“Hunt soon chose to follow the data’s example and make himself scarce” [Image: PA].

“It was satirical,” they claimed.

I was right and the critics were wrong. The report was written in an entirely straight way and no attempt was made to suggest that it was not intended to be believed.

Here’s an article that is satirical and hits its target. Spot the difference in language and tone:

Somewhere in the UK there is a warehouse stuffed full of GPs’ referral letters and blood test results diagnosing the health secretary with terminal incompetence.

But as it has yet to be found, Jeremy Hunt had to limit his scope to the 700,000 NHS documents that have just turned up after going missing in action for five years in answer to Labour’s urgent question in the Commons.

“Absolutely nothing went missing,” he reassured MPs. All that had happened was that hundreds of thousands of confidential pieces of medical information had accidentally been sent to the wrong place without anyone noticing.

But it was no biggy. As far as he knew, no one had died – or if they had, their death certificates had also gone AWOL, so it was much the same thing. And what it really proved was how many unnecessary tests the NHS were conducting each year.

Just think of the potential savings. A couple of avoidable deaths had to be a price worth paying for not bothering with 700,000 bits of paperwork.

Source: Lost: test results diagnosing Jeremy Hunt with terminal incompetence | Society | The Guardian

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