, saving 43,000 lives {lucky lucky.Health promotion though..so OK. Shame they haven't fallen equally on rich and poor though. Does that tell us something? And no it isn't BUPA.}

48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent {doubtful, very very doubtful. I see it on all the top 50 achievement lists, the Chancellor always bangs on about it, but haven't seen any evidence. Let's hold this one until you can provide the link, not the soundbite}

49. Free nursery places for three and four-year-olds in England, Scotland and Wales

{Great. A really good idea. Only slightly marred by the fact that its for 2.5 - 3 hours a day only. Just enough time to get the shopping,not really enough time to get a job. Still full credit}

50. Free fruit for all four to six-year-olds at school. {really? that's the clincher. An apple? well, if you say so.}

So there you have it. An unparalleled run of success and over achievement, all under budget and on time....or do you disagree ?

{for those who have taken issue with the few points that received a credit, think; Judge Advocate's wig and robes, horns and a forky tail plus a trident, smell of brimstone, cloven hoof footprints, fire,and eternal damnation.}

John Prescott's top fifty. {4}

31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents {Must we do this? It has been a job creating exercise with many, many flaws. Raising tax thresholds would have achieved the same at a fraction of the cost and muddle.Its a disaster}

32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships {Couldn't really not do it. 28 was a daft bit of old right reactionary nonsense, and if you hadn't introduced the farcical racial hatred act, you would have got a credit.}

33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard

{ but the record on housebuilding is dire. Less than

30, 000 a year. What was immigration running at again? 200,000 pa? The equity loan scheme barely manages to help 4,000 people a year. And the military got zip for their housing stock. Partial credit, and that's generous.}

34. Free school milk for five, six and seven-year-olds in Wales {UK figures not available. No credit. + the lunchtime allowance that you jumped on with Jamie Oliver hasn't risen with food price inflation. The scheme will collapse unless action is taken}

35. Banned fox hunting {whoopee do! Few cared, few still care. Hunting with dogs goes on much as before. What a legacy. Why not add banned conkers too!}

36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since the industrial revolution { I've no idea, but from today's Telegraph "river pollution causing male fertility problems" so no.}

37. Free TV licences for over-75s {why not 65's? that's retirement age {for public sector anyway} That's the point, isn't it? free TV for those who don't have an income? Partial credit.}

38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals {except for products with medical AND cosmetic uses. Bit of a loophole, that has been exploited, so say AR. Anyway, Euro ban from 2002, hardly a Labour own policy. Partial credit for doing it first IF you hadn't introduced mail deregulation first so allowing competition a free piggyback into the UK, without our mail services going overseas..very very silly}

39. Waiting times for operations halved {Yep, good result. At the expense of deficit spending though. That on top of the 3 x Tory spending on the NHS. Partial credit only, because it can't possibly continue to remain so low as deficit spending is finite. Good work on long term waiting though.}

40. Free local bus travel for over-60s {free bus travel nationwide. Its a barmy, expensive scheme that causes hardship to tourist areas, but hey, its an initiative. No credit though, it wasn't necessary, just a vote prop.}

Last leg coming up soon.

John Prescott's top fifty. {3}

Not many readers have praised too many policies so far. But it looks like minimum wage is considered a success.
Any more from this lot?

21. Child benefit up 25 per cent since 1997

{shame the 10p tax botch took some away. Still, take it as a victory.}

22. Created Sure Start to help children from low income households

{ And what a waste it has been. 3billion pounds in 4 years. The Guardian, hardly a hostile, paper said in 2006,"Today's Guardian offers the bleak assessment that Sure Start 'harms children who need it most". It is a typical well intentioned, and reasonably good idea, badly implemented, unmonitored and unrefined. Not enough success to earn a full credit.}

23. Introduced the Disability Rights Commission

{Its closed now. Not sure what real help it gave. Its certainly a massive cost for business.No credit}

24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & extra £100 for over-80s

{and an extra £60 for the cold winter payments to over 65's too. Come on Prezza. Update the list ,its been around a while now, blindly copied onto the web pages of the faithful. Pensioners have benefited under NL. Except for the devastation wreaked upon them by care home costs, council tax and fuel/food price increases etc. Half a credit, as a lot of it is just sleight of hand}

25. On course to exceed Kyoto target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2010

{Not really. Rises in carbon emissions Year on Year reported rises for 5 years out of eight And making the future 80% cuts is just as unlikely}

26. Negotiated the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland {Yes. John Major got it started and Prime Minister Blair finished it. Its not the best deal ever made, and strongly resented by some, but it was always going to be really hard to bring about. But .. yes, full credit. At last something to call a legacy}

27. Over 30,000 more teachers in England schools.

{ In fact 110,000 odd new teachers by 2006 according to Hansard. How many left the profession was not disclosed. Still, there was a teacher shortage problem, less so now, so full credit}

28. All workers now have a right to 4 weeks’ paid holiday

{ erm ..4.8 weeks John. I know you cribbed the list that appeared on Mr Dale's a while back by Hazel Blears but you could at least update it. 5.6 weeks annual leave from April. If you employ 9 workers you would need a tenth, just to cover the holidays. Cost to government.Zero. Cost to business..massive. No credit here. No one was asking for more than 4 weeks. Its a union sop, that falls squarely onto business. Suspect it was a Euro alignment rule anyway. No Credit}

29. A million pensioners lifted out of relative poverty. {How so? More money given back but pension raids, stealth taxes, energy and food costs can't have lifted 1million out. Now with near zero savings rates those happy pensioners may not be so happy. Just statistics JP. No credit.}

30. 800,000 children lifted out of relative poverty { another completely meaningless figure, from a completely meaningless euro measure.."In August 2005 as research showed that the income gap between rich and poor has widened significantly under Labour" Nope. No credit.}

As Sven may have said..Some good..some not so good.

2 to go

John Prescott's top fifty. {2}

Some more reasons to be thankful..

11. 85,000 more nurses

{With 100,000 more administrators in the NHS than in 1997. No go }

12. 32,000 more doctors
{ £1bn was being spent by the NHS on management consultants each year "without any clear benefit".Nowt }

13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards

{ I make the first announcement of this 1 April 2001 and the first matron to appear on a ward in Scotland October 2008. Partial credit.}

14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament

{? but the English have no assembly of their own.Damaged relations with Scotland. Even Tony had second thoughts.What good is it anyway? Nil}

15. Devolved power to Welsh Assembly

{Where prescription charges, student fees, hospital parking charges..etc. Divide and rule eh JP. No ball!}

16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time

{OK. Its not as if you have to pay for it though. Employers cost and admin cost.The first Paternity scheme was really rubbish too. Partial credit.}

17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice

{ But closed surgeries and GP's on reduced hours on more pay for one of the biggest contract bungles ever negotiated in the history of the NHS. Instead of a doctor, go on-line, or phone a friend. Not worth it, not good enough. Nil}

18. Gift aid was worth £625 million to charities last year

{ And a lovely bit of pointless paper pushing it has been too. Could you not find a simpler way?1/2 point}

19. Restored city-wide government to London

{OK. Needed it.Full credit }

20. Record number of students in higher education { Edukashen surely? Not too many engineers or chemists or even language students in there though. A bit of a numbers game. A good attempt that is going to take 20 years more to produce anything close to your intentions. Nope} + on general education a report today says

An "unacceptably" high number of people in England cannot read, write and count properly, MPs have warned.

30 to go.

Any good ones yet folks?

John Prescott's top fifty. {1}

John Prescott has been re running the Labour top 50 achievements on his blog. I vaguely remembered it, but its suddenly popping up all over the place. Iain Dale did a link for him too. So, lets have a look at New Labour's claim to fame.

Its a long job, so well break it into bitesize chunks.

First 10.

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s

{If you manipulate the figures,use CPI instead of RPI etc.. Plus the emergence of the Asian markets that kept prices low for a decade didn't hurt either. Low energy prices too. Hard to credit the Blair/Brown team with this so..No credit}

2 Low mortgage rates

{Oh dear.. look out the window, see where its led us. You might as well say "enjoyed an unsustainable housing boom" Score zip}

3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.35

{Good for some but not the great leap forward that is claimed. The success is at cost in employment, somewhat masked by the switch to more part time hours. Not enough space here to explain that a NATIONAL minimum wage completely ignored areas of high and low employment, relative costs of living in different parts of the country,the effect on small businesses of a constantly rising wages regardless of trading conditions etc. It is fair to say that minimum wage benefited Labour areas more than Tory ones. Nil point}

4. Record police numbers in England, Scotland and Wales.

{record numbers sure..but not on the street. The target led policing policies has done much to undermine law and order in the country. Zero pints, possibly even a minus point}

5. Cut overall crime by 35 per cent

{ But only selectively. Serious crime has risen. Violence has risen. Knife crime has risen, Drunkenness has risen.Shoplifting isn't even seriously measured . Car crime and burglary are well down. Any link to the cheap Chinese DVD player being worth £15.00 new in a box, where the Tories VHS was several hundred pounds? Ditto car manufacturers anti theft and secure audio systems? Crime is one of the areas where this government is viewed as at its weakest. Nought points}

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools

{you cannot be serious? Up to a third of 11 year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly when they leave Junior school.. Education is going to be the biggest failure of Labour's tax and throw era. Zero points}

7. Best-ever primary school results.

{ unsure how they are measured and against what, but generally people are satisfied with primary schools as learning centers and daycare facilities. and that is the real measure. Chalk up a success.What children have learnt at school is very variable. But at least a genuine effort was made to improve primary schools. Call it a credit}

8. Funding for every pupil in England to double by 2008

{Funding is an achievement? There have to be results surely? If its just employment creating then pay people to stay home. Funded by what to achieve what? Nearly 23,000 children left school without a single GCSE. Careful John, moving into PFI territory here too. Nothing given}

9. Employment went to its highest level ever.

{Long term unemployed {5 years +..which is a hell of a long term definintion} only rose. Twenty times up from 1997 . 2.7 million on a conservative estimate claiming disabilty + the 1 miilion on job seekers etc.. Ten years of relatively good economic growth should have helped to reduce the state's bill's. Instead worker's were imported to fill the positions. And the unemployment figures for 3rd quarter 2009 will rival anything the Tories managed. No joy.}

10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries

{Good news for them. We still lend to them though? So ..? Will we have to write it off again? UK government debt, before the credit crunch was high. National Debt as a % of GDP has increased from 30% in 2002 to 37 % in 2007. This was despite the long period of economic expansion. It is primarily due to the governments decision to increase spending on health and education. There has also been a marked rise in social security spending.. With the recession it will be astronomical.}

How are they doing so far? Getting your vote?