The most prominent reason why the NHS is today struggling to remain sustainable is the increased numbers of the elderly who are surviving longer with chronic diseases. The popular phrase that ‘the NHS is a victim of its own success’ is truly applicable here. Many of these elderly people are in great need of the… [Read More]
Thanks to last week’s Conservative victory, Britain will have an EU referendum in 2017 or even 2016. The Conservative leadership will probably campaign to stay in on the basis of David Cameron’s renegotiation. If Cameron’s overtures to European leaders are rebuffed though, he may have no choice but to decry Brussels as unreformable and campaign… [Read More]
There is absolutely no doubt that deinstitutionalising mental health care is the right thing to do. From the 1950s onwards, and especially following the development of psychotropic drugs, patients formerly isolated from the rest of society in psychiatric institutions were ever more regularly cared for and treated in the community, either at home with their… [Read More]
The recession beginning in 2008 sparked a debate about the nature of Britain’s economy. But the agreed answer: rebalancing toward production and stronger economic growth outside of the south east, has become strangled by the campaign. The parties have allowed economic debate to become stripped down to government expenditure and a competition in fiscal restraint.… [Read More]
Labour might well form the next government, either with the Liberal Democrats and SNP, or as a minority. This could be a significant setback for those who want radical reform of Britain’s EU membership, or an end to it. Labour’s manifesto does mention reform, but has less precise goals than those of Conservative MPs like Brian… [Read More]
NHS England’s ‘Five Year Forward View’, along with the statements of most other key health stakeholders, including the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the King’s Fund and The Nuffield Trust, agree that a projected a £30 billion annual funding gap for the NHS will exist by the end of the next parliament. There seems little doubt… [Read More]
Eurozone leaders have been given a boost after data published by Eurostat, the EU’s statistic office, shows that the bloc is now out of deflation. Fears of falling prices, particularly oil, leading to a dent in demand and a stall in consumer spending prompted the European Central Bank (ECB) to introduce a quantitative easing program… [Read More]
The EU-USA free trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, has been the target of protests over Europe for its perceived faults. The chief among these is the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS), which this blog has raised concern about for its potential harm to parliamentary sovereignty and to public health. It will be… [Read More]
This week EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager issued a ‘statement of objections’ against Russian energy giant Gazprom. The formal document of accusations alleges market abuses by Gazprom, stating that the company has used its dominance of the energy market to prevent EU member states from reselling Russian gas and charging unfair prices to Bulgaria, Poland… [Read More]
Earlier this week, the Conservative’s Jeremy Hunt, Labour’s Andy Burnham, the Lib-Dem Norman Lamb and UKIP’s largely silent Julia Reid attended the Health and Social Care debate at the British Library. Evidently this was to be the ‘defining’ health debate before the general election. The Library’s theatre was packed and included many key individuals and… [Read More]