The Government's vicious and unrelenting attacks on our public services have led to a looming Crisis in the Emergency Services, which now affects ambulance services, police resources and the subject of the debate, the fire service.

I shall start by going through some press headlines from the past few weeks: The Mail on Sunday, “Shock 250% rise in patients waiting more than 4 hours in A and E: Six-month total soars by 146,000”; Mail Online, “Major hospitals have missed A and E targets every week for 6 months”; The Daily Telegraph, “Crisis hospital sets up tent for A and E patients…A hospital set up a makeshift tent to treat casualty patients amid a deepening Crisis in Emergency Services across the country”; The Guardian, “NHs failed to hit A and E target for two months”; Mail Online, “Mother barely conscious with pneumonia was treated in a cupboard because hospital was ‘too full' to give her a bed”; The Guardian, “The latest casualty of health reform: casualty itself …A and E departments are the pressure valve of the health system, yet the Government is moving rapidly to turn it off”; The Daily Telegraph, “Inquiry into failings in NHS emergency care.

At a time of real Crisis in Emergency Services, it is palpably clear that no one is in charge locally or nationally.