Judge the NHS on its outcomes – not the intentions behind it July 7, 2014 WITH Monty Python at the O2 arena and ongoing coverage of the NHS, I was reminded last week of the Python sketch showing a lady giving birth. Unfortunately for her, the doctors played by John Cleese and Graham Chapman are more interested in impressing the hospital administrator by surrounding her with machinery (like the machine [...]
Why bold action on NHS funding can no longer be avoided June 30, 2014 FEW SUBJECTS generate emotion in UK politics like the funding of the NHS. Warnings of the health service’s imminent collapse are ten a penny, while politicians love to talk about “saving” it. With an election less than a year away, the call by Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (chair of the health select committee) and former [...]
My debate with Piketty: Beware radical policies claiming to be above ideology June 23, 2014 A LACK of authenticity among politicians is a common lament. Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston expressed this conventional wisdom recently when she said: “I think the public dislike the cardboard cut-out, the lobby fodder, the sycophantic [planted] questions [in the Commons].” There’s some truth in this. Nobody likes a lackey. And the turgid “Does my Right [...]
