UK manufacturing is ‘booming again’. The FT have announced that the ‘March of the Makers’ have gotten ‘into their stride’. The reason for this excitement is that the PMI indicator (the Purchasing Managers’ Index) for August has hit a two-and-a-half year high of 57.2. This is above the crucial 50 mark which distinguishes expansion in… [Read More]
Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat MP and former junior Health minister for Care Services until September 2012, has remained active on health and social care since leaving the front bench – in July, for example, it was announced Burstow will chair an independent Commission on Residential Care for the think-tank Demos (incidentally, Demos director David Goodhart… [Read More]
Civitas has taken up the challenge of David Cameron’s proposed EU renegotiation. In a detailed study out today, Glyn Gaskarth examines the breadth of Union powers and describes what the UK should reclaim, and how. He shows that we have ‘considerable diplomatic assets’ as a contributor to the EU budget with a ‘net trade deficit’… [Read More]
The reduction in workless households results less from lower unemployment than from fewer households keeping an adult at home.
Today Dr Christoph Lees, Dr Mark Slack and Dr Paul Charlson of the Doctors’ Policy Research Group (DPRG) have questioned the extent to which the critical idea of Clinical Governance – “A framework through which NHS organisations are accountable for continually improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating… [Read More]
With an estimated £50bn price tag, HS2 is a very expensive version of Marmite. People either love it or hate it. The Institute of Directors has called it a ‘grand folly’ while John Kay says it is ‘high time’ to abandon the scheme and he dismisses the business case for HS2 as not ‘merit[ing] the… [Read More]
On Thursday, the Health Service Journal reported on the possibility that as many as 20 NHS trusts were exploring establishing branches in India, according to former Labour Health Secretary and current UK India Business Council chair Patricia Hewitt. This is under the auspices of the government’s ‘Healthcare UK’ initiative, aiming to raise funds for the… [Read More]
Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble waded into dangerous waters by admitting that Greece may need another bailout at some point next year. Schäuble’s comments came at an election rally in Hamburg earlier this week; German elections are due to be held at the end of next month and the subject of a possible Greek bailout… [Read More]
This morning (22nd August), Radio Gloucestershire (temporary link) broadcast a piece of thoughtful and constructive reporting by Heather Simons. The headline was that public money was funding training courses to teach basic skills like setting an alarm clock, dress for work and catch a bus. Rather than descend into outrage, the programme interviewed Prospect Training… [Read More]
Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson is somewhat known for big ideas, from accepted ones like the Barclays Bikes to more blue-sky ones like the ‘Boris Island’ airport. In an interview on Thursday with the Health Service Journal, the mayor spoke about primary care, public health in the capital (“I want Londoners to live longer, for… [Read More]