Author Archives: K B

Opinion: A radical, Liberal and localist alternative to NHS commissioning

By K B | Mon 13th October 2014 - 5:54 pm

nhs sign lrgLast week at Liberal Democrat Conference in Glasgow the party amicably and democratically settled one of its longest-running disagreements, about the way in which NHS services should be commissioned.

This is a subject Liberal Democrats need no introduction to. It has been a thorn in our side ever since Andrew Lansley first published his White Paper, “Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS” (2010), and culminated in Conference’s refusal to endorse the policy in Gateshead in 2012, instead neutering the so-called “Shirley Williams amendment”.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 14 Comments

Opinion: What Andy Burnham didn’t tell you about NHS privatisation

By K B | Sun 17th August 2014 - 8:45 am

nhs sign lrgAndy Burnham’s recent set-piece speech on the NHS, the latest instalment of Labour’s “summer offensive”, opened with a neat bit of scene-setting. By briefly championing a group of Darlington mothers who are presently marching 300 miles in protest at the use of private providers in the NHS, he conjured a mood of protest while subtly co-opting their campaign. Thereafter he sought only to reduce the 2015 general election to a “binary choice” between “a part-privatised, two-tier health market under David Cameron” and “a public, integrated national health and care service under Labour.”

In terms of how he defined that choice, though, Burnham could hardly have done worse than to frame his argument with an example from Cambridgeshire, singling out for particular criticism its attempt to integrate care services for older people.

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , and | 74 Comments
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  • David Blake
    I agree with much of what Richard Cripps says - and I've been a member for 54 years. If I wasn't already a member I'm not sure that what the party has become w...
  • Richard Dickson
    Thanks for this. Kindness - to people, businesses, whole communities, our environment and to nature, to our past, present and future - requires us also to be br...
  • Richard Cripps
    I've been a Lib/Lib Dem voter for 50 years. However, I'm finding it more and more difficult to justify this to friends and family (snd sometimes even myself) as...
  • Steve Trevethan
    P. S. Here is an article from the current edition of "Counterpunch" which may be of relevance and/or interest. https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/23/france...
  • Steve Trevethan
    Thank you for a most incisive article which, so precisely, presents the cruelty and greed of Neolibealim. Would that the L.D Party renounced and denounced Ne...