The critical state of ambulance services is a painful condemnation of the Conservatives running the country into the ground during a dozen years of neglect.
Waits of over 24 hours are utterly disgraceful, absolutely indefensible, when lives are at stake.
The time for excuses is long past and we do not blame hard-working crews and controllers or people legitimately calling 999.
Responsibility rests with a Tory Government that imposed the tightest financial straitjacket on the NHS in history and treated ambulances as a Cinderella service.
Response times have slowed and targets are missed as workers and managers try to keep the service going under intolerable pressures.
Conservative leadership candidates will not talk about ambulances unless forced to.
They are more interested in false tax promises, inflaming bigotry over refugees and breaking a law they signed so they can pretend to be standing up to Brussels. Patients waiting in agony for ambulances deserve better.
Give us a say
Locked in a tax-cut bidding war that would leave workers, families and pensioners worse off, the Tory leadership rivals are living proof that we need an immediate General Election.
Because empty promises are highly unlikely to be met and the cost to public services might be monumental.
Boris Johnson's successor should be chosen by the entire country at the ballot box.
Tory MPs had the right to get rid of Johnson – but only we, the people, can give a new Prime Minister a solid mandate and a list of priorities.
Picky prince
Front row seats in the Royal Box for the men’s tennis final at Wimbledon on a sunny summer’s afternoon are a priceless perk enjoyed by the monarchy.
Little George is a lucky lad yet every parent will share his mother’s embarrassment that her son stuck a finger up his nose – proving the heir to the throne is just an ordinary boy.
