Discussion of the sugar levy has focused on effectiveness and moral/political hazards. I want to focus on one problem that makes those redundant: Does it make scientific sense? Not obviously. A popular narrative: In the past, we thought obese people were that way because they lacked willpower and ate too much food, particularly fat, which […]
Sugar Tax is nothing more than a money spinning effort
I’ve recently lost a substantial amount of weight. That’s not a humblebrag, it’s going to be relevant, I promise. It’s taken the best part of 20 years to find something that works for me, and I’ll come back to that later. How our society discusses diet and weight was mostly to blame for why it’s […]
Government under increasing pressure to fund social care
This blog is a week late – but I’ve been busy! I wanted to highlight the Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee report published July 4th. This cross-party group of Peers calls for an immediate investment of £8 billion pounds into our care services “to restore social care to acceptable standards”. North Devon, as many areas of the […]
Making a difference – the first Mental Health First Aid Impact Report
I blogged several years ago about my experience of training as a Mental Health First Aider. Since then, I’ve lobbied and worked to bring equal parity of esteem to mental and physical first aid. So I was keen to read the first Impact Report from Mental Health First Aid England: does MHFA really work? The […]
Chuka’s first parliamentary question as a Lib Dem
Chuka Umunna is no stranger to holding the government to account. He spent four years opposing the Business Secretary, one Vincent Cable. The effect of that seems to have been the formation of a close friendship. Today he asked his first question as a Lib Dem on a touchstone liberal issue – the benefits of […]
12 June 2019 – the overnight press release
Missed waiting time targets put lives at risk Responding to a report conducted by the Public Accounts Committee which concludes that the failure to meet waiting time targets is putting lives at risk, PAC member and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said: This report provides a vital contribution at a time when the Government is […]
It’s time we talked about legalising drugs
There is currently much noise around the (unsurprising) news that a senior politician, who was once a journalist, spending much time in a large city in the UK, has taken drugs during his life – we’re taking illicit drugs here, cocaine, in Mr Gove’s case. Despite some moral outrage, there has been a surprising shift […]
The NHS is not for sale
If you had still had any illusions that our NHS would survive Brexit, these will have been dispelled by the statement of Trump’s ambassador that, “The US will want business access to the NHS in any trade deal”. Indeed, some have speculated that access to the NHS, along with the rest of the economy, is […]
What would we do without the NHS?
Our family has used the NHS more this year than ever before – all five of us have seen consultants for a range of ailments. Yesterday my husband saw the Haematology team to be told his cancer was in remission. We left the hospital grateful for the good prognosis, and thankful that we lived in […]
LibLink: Christine Jardine We all deserve the same quality of mental health care as my late husband
Christine Jardine’s column is a bit different this week. She writes about how her late husband, Calum, was affected by Bipolar Disorder. Calum Macdonald was a brilliant journalist, working for the Herald in Glasgow for many years. Although they were separated at the time of his death from a heart attack during the 2017 election […]