Although I’m pretty certain my children would want to contest the claim, the prize for being the world’s grumpiest old man must surely go to the nineteenth century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. More than practically all else, what got up his nose was noise — especially that caused by traffic. Writing a century a half… [Read More]
Many large corporations in the United Kingdom offer private health ‘top-ups’ or insurance cover as a benefit to employees, and it turns out the NHS is one of them.
This week the importance of work for a prospective Conservative government was emphasised. In what were received as radical announcements, the Tories announced that they would, broadly ala Wisconsin welfare reforms, push people off benefits and into work – as well as to push longer working years. That the former proposal in particular, off welfare and into work, is seen as radical is an indictment of where Labour has failed to pursue what would once have been seen as its rightful path.
To anyone familiar with NHS policy of the 1990s, Conservative plans to reform PbC sound a lot like GP fundholding.
Of all the concerns that the Conservative Party are currently facing, Europe is but one of them, writes Ahmed Mehdi. The Irish decision to vote ‘yes’ on Friday 2 October has reignited a much-maligned question: what is the Conservative position on calling a referendum over the Lisbon Treaty?
As prescriptions for NHS cost-cutting abound, health minister Mike O’Brien has proposed a somewhat radical question: do we really need strategic health authorities?
How best to instil an interest in culture amongst young people today was – broadly – the theme of a New Statesman debate with Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw at the Labour Party Conference. Whether culture is or should be ‘useful’ in a productive sense aside, how can young people be engaged in the arts?
Last week The Times published an article with the juicy headline ‘NHS paying high price for bungled hip replacements at private centres’. The problem is that the article refers to a study in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery Standards of just one centre; a centre in Weston-super-Mare within an NHS hospital. It is… [Read More]
A victory for the conservative-liberal alliance’ is what you could call it. The Christian Democratic Party in alliance with the Free Democratic Party – having campaigned for tax cuts and a return to nuclear energy – ended four years of an awkward co-operation between the CDU and its rival Social Democratic Party.
The Health Service Journal has a thorough article explaining the further spread of confusion over the Government’s recent revelation of preference for NHS over independent healthcare providers. Could the Department of Health’s commitment to choice and competition truly be unravelling?