Tag Archives: paul burstow

The Independent View: World Arthritis Day

By Jamie Hewitt | Published 16th October 2011 - 11:50 am

I suspect few of you know this, but Wednesday was actually World Arthritis Day. For charities in the musculoskeletal sector this can be a pretty big deal, as we jostle to publish new research and try and ensnare policy makers in dialogue.

And so it proved to be when NRAS participated in a live webchat with the Health Minister, Paul Burstow MP, the man with responsibility for long-term conditions, like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Needless to say we were cock-a-hoop that the Minister agreed to participate. He could have quite easily cancelled on us due to all the palaver surrounding the passage of

…

Posted in Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged Ailsa Bosworth, World Arthritis Day | 3 Comments

A messaging mess: what Liberal Democrats are achieving in government

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd September 2011 - 11:55 am

As I wrote in the immediate aftermath of Nick Clegg’s conference speech, the party was much better at saying what it was not and what it was against – not the Conservatives, not unhappy, against tax cheats, against overpaid under-performing company directors and so on – than what it was for.

In theory the answer should have been found in the conference packs handed out to people on arrival at the Birmingham ICC, for inside them was not only an “In government – on your side” leaflet but also three others from different Liberal Democrat ministers, all promoting the party’s …

Posted in Conference, Op-eds | Also tagged chris huhne, ed davey, featured, lynne featherstone, nick clegg, vince cable | 14 Comments

Stephen Gilbert MP writes: How do we deal with the high prevalence of suicides in the LGBT community?

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Published 21st July 2011 - 1:48 pm

We all know how the following story works. Governments use stats to demonstrate the problem. And then they give us their answer. The more shocking the figures, so it goes, the greater the need for bold action. But too often we don’t consider the human impact of these figures.

Let me give you an example. This week I learnt that every two hours one person dies as a result of suicide in England. It is truly harrowing to think that each and every day, so many people feel they have nowhere else to turn and end up taking their lives. We …

Posted in News | Also tagged PACE, suicide | 3 Comments

Our lost phrase: community politics

By Mark Pack | Published 11th June 2011 - 12:28 pm

On a hunch, earlier this year I did a little research ahead of writing a blog post for Liberal Democrat Voice: how often is the phrase “community politics” used by the party’s national spokespeople since the May 2010 election?

The answer was far worse than I’d feared. Looking through all of Nick Clegg’s major speeches, all the news release from him and also all those from others issued via the Liberal Democrat press team, I could only find one use of “community politics” – by Paul Burstow. Andrew Stunell deserves an honourable mention for using it in an LGA pamphlet …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew stunell, bernard greaves, big society, community politics, featured, gordon lishman, nick clegg, tim farron | 8 Comments

What I would have liked to hear Paul Burstow say more of this week

By Mark Pack | Published 2nd June 2011 - 9:57 pm

You might think it’s a small point, and it’s certainly not only applicable to Paul Burstow.

But in all the fallout since Panorama’s harrowing documentary this week, what a shame that so little has been said to praise the whistleblower who didn’t just try blowing the whistle once but again and again until he finally had success.

It’s been good to see Paul Burstow face up to the issue in the media and promise quick action to learn the relevant lessons. But no system is perfect and we’re always going to be reliant on whistleblowers as a crucial safety net.

It’s a …

Posted in News | Also tagged NHS, panorama, terry bryan | 7 Comments

NHS reforms will be altered significantly and in a Lib Dem direction – Paul Burstow

By Mark Pack | Published 22nd May 2011 - 1:50 pm

The NHS Bill will be substantially changed – that was the message from Liberal Democrat MP and Health Minister Paul Burstow at Lewisham Liberal Democrats on Friday night. It won’t just be changed, he said, it will be changed in a distinctively Liberal Democrat direction.

At the heart of the likely changes is the role of Monitor, the proposals for which Paul bluntly said were got wrong first time round. Though he was careful not to directly criticise Andrew Lansley, he did say that the original proposals for Monitor were to adopt the model of regulator used with privatised utilities and …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew lansley, evan harris, featured, lewisham liberal democrats, NHS, nhs reform, shirley williams | 17 Comments

Opinion: Hackney debates NHS

By Prateek Buch | Published 11th May 2011 - 12:38 pm

You would expect that the electoral disaster faced by the Lib Dems last Thursday, with hundreds of councillors losing their seats and the referendum on fairer Votes comprehensively lost, would have overshadowed the weekend’s political activity. Not so in Hackney, where the local party and friends gathered in the sunshine to discuss the apposite question, “what is happening to our NHS?” First to address the issues around the government’s proposed reforms was health Minister Paul Burstow, and in fairness he did begin by paying tribute to the hard-working activists who had to deal with …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged NHS | Leave a comment

Ten comments on Saturday at party conference

By Mark Pack | Published 12th March 2011 - 7:00 pm

1. Being introduced at a meeting or in a debate as a “Minister” is still a plus point, often triggering a round of applause. People at conference like the fact that the party is in government.

2. The Social Liberal Forum (SLF) is growing quickly in influence in the party, partly thanks to a smartly organised set of fringe meetings, amendments and motions. However, the SLF is very keen to repeatedly stress that it is not anti-coalition.

3. The NHS debate was a decision delayed. All sides are happy with the idea that a conference debate is used to set out or …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged caron lindsay, evan harris, featured, lembit opik, nick clegg, shirley williams, social liberal forum, tim farron, vince cable | 14 Comments

PODCAST: (almost) the full NHS debate

By Alex Foster | Published 12th March 2011 - 2:10 pm

Earlier today we brought you Mark Pack’s live coverage of the two key debates happening this morning in Sheffield, followed by his view of the aftermath.

To amplify that, we can now bring you an almost full recording of the debate. Thrill at procedural niceties! Coo at the applause for Baroness Williams! And bask in the self-righteous glow from delegates that no other party still has debates like this.

Apologies that the recording starts halfway through Paul Burstow’s introductory speech. It took longer than expected for me to ~~wake up and eat breakfast~~ clear security at City Hall.

The …

Posted in Conference, Podcasts | Also tagged evan harris, NHS | 1 Comment

Disability Living Allowance and NHS motions: the aftermath

By Mark Pack | Published 12th March 2011 - 12:13 pm

There’s a common theme to the party’s official reactions to both the Disability Living Allowance (Mobility Component) and health reform motions being passed at conference today. That is to welcome the party staking out its own views on the issues, even where they clearly contradict those of Conservative ministers, and for two reasons.

First, it more clearly sets out where the coalition partners disagree on policy. As having a relaxed, adult approach to admitting in public that people in government don’t always agree on everything is something I’ve talked about in the past, this is certainly good to see – and …

Posted in Conference, Op-eds | Also tagged bob russell, NHS, norman lamb, welfare reform | 15 Comments

Conference preview: two of the coalition’s most controversial policies

By Mark Pack | Published 9th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Saturday morning in Sheffield this weekend sees the LibDem conference debating two of the areas of coalition which have generated the most controversy: the NHS and the future of the Disability Living Allowance.

The motion on the Disability Living Allowance (F4) has been slightly overtaken by events as the debate within government over the Welfare Reform Bill develops and in fact the plans in this area have in effect been sent back to the drawing board. That makes the motion all the more important, because rather than being simply a chance to cast a verdict on what the government has …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged andrew wiseman, benefits, featured, NHS, shirley williams, welfare reform, welfare reform bill | 2 Comments

Community politics: is it set to disappear as a core Lib Dem belief?

By Mark Pack | Published 16th February 2011 - 8:55 am

One of the reasons – in fact, probably the main reason – why so many Liberal Democrats are relaxed about the Conservative Party leadership’s enthusiasm for the Big Society idea is the overlap between the Big Society and the traditional Liberal Democrat belief in Community Politics. That’s a topic I wrote about at greater length before Christmas, but what has struck me since is how little senior Liberal Democrats talk about Community Politics now.

Despite the frequent media discussion about the Big Society, which provides an opening to talk about the Liberal Democrat alternative/supplement (delete as you wish), Community …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew stunell, community politics, nick clegg, simon hughes | 22 Comments

New mental health strategy

By Tim Farron MP | Published 3rd February 2011 - 2:55 pm

Mental illness has always been a somewhat taboo subject. Yet 1 in 4 of us will experience some sort of mental health problem in our lifetimes. The first rally I ever helped to organise as an MP in my constituency was to prevent the closure of our local mental health ward at Westmorland General Hospital. You would have thought, with the stigma that surrounds mental health, that turnout would have been fairly low, but on that day back in January 2006 as I marched to save our local mental health services I was joined by over 3000 people. …

Posted in News | Also tagged #whatstigma, mental health | 5 Comments

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