TABLEAU VIVANT

Clegg lives in a different part of the country to the rest of us

2012-03-04T03:04:00.000Z

Nick Clegg yesterday told the Welsh Lib Dem conference in Cardiff that Welsh communities had been let down twice: first by Margaret Thatcher, then by Labour which "kept communities afloat by replacing industrial jobs with public sector jobs".

"And now it falls to us, acting in the national interest, to start to rebuild," Mr Clegg said.

He added: "That's why we have taken the difficult decisions that we have. And it's why we must show the courage to see them through." The UK government was "laying the foundations of a fairer, greener more liberal Wales in a fairer, greener more liberal United Kingdom".

Even if it were, Nick, it would have been no thanks to you.

The privatisation of the police force

2012-03-02T23:49:00.001Z

by Alan Travis and Zoe Williams, the Guardian

Private companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police forces in the country. West Midlands and Surrey have invited bids from G4S and other major security companies on behalf of all forces across England and Wales to take over the delivery of a wide range of services previously carried out by the police.

The contract is the largest on police privatisation so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved. This scale dwarfs the recent £200m contract between Lincolnshire police and G4S, under which half the force's civilian staff are to join the private security company, which will also build and run a police station for the first time.

The home secretary, Theresa May, who has imposed a 20% cut in Whitehall grants on forces, has said frontline policing can be protected by using the private sector to transform services provided to the public, but this is the first clear indication of what that will mean in practice. May said on Thursday that she hoped the "business partnership" programme would be in place next spring. A 26-page "commercial in confidence" contract note seen by the Guardian has been sent to potential bidders to run all services that "can be legally delegated to the private sector". They do not include those that involve the power of arrest and the other duties of a sworn constable.

Companies who have applied through the Bluelight emergency services e-tendering website have been invited to a "bidders' conference" on 14 March, with an anticipated contract start date of next February. The timetable for the programme means it will be subject to final sign-off by the first police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands after their election in November. The existing police authority only gave the go-ahead for the tendering stage last month after a "robust and forthright discussion" which ended with a rare 11-5 split vote.

The joint West Midlands/Surrey "transformation" programme, which has strong backing from the Home Office, looks set to completely redraw the accepted boundaries between public and private and the definition of frontline and back-office policing. The programme has the potential to become the main vehicle for outsourcing police services in England and Wales. It has been pioneered by the West Midlands chief constable, Chris Sims, and Mark Rowley, who has just moved to the Metropolitan police from the post of Surrey chief constable. The pair lead on these matters for the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The breathtaking list of policing activities up for grabs includes investigating crimes, detaining suspects, developing cases, responding to and investigating incidents, supporting victims and witnesses, managing high-risk individuals, patrolling neighbourhoods, managing intelligence, managing engagement with the public, as well as more traditional back-office functions, such as managing forensics, providing legal services, managing the vehicle fleet, finance and human resources.

A West Midlands police authority spokesman said: "Combining with the business sector is aimed at totally transforming the way the force currently does business – improving the service provided to the public. The areas of service listed in this notice are deliberately broad to allow the force to explore the skills, expertise and solutions a partnership could bring." He said not all the activities listed would necessarily be included in the final scope of the contract, but if the force added other activities later a "new and costly procurement exercise" would be needed.

The contract notice does state that "bidders should note that not all these activities will necessarily be included in the final scope, and that each police force will select some activities from these areas where they see the best opportunities for transformation". But the police clearly want to test whether it is possible for new areas of policing to be provided by private companies.

The contract is being offered in two lots, one covering custody services and the second all other services. It envisages that only one company will be awarded the main contract, although a second may run custody services separately. The West Midlands police are already planning to cut 2,764 police jobs over the next three years and this privatisation programme is not designed to meet the immediate budget gaps. The savings are expected to show after 2014.

Ben Priestley, Unison's national office for police and justice, which covers many police civilian staff, said it was alarmed by the programme: "Bringing the private sector into policing is a dangerous experiment with local safety and taxpayers' money," he said. "We are urging police authorities not to fall into the trap of thinking the private sector is the answer to the coalition's cuts. The fact that the Home Office is refusing to publish its business case – even under FOI [the Freedom of Information Act] – speaks for itself.

"Privatisation means that the police will be less accountable to the public. And people will no longer be able to go to the Independent Police Complaints Commission if they have a problem. When a critical incident happens, a force's ability to respond will be severely compromised. The only winners are private companies and shareholders who make profits at the expense of local services."

A number of other forces, including Cleveland, Avon and Somerset, and Cheshire, have been exploring the services that might be offered to the private sector, albeit on a smaller scale. Cleveland police have a 10-year contract with IT firm Steria to provide call handling, front desk staffing, and aspects of the criminal justice system on top of computer services, finance and training. Reliance security runs Cleveland's custody suites.

Avon and Somerset had a contract with IBM, called South West One, which suffered problems in its first three years. Some services are to be taken back in-house. Cheshire has a more traditional contract with Capgemini to provide finance, facilities and fleet management. There is not expected to be any shortage of bidders. When Lincolnshire put its then groundbreaking contract out to tender last March, 12 companies responded with submissions.

The Guardian

Welfare Reform

2012-03-01T04:11:00.002Z

“Your mummy spoils you. So I’m going to take away all of her benefits.”

Cameron hails 'historic step' as Parliament clears the way for controversial welfare reforms

2012-03-01T03:44:00.001Z

Cameron has hailed "an historic step in the biggest welfare revolution in over 60 years" after the Government's controversial reforms cleared Parliament. Peers ended their stand-off with the House of Commons, paving the way for the Welfare Reform Bill to reach the statute book. The legislation brings in a £26,000-a-year household benefits cap and sets up the universal credit.

Cameron said: "These reforms will change lives for the better, giving people the help they need, while backing individual responsibility so that they can escape poverty, not be trapped in it. Past governments have talked about reform, while watching the benefits bill sky-rocket and generations languish on the dole and dependency.

“This Government is delivering it. Our new law will mark the end of the culture that said a life on benefits was an acceptable alternative to work. Today marks an historic step in the biggest welfare revolution in over 60 years. My Government has taken bold action to make work pay, while protecting the vulnerable."

The Bill had a stormy passage through the Lords, with peers inflicting seven defeats on the Government when the legislation was first considered and a further one after MPs had overturned all the setbacks. However, independent crossbencher Lord Best withdrew, without a vote, an amendment on the final point of dispute between the Houses, the so-called bedroom tax which penalises council tenants for under-occupancy, and the Bill will now be sent for Royal Assent.

Cameron said: "While we've been putting in place a sensible, modern welfare system that protects the vulnerable, our opponents have shown they are on the side of Britain's something-for-nothing culture. We've stood up against the abuse that left taxpayers footing the bills for people on £30,000 or even £50,000 a year in benefits. It's a fair principle: a family out of work on benefits shouldn't be paid more than the average family in work."

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne, responding to Mr Cameron's comments, said: "Everyone in Britain believes in sensible welfare reform - and there are ideas in this Bill, like Universal Credit, that build on Labour's tax credits which, for the first time, helped make sure work paid. But, sadly, this new law will hurt millions of families trying to do the right thing and work and save and it crosses a line of basic British decency."

Press Association

Funeral for a friend

2012-02-29T17:23:00.001Z

Photoshop Politics by Dylan Jeavons

The LRC at Brighton Fringe 2012

2012-02-29T11:03:00.001Z

The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) will be making the headlines at the Brighton Fringe this year with a series of events on a range of topics during May 2012.

IN CONVERSATION WITH TONY BENN

And what a way to start the series. Over three weeks, around 675 events will take place during the Fringe but only one of these will bring together Tony Benn, John McDonnell MP and Owen Jones for an afternoon of discussion and questions and answers with the audience.

Tony Benn is a former Cabinet Minister and the longest-ever serving Labour MP. After 50 years in Parliament, he stepped down in 2001 to "spend more time on politics". As well as writing and publishing his diaries, Tony is currently President of the Stop the War Coalition.

John McDonnell is MP for Hayes & Harlington in north-west London and Chair of the LRC. Amongst other posts, John is also Parliamentary Convenor of the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group of ten left-wing trades unions, representing over half a million workers.

Owen Jones is the author of “Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class”. He regularly writes for The Guardian, The Independent and The New Statesman and recently appeared on the BBC’s ‘Question Time’. In September 2011, Owen was voted the most influential left-wing thinker of the year by readers of the Left Foot Forward blog.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to hear from three of Britain’s most prominent socialists on today’s key issues, with only limited tickets available.

2 – 4.30pm Saturday 12 May 2012
Brighthelm Church & Community Centre
North Road Brighton BN1 1YD
£10 waged £5 concessions

Buy online
____

(Details of the other two events will follow shortly)

Andrew Lansley promises 'significant' changes to NHS bill

2012-02-28T21:02:00.000Z

Andrew Lansley has declared that the latest amendments to his controversial NHS reform bill would be "significant". The health secretary was responding to an emergency question from his Labour shadow, Andy Burnham, after the coalition government's apparent confusion over the changes announced on Monday by the Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

In an effort to head off a backlash against the health and social care bill from within his party at its spring conference in March, Clegg wrote to his MPs and peers promising important changes to "rule out beyond doubt any threat of a US-style market in the NHS". However the promise of five new amendments through the House of Lords was undermined by his Conservative coalition partners after Downing Street said that the changes would be "not significant".

On Friday, and at lunchtime on Monday, government ministers had also said there would be no further changes to the bill. Burnham challenged Lansley to tell MPs whether the latest changes were "substantial or cosmetic", and whether they had been agreed by the prime minister and health secretary in advance. "The government appears in complete disarray, or maybe it was … coalition choreography to save face for the deputy prime minister," said Burnham. "The NHS matters too much to leave it to be carved up in cosy coalition deals."

Lansley avoided at least three times answering questions about whether he had been consulted about Clegg's letter. "The point of the letter was to reflect the discussions we have been having," he said in reply to Labour MP Gisela Stuart, apparently referring to the government and the House of Lords, which has discussed amendments in the committee and now report stages. "The amendments to the report would, by their nature, be significant," he added later.

Labour MP Rushanara Ali challenged Lansley on the decision by Tower Hamlets clinical commissioning group, in her constituency, to ask the health secretary to drop the bill. "When the very structures he's establishing to advise him are telling him they don't want to have part to do with this nightmare he's creating, isn't it time to look again and drop the bill?" she asked. Lansley replied: "They will use the powers in this bill and they will use them effectively."

Later Burnham also criticised the decision of the backbench business committee of MPs, which decided not to hold a debate on the e-petition signed by 162,000 people asking for the health bill to be dropped. E-petitions hosted by the government website are eligible to be debated when they are signed by more than 100,000 people.

The Guardian

Cameron avoids French Socialist candidate

2012-02-27T19:17:00.001Z

David Cameron has refused to meet François Hollande, the French presidential hopeful, when the Socialist candidate visits London on Wednesday on a campaigning visit to the hundreds of thousands of ex-pats who have made their home in the British capital. The British prime minister has given his full backing to Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential contest, describing him in an interview with Le Figaro this month as being “a brave politician” with “great leadership qualities”.

Mr Cameron let it be known through the British embassy in Paris that he would not be available to meet Mr Hollande, when he travels to London for a full day of meeting and campaign stops. Downing Street said that the decision was down to protocol, since Mr Cameron does not want to meet candidates during an election period; privately the prime minister's aides admitted he did not want to give any help to Mr Sarkozy’s opponent.

Although Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy have had a tempestuous public relationship, relations are better in private and were forged during the joint Anglo-French military operation in Libya. Meanwhile Mr Hollande has said his “real enemy” is the world of finance, a comment that antagonised Mr Cameron and is unlikely to play well with many of the premier’s potential electors who earn their living in the City of London.

Financial Times

Glasman’s far right views are best kept to himself

2012-02-24T01:44:00.001Z

Prize tit, Maurice Glasman, has pulled back from plans to write a lucrative column for Rupert Murdoch's new Sunday Sun newspaper after talking to Ed Miliband. Miliband's very public stand against Murdoch and his media empire early on in the phone-hacking scandal has been one of his stronger suits in defending his record as Labour leader during months of sniping. Last summer Miliband called for Murdoch's News International, which also owns the Times, Sunday Times and a stake in BSkyB, to be broken up because the owner had "too much power over British public life".

This week, the new paper's executives have been ringing Labour MPs, including Miliband's office, asking for messages of support ahead of its launch this weekend, but MPs were urged by the party leadership not to be seen endorsing an attempt by Murdoch to re-impose his control of the Sunday newspaper mass market. Some Labour members have also been campaigning publicly for supporters to not co-operate with the new newspaper - announced this week as a replacement for the News of the World, which Murdoch closed last year when the extent of the phone hacking began to emerge.

On Thursday, the party issued a statement saying: "We will work and engage with all media organisations. But the Labour party does not endorse any newspaper and we don't endorse the Sunday Sun." Glasman, believed to be in talks with NI about being paid around £1,000 a week for his opinions, strained already soured relations with the party when he wrote an article for New Statesman magazine in January saying Labour appeared to have "no strategy, no narrative and little energy".

News on Wednesday of Glasman's involvement with the new paper was ridiculed by former Labour deputy leader John Prescott, who joked: "I'd be surprised if Maurice Glasman is a columnist for the Sun on Sunday. He's far too rightwing." Labour MP Tom Watson was more direct, tweeting that Glasman "should hang his head in shame". With what now looks like great prescience, Labour blogger Dan Hodges responded on Twitter: "Maurice Glasman has the black spot of Watson upon him. He will be dead by the dawn."

Glasman's decision to withdraw from his column did not emerge until the evening, but the Sunday Sun's nearly-scoop barely lasted a 24-hour news cycle.

The Guardian (with amendments)

Bercow couldn’t give a fig

2012-02-24T01:35:00.001Z

A £30,000-a-year contract to rent a dozen fig trees for an MPs' office block must be ended as soon as possible, Commons speaker John Bercow has said. He said he had been horrified to find out the cost of the Portcullis House greenery and that the taxpayer was being "fleeced". The deal has been in place for 12 years and covers care and maintenance of the trees, which shade dining areas in the building's glass-topped atrium.

In an interview with The House magazine, he said: "I was horrified by it. Inevitably and understandably it will cause people out there to think these people are living in another universe. "I think the contract should absolutely be revisited. If we are going to have trees, they absolutely shouldn't be trees that cause us to fleece the taxpayer in this way, and that must change at the earliest opportunity. If there is a contract and it's going to cost us more to get out of it immediately than not, then it may well have to wait. But should the present arrangement continue beyond September? Absolutely not."

The Guardian

Syria (Don’t just sit there)

2012-02-24T01:20:00.001Z

Steve Bell, the Guardian

Everything you need to know about NHS reform in five minutes

2012-02-23T14:42:00.001Z

The agonisingly tortuous progress of the government's health and social care bill has made the coalition's NHS reform agenda one of its most controversial. Here's a quick overview of the proposed changes - and the bitter, protracted battle over the government's ideas.

What's all the fuss about?
Something, so the cliché goes, has got to be done. Whoever was in government in this parliament would have to shake up the NHS' structures to a certain extent, to help the health service cope with dramatically changing demands on its services. We're all getting older. So less hospital treatment, for example, is critical as the ageing population demands more care in the home.

On top of this comes financial pressure. The coalition protected NHS spending in real terms in its comprehensive spending review, but is forcing through £20 billion of efficiency measures by 2015 to redistribute the savings more effectively. Not a straightforward context, then, for the decisions made by the 2010-15 government.

That government's proposals were unveiled for the first time in August 2010. They were, to put it mildly, something of a surprise. The Conservative general election manifesto had promised no top-down reorganisation of the NHS. How surprised we all were, therefore, when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, with Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley at the helm, proposed exactly that.

Rather than let know-it-all managers make decisions about which resources should go where, ministers proposed handing the power to commission services to consortia of GPs. Some GPs liked the idea of this extra work. Others were appalled. What mattered, the government insisted, was the end result: the creation of a market dynamic within the NHS, reformed and shorn of its primary care trusts. At the heart of the coalition's proposals were moves to make competition the driver of more effective health services.

Contested competition
This wasn't the first time the NHS got itself worked up over the benefits and perils posed by competition. Kenneth Clarke's drive in the early 90s to introduce internal markets to the health service prompted massive anger from health organisations. It's no surprise that these are the same ones now fighting Lansley's changes. As the head of the BMA, Dr Hamish Meldrum, explained in May 2011, what's happening today is "almost part of the same argument, the same battle if you like, the same disagreement on how best to organise and make the NHS run more efficiently".

The coalition did not expect the levels of resistance which they have encountered. Their thinking was that these moves towards choice and competition were actually extensions to the piecemeal changes pushed through by the New Labour government. Yes, the coalition wanted to accelerate this shift towards the private sector - but the reforms were not coming completely out of the blue.

That did not stop them attracting huge opposition. For many, the proposal to give healthcare regulator Monitor responsibility for promoting competition at the expense of all else proved a step too far. It summed up the government's thinking, excited by the possibilities offered by innovative new providers and greater choice. Many feared that such untrammelled market factors would only lead to some losing out - and overall standards of patient care suffering.

The unprecedented 'listening pause' - and how it didn't work
It had never really been done before. But, taking advantage of the extra-long first parliamentary session, on April 6th 2011 the coalition announced a 'listening exercise' in which it would reconsider key parts of the bill. Two months later, on June 14th, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Lansley put on a brave face as they presided over massive concessions. Monitor's competition duty was scrapped. Instead choice and competition would rely on pre-existing competition panels, rather than being embedded in its day-to-day operations. The pace of the changes was also slowed - no more scrapping of PCTs by 2013 - and the role of the proposed national NHS board was expanded.

These were big adjustments - a humiliating experience for Lansley and Cameron. Less so for Nick Clegg, who was able to paint the changes as being the direct result of Lib Dem influence in the coalition. This was a painful episode for the government, but it genuinely hoped to have ended the debate. As the summer of 2011 slowly progressed, it looked like the NHS reform furore had finally subsided.

How wrong the optimists were. The listening pause was a hugely punishing hors d'oeuvre for the main event. Lib Dems, led by veteran Shirley Williams, made clear at the party's autumn conference they would not budge an inch on a vast swathe of remaining objections - including the legislation's rather vague approach to who is actually responsible for the NHS. Throughout the autumn the health and social care bill dragged its way through the Lords. The reforms remained a huge headache for the government.

An unfinished war of attrition?
As 2012 began the situation looked bad. But it was about to get worse as, in mid-January, campaigners sarcastically marked the first anniversary of the legislation's arrival in parliament. Groups like the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Midwives, which had previously been happy to work with the government to improve the bill, decided it was better if ministers now scrapped it completely.

The first weeks of the year were seeing a new crisis for Lansley and co. So, in another sizeable set of concessions, they tabled 137 amendments to the health and social care bill in early February. Demands to clarify the ultimate responsibility of the secretary of state for the NHS were met. So too were measures involving greater patient involvement, better arrangements for education and training, extra measures to tackle health inequalities and strengthened integration between NHS services.

Was this enough? Not really. Ed Miliband began returning to the issue again and again in prime minister's questions, effectively using the controversy to lift his struggling leadership. There was a real sense that these reforms might falter, after all.

But the stakes remained high. Following the listening pause, the Lib Dems were more closely tied into these reforms than they had been before. Such was their significance that a failure to push them through would be a hammer blow to the government. Perhaps this explains why ministers are now refusing to back down, in the teeth of huge opposition. The long, attritional fight shows no signs of ending soon. The government's resolve may be teetering, but it has not yet collapsed. Will ministers be able to hold on until the bitter end?

Alex Stevenson, politics.co.uk

Third year of pay freeze for 1.6 million council staff

2012-02-23T13:46:00.001Z

Around 1.6 million council workers are to have their pay frozen for a third year in a row, local authority employers announced today. The "unprecedented" move affects workers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland and was blamed on rising costs and shrinking funding for council services. Employers said increasing pay would mean more job losses and further cuts to services, but unions said the announcement was a "disgrace".

Local authority leaders were warned they faced the threat of industrial action if they did not agree to take the pay issue to arbitration. Sarah Messenger, head of workforce at the Local Government Association, said: "This has been a very difficult decision to make but it is the right one for council taxpayers and the workforce as a whole. A combination of rising costs and shrinking local government funding means councils were left with little choice. Increasing pay would mean more job losses and cuts to the services people need.

“Today's announcement represents an unprecedented third consecutive year of pay freeze and we recognise the frustration which will be felt by the workforce. While the financial outlook for councils is bleak, we are keen to begin discussions with the unions on a package of reform of pay and conditions that may enable us to avoid a fourth year of pay freeze in 2013."

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB, said the union would consult its members over industrial action if employers refused to go to arbitration. He said: "The politicians who lead local councils are a disgrace to the workforces they employ for offering no pay rise for the third consecutive year while feathering their own nests. Council leaders' pay has shot up and councillors vote themselves higher allowances while the carers, dinner ladies, dustmen, social workers, school support staff and all the other council workers serving their communities will have seen their pay fall in real terms by over 15%.

“The Chancellor promised the country in the 2010 budget that low-paid public sector workers would be afforded some protection against the cuts so will he rein in the Conservative-controlled council leaders who have made a mockery of that promise? Council workers are the lowest paid in the public sector but are the only ones not to be offered even the minimum £250 the Government guaranteed.

“This three-year pay freeze is not an austerity measure, it is a deliberate political choice by local government politicians who want to win votes by keeping their workforces' pay at poverty levels to fund council tax freezes." Mr Strutton said today's announcement came as a "shock", adding: "I don't know any other workforce in the economy that has had to bear this and 150,000 job losses and cuts to terms and conditions."

Unison's head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said: "Many local government workers are in work, but in poverty. It is a disgrace that pay will be frozen for the third year running, forcing even more into the poverty trap. Many of them will be women working in vital jobs in our local communities, like caring for the elderly, or for young children, or helping the vulnerable.

"Not even the lowest paid in local government will get the £250 increase the Chancellor promised them. They didn't get it last year either. Families can no longer cope. This cannot go on - councils do have other choices such as increasing council tax, or using their considerable reserves. The employers must think again, and at the very least come through with the £250 minimum increase for the lowest paid."

Unite national officer Peter Allenson said: "Local government workers are under sustained attack. "Staff have endured a decade of below inflation pay increases and freezes. Now attacks on pensions, conditions and massive job cuts have heaped misery upon misery. It is time that local government employers face the fact that they have a crisis on their hands. Failure to act will push even more workers into poverty and damage local government services.

"Staff need a substantial pay increase this year. Unite will be meeting its activists across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and fully supports its members in any action they are prepared to take for pay justice."

The Independent

Eric Joyce arrested after attacking Tories in Commons bar

2012-02-23T13:15:00.001Z

Labour MP Eric Joyce was arrested last night after allegations of an assault in a House of Commons bar.

Stuart Andrew, Tory MP for Pudsey, was reportedly head-butted and punched in the Strangers Bar, a Commons bar reserved for MPs and their guests. Joyce then started punching other Conservative members seated at the back of the bar. Drinks were also allegedly thrown over some bar patrons.

Joyce has been suspended from the Labour Party until the completion of a police investigation, however he remains MP for Falkirk.

Suspended? For lashing out at Conservatives?! Make him leader of the Labour party, for Christ’s sake!

NHS performing so well it does not need radical reform, study concludes

2012-02-23T09:25:00.001Z

The NHS is performing so well that it does not need to undergo the radical transformation planned by the coalition, according to a new study published by the British Medical Journal.

While the health service in England has some weaknesses, it should be left to continue making improvements that began when Labour was in power, and not face another massive upheaval, an analysis by health researchers led by Professor David Ingleby of Utrecht University in the Netherlands concluded.

Their findings "do not support complacency about the current performance of the health system in the UK", the authors stress. "They do, however, cast serious doubt on any claim that there is widespread popular support for radical reform.

"Improvements are needed, but continuation and expansion of the measures already set in motion – more of the same – seems to be a better formula than totally rebuilding a system that, by international standards, already works remarkably well."

The researchers based their findings on two recent Commonwealth Fund reports comparing the NHS's performance across the UK, and patients' perceptions of it, with that of the health systems of 13 other countries.

"The main messages are that the NHS outperforms other high income countries on many measures, despite spending less than most of them; it enjoys the highest levels of public confidence and satisfaction of all the countries studied; [and] the effects of increased investment and policy improvements over the past decade are clearly visible," said Ingleby.

But while healthcare is more accessible, better organised, safer and more patient-centred in the NHS than elsewhere, ongoing concern about some of the clinical outcomes it achieves in patients is a worry, they say. "Three measures warrant particular concern: deaths amenable to healthcare; survival rates for breast cancer; and survival after acute myocardial infarction," they add.

The Department of Health said the NHS could not be allowed to stand still. "This analysis highlights concerns around clinical outcomes, and the fact the current system has to improve. Separately, another report from Age UK and the National Osteoporosis Society today said our reforms could improve patient care," said a spokesman.

"The independent NHS Future Forum confirmed that every health system in the developed world faces the same challenges, but that they won't be met by the NHS doing more of the same. That is why our plans will hand power to GPs, put patients at the heart of the NHS, and reduce needless bureaucracy."

The Guardian

Korean firm wins MoD contract for next generation tankers

2012-02-23T09:10:00.001Z

The Royal Navy's next generation of support tankers is to be built in South Korea. Defence equipment minister Peter Luff said Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering has been chosen as the Government's preferred bidder to build the four 37,000-tonne vessels costing £452 million.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that although a number of British companies took part in the competition, none submitted a final bid for the build contract. UK firms will however benefit from associated contracts - including the provision of key systems and equipment - worth £150 million. The winning design for the ships is by the British company BMT Defence Services.

"The Government remains committed to building complex warships in UK shipyards," Mr Luff said. The MoD's chief of defence materiel, Bernard Gray, said the competition for the contract had "sought to engage shipbuilders from across the globe. I believe the winning bidder's solution will offer the UK the best value for money."

The four Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability (Mars) tankers will maintain the Navy's ability to refuel warships at sea and will provide support for amphibious, land and air forces. At more than 200 metres in length, each ship is as long as 14 double-decker buses and can pump enough fuel to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools in an hour.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said: "This is more bad news for British industry. First we lose out to France over fast jets and now we lose out to South Korea over Royal Navy tankers."

Press Association

Cameron's top ten LIES about the NHS

2012-02-23T08:38:00.005Z

1. “We will stop the top-down reorganisation of the NHS” - Election campaign

LIAR! The Tories are pushing through the biggest top-down reorganisation of the NHS in its history.

2. “We will increase health spending every year” - Conservative manifesto, April 2010

LIAR! A Nuffield Trust study shows a “real terms reduction of 0.5% over next four years”.

3. “We’ll ensure waiting times are kept low” - June 2011

LIAR! Patients waiting longer than 18-week guarantee are up by 34%.

4. “We will save the maternity and A&E units at Chase Farm Hospital, London” - 2007

LIAR! Health Secretary announced the units would be downgraded last November.

5. Royal Colleges of General Practitioners, Physicians and Nursing “all supported” his health reforms - September 2010

LIAR! All three oppose the reforms.

6. “We will increase the number of midwives by 3,000” - January 2010

LIAR! The Government has cut the training places for nurses and midwives.

7. “We will not endanger universal coverage — we will make sure it remains a National Health Service” - June 2011

LIAR! The health service has already begun breaking up into local GP commissioning groups.

8. Reforms were needed as there were 5,000-10,000 needless cancer deaths a year compared to other EU countries

LIAR! The NHS has helped achieve the biggest drop in cancer deaths among 10 leading countries.

9. “We are not reorganising the bureaucracy of the NHS, we are abolishing bureaucracy” - March 2011

LIAR! The NHS will be saddled with even MORE bureaucracy with hundreds of new bodies set up to replace sacked managers.

10. “The Government is fully behind the Health Bill” - Prime Minister’s official spokesman

LIAR! Three Tory ministers have come out against it.

Courtesy of the Mirror [with a few adjustments]

Quantitative

2012-02-10T02:55:00.000Z

Martin Rowson, the Guardian

News of the World pays £20,000 for photo it decides not to publish. Why?

2012-02-10T01:49:00.001Z

Sources who worked at the News of the World have confirmed an allegation, made at the Leveson inquiry by maverick blogger Paul Staines, that the paper paid him £20,000 to buy up a photograph of a special adviser to the foreign secretary, William Hague, which they subsequently never published. [Hmmm,who was in the background? - al]

Staines's claim is potentially explosive because the now-disgraced former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, was acting at the time as the Cameron government's press adviser, and is likely to have been involved in what proved to be a successful battle to save Hague's job.

The photograph was bought at the height of a controversy about Hague sharing a hotel room during campaigns with a 25-year-old special adviser. Hague was forced to issue a detailed statement denying he had had a gay relationship, and the recently appointed adviser, Chris Myers, resigned.

Staines, who runs a gossip site under the name Guido Fawkes, told Lord Justice Leveson in sworn testimony: "We also had pictures of the special adviser in a gay bar … We took the photos to the News of the World. They bought them for £20,000 and never published them. I don't know very much but I know you don't pay £20,000 for photos not to publish. The News of the World was in regular contact with Downing Street, and perhaps to curry favour or for whatever reasons, they chose to buy up those pictures and take them off the market."

News International, the owners of the defunct tabloid, declined to comment on the allegations, saying they were not prepared to disclose details of payments made. However, two former executives at the paper confirmed the deal, on condition of anonymity. They said the purchase was negotiated via the paper's political staff and authorised by the editor, Colin Myler.

One source claimed Myler bought the picture in order to "keep it off the market for a week" because he was planning to expose allegations of spot-fixing at Pakistan cricket matches and wanted it to dominate the headlines that week. But, according to Staines's testimony, he sold the photograph the week after the cricket story, which ran on Sunday 29 August 2010, along with printouts of on-line chat from a website.

The following week, after a statement by Hague describing his happy marriage and denying any gay relationships, every Sunday paper bar one carried news stories about the issue, with speculation about the foreign secretary's future.

The sole exception was the News of the World.

[Funny that – al]

The Guardian [et al]

Boris Johnson given '£90m election bung' by government, says Labour

2012-02-09T01:26:00.001Z

Labour has accused the government of giving London mayor Boris Johnson a £90m "bung" to help get him re-elected. The Metropolitan Police is to get the money partly to cover the cost of dealing with the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee this summer. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons other forces were facing cuts of up to 20%. Police minister Nick Herbert said it was a coalition government and that both parties would field candidates.

'Lovely jubbly'

Ms Cooper made the comments during a debate on plans which she said would see the loss of 16,000 police officers across England and Wales. She said: "Force after force is seeing big cuts next year except in London. So three months before the mayoral election, and three weeks after the polls show Boris Johnson falling behind, the government suddenly decides to reopen the budget for London... suddenly decides to come up with a pre-election £90m bung. The London Mayor has spent years cutting the Met, cutting the number of officers in London and suddenly the Conservative Party have panicked and are trying to bail him out."

During the debate, Mr Herbert said numbers were not the only factor in improving front line policing. He then asked Ms Cooper: "Can you tell me clearly whether or not you support the increase in funding for the Metropolitan Police this year, yes or no?" In reply, Ms Cooper said Labour did support extra funding for Scotland Yard, but also for all the other forces in England and Wales.

She continued: "You have to wonder, what do the chief constables in other parts of the country have to do in order to get a break? Put on a blond wig, jump on a bike, and become a struggling Tory candidate in order to get the money they need? The truth is, the home secretary should be concerned about public safety rather than just the safety of Boris Johnson."

Mr Herbert had earlier told MPs the changes to the police grant were necessary and good reforms as savings of £2bn a year were needed. The government won the vote on the 2012/13 Police Grant by 298 votes to 228, a majority of 70.

BBC News

2012-02-06T02:51:00.002Z

Labour calls for cross-party campaign to block Andrew Lansley's health reform bill

Martin Rowson, the Guardian

Welfare bill in tatters after Lords’ savaging

2012-01-11T22:32:00.002Z

Ministers have been humiliated in the House of Lords over their plans for sweeping changes to the benefit system, suffering three defeats in a single evening in a concerted rebellion that leaves the government’s bill in tatters.

Peers voted decisively to exempt people who have been disabled from a young age and people recovering from cancer from key parts of the government reforms. And in a result that had not been predicted, they also voted to extend the length of time people could continue to claim employment support allowance without being means tested. Government officials claim the move to extend the limit from one year to two would cost £1.6bn over five years.

Liam Byrne, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The government have been defeated tonight because, quite simply, they tried to cross the basic line of British decency. For months, Labour has been determined to stop this cruel attack on cancer patients in its tracks. And today the House of Lords agreed. The government’s proposal to cut paid-for benefits for people still in chemotherapy crosses the basic test of fairness.”

Ministers had planned to place stricter limits on who can claim employment and support allowance, which is paid to people who are too sick or disabled to work. They planned to limit the amount of time people could claim ESA without being means tested to one year, but by voting for exemptions for cancer patients, young disabled people and an overall extension of the time limit, peers have set back those plans significantly.

Lord Mackenzie, the Labour work and pensions spokesman in the Lords said: “We have accepted with some reluctance that there could be a time limit on ESA, but the time limit would have to reasonably reflect a sufficient time period for people to overcome their illness or disability, sufficient to be able to access employment.” He said the one-year time limit was an “arbitrary figure”.

David Cameron had previously been tripped up in the Commons over the government’s refusal to exempt those recovering from cancer from the reforms, measures Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, claimed would cost 7,000 cancer patients £94 per week.

Wednesday’s rebellions mean the government has now been defeated four times on its welfare bill in the Lords, after Labour joined 13 Liberal Democrat rebels before Christmas to reject a plan to reduce housing benefit for families with spare bedrooms in their homes. Officials in the department for work and pensions will now have to come to a compromise with peers to avoid the legislation becoming bogged down or bouncing constantly between the two chambers.

The scale of the defeat particularly surprised government insiders. The exemption for young disabled people was carried with a majority of 44, that for people receiving treatment for cancer gained a majority of 56 and the overall time limit on ESA was defeated by 48 votes. A DWP spokesman said: “The time-limit of one year strikes the best balance between recognising that some people need extra help to enter the workplace and that the taxpayer cannot afford to support people indefinitely who could be in employment.”

Kiran Stacey, Financial Times

Bryan Ferry marries Amanda Sheppard

2012-01-11T08:33:00.000Z

Bryan Ferry married his girlfriend, Amanda Sheppard, at Amanyara beach resort on the Turks and Caicos Islands on 4th January. The two are thought to be delighted at the prospect of spending what's left of Bryan's lifetime together.

25th January is Peter Tatchell Day, announces Pink News

2012-01-09T11:05:00.000Z

To mark the 60th birthday of "our most iconic human rights campaigner", Pink News has named Wednesday 25 January 'Peter Tatchell Day'. To celebrate the day, they will look back at the enormous contribution Peter Tatchell has made to the fight for equal gay rights and human rights in general across the UK and abroad with contributions from all around the globe. Late January will also mark 45 years of human rights campaigning by the naturalised Briton, and 10 years since the Peter Tatchell Foundation was originally launched.

For the day, all advertising space on the Pink News website and email newsletter will be donated to the Peter Tatchell Foundation, which promotes and protects human rights in the UK and globally. The foundation will use the estimated 300,000 spots (of varying sizes and locations) to raise awareness of its campaigns and to recruit new donors.

More importantly, for the rest of Peter’s 60th birthday year, Pink News will donate advertising on at least one spot on every piece of content on the Pink News website to the foundation as well as space on their iPhone/iPad apps. It is hoped that in total 41 million advertisements will be shown to mark the 41 years since Mr Tatchell first joined the London Gay Liberation Front.

Born in Australia in 1952, he began his career as a campaigner at the age of 15 by opposing the death penalty. Two years later, he realised he was gay and two years after that was bound for England because he objected to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war and was not willing to be to drafted.

In 45 years of non-violent human rights campaigning, Mr Tatchell has been arrested hundreds of times, but only one conviction has been upheld. Convicted under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860, he received a fine of £18.60 for interrupting the 1998 Easter Sermon of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, in protest at his support for homophobic discrimination.

Today, Mr Tatchell said: “I am immensely grateful to Benjamin Cohen and the rest of the PinkNews team for their support and generosity. This advertising blitz will increase awareness of our human rights work and raise much-needed funds.

“The Peter Tatchell Foundation has no organised funding. Donations from readers will help us continue our campaign for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty for gay sex, and assist our efforts to win same-sex marriage, football without homophobia and the decriminalisation of homosexuality throughout the Commonwealth.

“My message to everyone is very simple: Don’t accept the world as it is. Dream of what the world could be – and then help make it happen.”

Pink News

Cameron orders merger of health and social care

2012-01-05T01:46:00.001Z

David Cameron has ordered health and social care services to be brought together in order to benefit patients in a move which government advisers are calling the NHS's most urgent overhaul. At the moment, health and social care – the help given mainly to old or disabled patients to help them continue to live at home rather than in hospital or nursing homes – are different systems in England. Cameron made integration one of his five "personal NHS guarantees" last year.

NHS medical treatment and domiciliary support, which is provided mainly by local councils, are usually not joined-up. However, Cameron has told the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to drive through changes that health policy experts claim will make life more convenient for patients, improve care and save the NHS money. The changes will lead to some hospitals closing, warned the pro-integration NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals and other major NHS employers.

The prime minister has been persuaded by senior doctors and Downing Street health advisers that, without integration, the NHS could become unsustainable due to rises in the number of patients with long-term health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and breathing problems. The first move towards creating joined-up services is likely to see Lansley tell the NHS that it has to give integration the same priority that keeping waiting lists under control has had for the last decade.

That new target is the key recommendation of a new report on integrating care by the King's Fund and Nuffield Trust health think-tank's, whose chief executives both advise Downing Street. They want the introduction of "a clear, ambitious and measurable goal to improve the experience of patients and service users, and to be delivered by a defined date. This goal would serve a similar purpose to the aim of delivering a maximum waiting time of 18 weeks for patients receiving hospital care."

The new duty would oblige providers of medical care to start working closely with social care providers in order to streamline the care patients receive, ensure they have to deal with fewer organisations and departments and deliver more care in community settings rather than hospitals.

Cameron is also keen on the other suggestions in the report, according to well-placed NHS sources. They include new guarantees that patients will receive an agreed care plan and a named case manager responsible for co-ordinating care for all their needs, and changes to the existing "tariff" system – where hospitals are paid for providing episodes of care – to favour the planning and delivery of ongoing programmes of joined-up care for people with complex health and welfare needs.

The confederation's deputy policy director, Jo Webber, said: "Integrating care will improve services, particularly for people who are frail and those with long term conditions. But it will also involve making some really difficult decisions as hospital activity is reduced and moved into the community. Integration will take a long time to bed down and start improving the quality of care patients receive. Integration will produce more sustainable models of care in the long term but many local initiatives could mean new services being run in tandem while old ones are shut, which could be more expensive in the short term."

In addition, "fundamental reform of social care" – which the charity Age UK said was "an absolute disaster" – was vital, otherwise integration would not work, Webber said. Achieving joined-up services "will require significant political courage and leadership." Health and social care is already integrated in Northern Ireland and a few parts of England, such as Torbay in Devon, and patients generally report greater happiness with their care where it exists.

The care services minister Paul Burstow said: "Integrated care should be the norm. That's why we asked the NHS Future Forum to specifically work on the issue. Our ambition for the NHS and social care is a simple one – to achieve better results for people and carers. So our priority is to orientate the whole system around patients, service users and carers through our Outcomes Framework."

Andy Burnham MP, the shadow health secretary, backed the report and said it was further proof that the government should drop its health and social care bill, which would set back the cause of integration by 10 years.

The Guardian