That is the bleak message of Professor Sir Michael Marmot in his major new report on health inequality. Entitled ‘Health Equity in England: the Marmot Review 10 Years On’, it assesses lack of progress in the last decade, since his review in 2010 entitled ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’. He writes: Since 2010 life expectancy has […]
Op-eds
Santa Rennie delivers festive lump of coal to SNP
It wouldn’t be an election without Willie Rennie doing something eye-catching. And today, he took part in a Santa dash in Glasgow. Quick break in campaigning to run the Glasgow charity Santa Dash 🎅 pic.twitter.com/cMU0661CVV — Willie Rennie (@willie_rennie) December 8, 2019 He placed the SNP firmly on the Naughty List for the decline […]
US trade deal will mean higher drugs bills for NHS
President Trump is apparently to be told by Boris Johnson that the NHS is “off the table” in any negotiations with the UK Government over trade, but there are other ways in which a trade deal can be exploited by the USA, which will inevitably result in a higher drugs bill for the NHS. […]
Luciana: EU staff critical to our NHS
Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Luciana Berger has spoken out about how Brexit would harm our NHS, emphasising how reliant we are on EU doctors and nurses. Analysis done by the Labour Party highlights that NHS staff work a million hours of unpaid overtime every week. That doesn’t surprise me. When my husband was seriously ill […]
Norman Lamb: My job was to give people a voice
The thing I was most scared about during the 2015 election was not having Norman Lamb as a Minister any more. He had done so much for mental health and I was worried that some Tory (because I feared they would win) would just undo all his work. A House of Commons without Norman in […]
Of course the Lib Dems oppose exposing our health service in future trade deals
If you’re seeing attacks from Labour types on social media tonight, saying that we didn’t vote for their amendment which, amongst other things, called for the NHS to be protected in future trade deals, ignore them. Political parties often do this. It’s a silly game and I don’t like it when we do it, too. […]
What Boris Johnson should have said to Omar Salem
I have nothing but sympathy for Omar Salem, the dad who confronted Boris Johnson today. Watch the video on the Guardian, here. Omar’s wee one is only a week old, but was admitted as an emergency. When she got to the ward, she wasn’t seen by a doctor for hours. I can’t imagine Omar would […]
I now know I have PTSD and it is Liberating
I am not quite sure when I first encountered the ‘Black Dog’ but he has pretty much been on the premises for the last ten years. The crash as I like to call it came on 9th October 2009 when the pressures of a full-time job and caring finally took their toll. I remember waking […]
Being a PPC with a Snap GE looming….
Needless to say, I have been busy lately! As have been PPCs and candidate selection teams up and down the country with the threat of looming General Election. Exciting times! This uncertainty plays havoc with our mental health. We all have mental health, as we all have physical health. Not knowing whether one’s life is […]
Is the Green Paper on Social Care happening or not?
I spent some time yesterday in a long meeting with a local resident. He had cared for his mum for many years and sadly she died. The circumstances leading up to her death and the nursing home care she received tell a grim tale. My local resident called for an investigation and has written numerous […]