Jeremy Hunt is improving fast. As I may possibly have mentioned, in no more than 13 or 14 previous sketches, the Health Secretary often looks and sounds like a children's TV presenter "doing the birthdays". The boyish grin, the perky voice, the cheeky quiff, the camply waving arms. Such a pity, both friends and foes have reflected, that he missed his vocation.
But – as could be seen at Health Questions today – Mr Hunt has been working hard on his image. The quiff is cropped short. The grin is under control. The hands are clamped firmly to the dispatch box. And the voice, once as chirpy as a Teletubby's, is now pillow-soft with pathos. No longer, in short, does Mr Hunt sound like a children's TV presenter "doing the birthdays".
Patient: "It's very kind of you to visit, Mr Hunt, but I'm actually feeling rather tired, so if you don't mind, I'd quite like to…"
Secretary of State: "What's that, Mr Snufflekins? The nice lady wants us to cheer her up? She wants us to cheer her up by putting on a special show for her? A special show with all your animal puppet friends? With lots of singing and games and magic tricks and stories? Oh, Mr Snufflekins, what a wonderful idea! What a lovely hedgehog you are! Come on, everybody! We're putting on a special show for the nice lady, RIGHT NOW!"
[Secretary of State empties ministerial red box on to patient's bed. Out tumbles menagerie of animal hand puppets, toys and brightly coloured props, including a tiny plastic trumpet.]
At Health Questions, Mr Snufflekins the Hedgehog was sadly not in attendance (although we did at least get to hear from the Care Minister, Norman the Lamb). The main topics of debate were the sale of medical records to the insurance industry, as revealed by the Telegraph, and the delayed NHS database, "Care.data". Andy Burnham, Labour's spokesman, ranted in his usual manner. "Shambles… useless… masterclass in incompetence…"
Mr Hunt shook his head pityingly. "The Shadow Secretary of State," he replied, "searches for NHS crises with about the success of George Bush searching for weapons of mass destruction!"
Personally I doubt many children would get a reference as old as that. If I were Mr Hunt I'd probably stick with the hand puppets.
Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568612/s/3785a1bd/sc/14/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cpolitics0C10A660A8170CSketch0ECaring0Esharing0EJeremy0EHunt0Bhtml/story01.htm