Author Archives: Charles West

Opinion: Why the Leader’s letter hardened our Health Bill motion

For a year a group of Liberal Democrats who know something about the NHS and the delivery of healthcare have been working to modify Lansley’s Health Bill with the aim of preventing irreversible damage to the NHS.

Until last week our draft motion still offered the hope of amending the Bill. When we saw Nick’s letter we realised that there was no point.

On preventing competition by price the letter is doubly misleading. David Nicholson warned about this in January 2011 and the Government conceded the point in February. However, even now competition on price has not been completely prevented. Government Peers …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 48 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • William Wallace
    Jana: Investing in strong research and development in key sectors (which is where China is soaring ahead), rebuilding training, apprenticeships and early edu...
  • Russell
    By committing to not raising the 3 main taxes but then raising taxes by over £70bn on stupid taxes Labour have done a lot of unnecessary damage to the UK econo...
  • Jana
    “ …the hard choices required to revive our economy and strengthen our security.” If by hard choices you mean increasing taxes, I agree that that may be...
  • Paul WalterPaul Walter
    Peter, please see my ample answers above. I have made it perfectly clear what I believe. Best wishes, Paul...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Paul, I accept you are agreeing to an extent. A limited extent. "There are ample legal mechanisms for ensuring that the financial settlement with t...