A SEVERE case of the flip-flops is afflicting the Opposition, or maybe it’s just amnesia.

It has condemned offering NHS-branded services abroad through internationally recognised institutions like Moorfields, generating money for patient care here. That would be incomprehensible even if it hadn’t come up with the idea in the first place. Oops!

I’m not sure I agree Olympic medallists should automatically feature in the New Year’s honours list. OBEs and the like used to be awarded mostly for long and thankless public service such as being one of our unfairly maligned mandarins or a selfless community volunteer.

However, an Olympic medal is a wonderful platform from which to give something back. For example, motivating people to do sport, championing charitable endeavour and acting as a role model. Do voluntary service of that sort for a few years and you’ll be a prime candidate for a gong, but not simply for having won your race surely, particularly since these days winning often leads to quite a lot of money, too.

And there’s another thing. Servicemen, many of whom have been called in at short notice for Olympic security duties, are bound by something called the double medalling rule. This means you can’t enjoy more than one medal for the same thing. It would be a bit of an irony if an Olympic medal meant an automatic OBE.

  • Evidence that 400 criminals per week are reoffending while they are meant to be doing community service is worrying.

In principle, I’m keen on community payback schemes in which offenders do useful, high visibility work to atone for their crimes – I have visited schemes and spoken with those who operate them and with participants. We should not be trying to lock more people up in a country with a substantial prison population already.

However, the reoffending rate in payback schemes always has been high. Time to appraise them to see how the effectiveness of community punishments of this sort can be improved.