Embed from Getty Images From the great theatrical showman in Las Vegas to the street-hustlers on trestle tables asking tourists to watch the cups; misdirection, the foremost requirement of magic, is a deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another. No […]
Op-eds
The junior doctors’ strike is about the existence and future of the NHS
Embed from Getty Images I’d like to clarify a few points raised in the LDV comments thread related to the Doctors strike and Tim Farron’s remarks about it. First, I will state my potential conflict of interest: I’m a doctor (retired) a life-long member of the BMA (yes, I do still pay my union subscription) […]
Do you agree with Floella Benjamin on mandatory sugar reduction targets?
Embed from Getty Images Here’s a bit of controversy to liven up a Wednesday evening. Floella Benjamin has written for Politics Home’s Central Lobby arguing in favour of mandatory sugar reduction targets. It’s another of these issues that you can use liberal principles to argue both for and against: Many overweight children grow up to […]
Do you agree with Floella Benjamin on mandatory sugar reduction targets?
Embed from Getty Images Here’s a bit of controversy to liven up a Wednesday evening. Floella Benjamin has written for Politics Home’s Central Lobby arguing in favour of mandatory sugar reduction targets. It’s another of these issues that you can use liberal principles to argue both for and against: Many overweight children grow up to […]
The liberal case for the need to champion social services
As has become obvious to anyone who has read a newspaper or watched a news channel over the past 5 years, the NHS is straining under the weight of demand. With accident and emergency departments swamped, critical staffing levels and insufficient number of beds the national health provider is struggling to provide the excellent level […]
Privatisation: Keeping the NHS afloat
Embed from Getty Images Privatisation. It’s a word which strikes fear into the hearts of progressives everywhere. Perhaps understandably so; previous governments have made a complete mess of privatising our NHS. From signing contracts for building hospitals without reading the small print to providing poor healthcare, privatisation has often been a failure. That doesn’t […]
Jim Hume MSP: SNP risks making GPs an exclusive service that many can’t access
I was interested to see this report in today’s Scotsman which featured Labour and the SNP slugging it out over cuts to GP training posts. People are finding it more and more difficult to get an early appointment with their GPs. You would think that the service that is the most common way for us to […]
Jim Hume MSP: SNP risks making GPs an exclusive service that many can’t access
I was interested to see this report in today’s Scotsman which featured Labour and the SNP slugging it out over cuts to GP training posts. People are finding it more and more difficult to get an early appointment with their GPs. You would think that the service that is the most common way for us to […]
Disgraceful attitude to mental health disguised by the warm words of Iain Duncan-Smith
Listening to Iain Duncan-Smith can be enough to send anyone to sleep. He drones on and one can be lulled into thinking he is being quite reasonable. However, behind his warm words, there is a chilling attitude to disabilities and particularly to mental illness. He seems to be saying: There must be something you can […]
Lunchtime debate – should e-cigs be prescribed by NHS?
On 16th September, it’ll be 17 years since I last had a cigarette. I was one of those smokers who never really wanted to give up, who really enjoyed a cigarette. However, my consumption was a bit worrying – at least a pack of 20 a day. It was pregnancy which forced my hand. From […]