The Liberal Democrats have warned the NHS is at breaking point after new figures uncovered a mental health crisis sweeping through staff across health services in the UK. A Freedom of Information Request tabled by the Party to all NHS Hospital Trusts has revealed that there have been at least 8.3 million mental health sick […]
The importance of acknowledging mental health
In November 2020, I had a breakdown. I was a postgraduate student when the news broke that Covid-19 was worse than we thought, resulting in all classes going online. We all thought it would last a few weeks, have a few awkward Zoom interactions, then it would all be over and remembered as a strange […]
Ed Davey’s speech to Conference: Lib Dems can defeat this awful Government
A powerful selection on Ukraine, a call for Priti Patel to be sacked, a celebration of Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire, a tribute to Lib Dem by-election stalwart Erlend Watson, a decent gag about Dick Turpin, an evisceration of the Tories over sleaze and partygate (including a call for a public enquiry into Boris […]
Living with Covid: Shambolic Govt taking NHS & Care services for granted
Responding to the Government’s plan on Living with Covid, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: The Conservatives have been planning to end free Covid testing for more than two months, yet still we have no clarity on what this means in reality. Boris Johnson wasn’t even able to answer the simple question of […]
Ed Davey: Scrapping Covid tests means 4 million face £500 tax on caring
Boris Johnson’s latest attempt to rehabilitate himself with sceptical Tory MPs is to scrap the need to self isolate if you have Covid in England. So you are now free to spread it far and wide. You would think that you would have to monitor the impact really carefully. That is way too sensible for […]
Daisy Cooper: Scrapping free lateral flow tests would leave the public flying blind.
Yesterday, LBC reported that the Government would scrap free PCR and lateral flow tests for Covid from as early as next week. Lib Dem Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper highlighted the dangers in this approach, saying it would also make it impossible for those at highest risk of severe disease to properly assess what was safe […]
A whole systems approach to solving the health and social care crisis
The Health and Social Care Bill currently in the House of Lords is intended to: sort out the under-funding of social care; remove the need for people to sell their houses to pay for their care; promote joined-up service delivery; replace the competitive model with a collaborative one. Sadly, as I wrote here, it appears […]
Mandatory staff vaccines – No apology to sacked care home staff…
Embed from Getty Images Not even an apology! – And I’m not referring to Boris Johnson’s statement on Sue Gray’s Report. Boris did at least say the word “sorry”, even though it was an inadequate, half hearted “apology”. But Sajid Javid made no apology at all, when he made his statement in parliament announcing that […]
When catching up means losing out
Children and young people have spent the last two years trying to learn how to cope with isolation, loss and a world turned upside down. Why do we now need to harass them into making sure they’re at the same academic level as a hypothetical young person who hasn’t spent the last 2 years living […]
Cutting sick pay for unvaccinated employees – what do you think?
I’ve been really concerned this week that some major employers are cutting sick pay for unvaccinated employees to the statutory minimum. ITV reports how companies like Next, Morrisons and Ikea are only going to pay employees who have to self-isolate Statutory Sick Pay of only £96.35 per week, whereas those who have been vaccinated will […]