Though the Department of Health budget was nominally ‘ring-fenced’, the NHS currently faces perhaps the biggest funding challenge in its history, as the service tightens its belt and the cost of the current reorganisation and long-term cost pressures (ageing, obesity, drugs & technology) bite. It is against this backdrop that The King’s Fund and IPSOS-MORI… [Read More]
A new Civitas publication highlights the contradictions in David Cameron’s Bloomberg Speech. All but hardened Eurosceptics tend to feel that whatever the EU’s problems, the single market is an international boon. This may not be the case.
The death of Margaret Thatcher this week has brought on a plethora of tributes and articles about how her staunch policies drastically changed the landscape of British politics. Her premiership, from 1979-1990, saw vast changes in Britain’s economic policy, the curtailing of trade union power and the reduction of state intervention in the lives of… [Read More]
Some forms of anti-social behaviour appear to be decreasing, but drunken rowdiness is still a concern. How much it troubles you depends in part on which newspaper you read.
In all the discussion of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy since her passing, few have commented on the discrepancy between rhetoric and action during her time in government. Whether it is viewed with whole hearted approval or utter disdain, it is commonly assumed that Thatcher’s economic policy involved nothing but rapid privatisation, deregulation, tax-cutting and a stoically… [Read More]
An interesting piece in the GP magazine Pulse today, written by former GP and integrated health expert Jonathan Shapiro, argues the case for better integration between acute and community care in the NHS – “as long as the funding streams of hospital and community care are handled separately, and the incentives for the preferred outcomes… [Read More]
In the EU’s Council of Ministers there has been a longstanding “gentlemen’s agreement” between Britain, France and Germany that the majority would not collude to force through regulations which are clearly against the minority’s key interests. Germany and Britain let France lead on the Common Agricultural Policy. Britain and France follow the Germans when it… [Read More]
EU leaders have accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of passing a series of constitutional amendments that threaten the democratic checks and balances of the country. These claims sit uncomfortably within the context of Hungary’s recent political history; the former Communist state was the first to open its borders in 1989, marking the start of… [Read More]
Manufacturing’s contribution to the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is much smaller than services. In 2010, manufacturing’s nominal Gross Value Added (GVA) – which effectively measures a sector’s contribution to national GDP – was £139bn while that of services was £1tn. This statistic often gives the impression that manufacturing is increasingly irrelevant to the UK… [Read More]
As I commented in advance last week, yesterday was a big day for the NHS – 152 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and ten Strategic Health Authorities ceased to exist and 211 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), overseen instead by NHS England (also known as the NHS Commissioning Board), took charge of the commissioning of health services.… [Read More]