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Official figures confirm the yawning gulf between rich and poor in Wales, with men in Blaenau Gwent dying an average eight years before their counterparts in Chelsea and Kensington.

It took a Liberal Democrat (for once not sitting on the fence) to sum up the difference: "This is the class divide at its most stark."

And Wales' chief medical officer, Dr Tony Jewell, said the gap between those with the best health and those with the worst is widening.

The gap between rich and poor, the haves and have-nots, is even more evident in people's life expectancy - a boy born in Chelsea and Kensington can expect to live to the age of 82.2 years, compared with just 74.2 in Blaenau Gwent.

Ten years of Labour has seen inequalities rising between rich and poor, seven years of devolution have done nothing to reverse that trend.

A New Year's revolution to abolish inequality seems appropriate.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

This could be a first - but Welsh Labour has got it right on Private Finance Initiatives.

Hospital trusts in England and Scotland are facing massive overspends and having to divert cash from frontline services to finance debts to private companies because of the over-dependence on PFI schemes to build new hospitals.

In Wales, by contrast, PFI has been used sparingly. The new community hospital at Chepstow was built with PFI but no major contract has taken place.

By contrast, a report by the Centre for International Public Health at Edinburgh University says these controversial contracts will go from costing the NHS in Scotland £107m annually to £510m over the next five years.

This will have to come from revenue budgets which cover staffing, equipment and clinical services. The study, by Mark Hellowell and Allyson Pollock, predicts disastrous consequences for the NHS.

"Without a major increase in public expenditure, more of the NHS budget will be diverted away from services to private companies, making already serious financial problems more severe and creating new pressures for hospital, community and primary care service closures in the medium and long term," the study concludes.

Mr Hellowell said: "The report shows the impact of large PFI hospital schemes in Scotland on health board budgets. Funding is being diverted away from clinical care, staff and supplies, to pay 'rent' to the private sector."
The reason for the looming crisis is the gap between the annual running costs paid to PFI operators – between 11% and 18% of hospital turnover, say the authors – and the costs of non-PFI facilities at between 5% and 8%.

"This extra cost creates an affordability gap which can only be met by diverting revenue from clinical services, staff and supplies. Thus PFI schemes are associated with service cuts even before contracts are signed."

The report says there is evidence from England that this saddles NHS trusts with growing deficits. These PFI projects are said to create a debt which is far greater than the original investment it provides. In Scotland PFI has brought the NHS projects with a capital value of £602m. But the cost of the debt created is in the order of £2.4bn.

In Lothian and Lanarkshire health boards have to spend 4% of total revenue on buildings, compared to less than 2.5% in other boards that are not so exposed to PFI.

The authors also point out that all health boards with major PFI schemes are also planning major hospital and service closures and the crisis is set to worsen.

Mr Hellowell said: "Few people are aware of the scale of the Scottish Executive's plans to expand the PFI programme across the NHS. The planned capital cost of £1.7bn will bring the total value of PFI schemes in the NHS to £2.2bn over the next five years.

So there's no doubt that Welsh Labour's decision not to go for PFI schemes has proved to be a major benefit for the NHS in Wales in the long term. Of course, Labour in Wales has messed up in so many areas that it's still not fit to govern but on this issue Rhodri Morgan can justifiably claim there is "clear red water" between him and Blair.

Such revelations make it all the more remarkable that the Institute for Welsh Affairs, a think tank apparently devoted to privatising public services in Wales, suggests that the NHS in Wales is in crisis because it does not rely on PFI schemes. The NHS is in crisis because of a failure to get money to frontline services rather than bureaucrats and accountants. It is a failure of management at national and local level not

If the Assembly was a soap opera, Brian Gibbons would be its Jack Duckworth - a hapless lump forever brow-beaten by Edwina "Vera" Hart and given to making some very stupid mistakes.

The dozy Labour Health Minister has once again accidentally voted against his own government.

In June, Dr Brian Gibbons helped trigger an inquiry into the ambulance service when he pressed the wrong button on his voting console in the chamber. That gaffe tipped a knife-edge vote against the Labour Government.

The Assembly's voting record shows this week he voted for a Plaid Cymru amendment which accused Welsh Secretary Peter Hain of making "unhelpful comments" about changes to devolution. But even if Dr Gibbons had pressed the correct button Labour would not have won the vote.

Do you think it's a cry for help or just sheer incompetence? At the very least the poor doctor needs to lie down in a darkened room for a while.