THE Labour Party has never been slow off the mark to protest its commitment to the National Health Service. Indeed, this newspaper can recall a once-prominent party luminary who declared that it would be highly inadvisable for anyone to fall sick in a Britain ruled by the Tories.

That famous declaration was made during the 1980s, when Labour appeared to be in the perma-frost of perpetual opposition. For the last nine years though, Labour has been in power - and tragically, all that tub-thumping seems to have come to naught. For we believe that the NHS has now been brought to the precipice, thanks to a lethal combination of political manipulation and electoral opportunism.

The Worcester News does not support any particular political party and is not about to start now. However, with hundreds of front-line jobs now threatened, we do feel justified in asking a number of questions. For example, what does Labour say to to the claim that trust managers were told to use every accounting trick in the book to conceal the scale of the problem caused by striving to meet over-ambitious targets?

Why have some trusts been `top-sliced' to meet problems elsewhere in the country? And perhaps, crucially, what has endless re-organisation achieved other than a demoralised workforce?

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff would like these questions answered and so do we. There is no time to waste if the NHS is to celebrate its 60th anniversary in two years' time.