We have all witnessed or better still participated in the clap for carers initiative which has grown out of the current crisis. I am sure that the carers themselves are lifted by our support. However what they really need is practical help, something that the government has been slow in coming up with. Britain’s carers […]
Op-eds
Going back to normal would be the worst outcome of this crisis
Embed from Getty Images This global pandemic, and the consequent unprecedented changes to how we live, has laid bare the inequality that exists in our society. Covid-19 has given inequality a human face when previously it was understood by many in the form of stats and figures, news reports, policy documents, while many more were […]
We need to talk about the healthcare workforce
As a nation, we have spent the last month endlessly talking about PPE, testing and even ventilators, remorselessly picking over the technical details of things which most people still do not understand. The government is pleased for us to do this because it keeps us off the one topic they have no answer for; the […]
NHS – indefinite leave to remain
It’s not just non-British NHS workers who should get indefinite leave to remain. Our party has rightly come out and argued that doctors, nurses and paramedics at the frontline who are not British citizens should not just have their visas extended by one year (as reported in the Independent, but be given an indefinite leave […]
Making a drama out of a crisis? Taking the harm out of the virus!
Embed from Getty Images If we believe in anything, it is the Harm Principle of John Stuart Mill. People should be at liberty, to make their own choices, unless they do harm, to others, or to themselves, if in ways that might harm others too. The bar for the deciding of what is a harm, […]
“Society has stopped improving”
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 […]
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 […]