Author Archives: Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP

Our time to lead the debate: Employee ownership

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 17th January 2012 - 11:29 am

In the debate on so-called crony capitalism two things are clear. First there is genuine and widespread anger at corporate greed and irresponsible capitalism. Second, politicians from the left have been groping around, without much success, trying to come up with convincing responses. Ed Miliband drew a distinction between producers and predators. But he failed to offer any answers.

We see power and wealth concentrated in the hands of the few – the benefits of success going to those at the top rather than being fairly shared between all those who generated that wealth. Even worse, company bosses too often get …

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Posted in News, Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Tagged and | 10 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes: Why we need to keep an open mind on Hinchingbrooke

By Norman Lamb MP | Thu 17th November 2011 - 11:53 am

Last week’s announcement that the management of Hinchingbrooke Hospital would be transferred to Circle Healthcare was always going to be controversial – a hospital with debts approaching £40million, whose situation had become so perilous that it had to be rescued by an external provider. Both Labour and Unison quickly exclaimed against this as ‘privatisation,’ despite the fact that the Labour Government had initiated the tendering process.

Circle is a 49% employee-owned organisation, different from the traditional private company. It makes them a part-mutual organisation run in the same manner as John Lewis. Put simply, they are part-owned and part-run …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 13 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes… The NHS: safe in our hands

By Norman Lamb MP | Fri 8th April 2011 - 2:55 pm

The NHS is our most treasured institution; designed by a Liberal it is based on a great British idea – that we will care together, collectively for one another in our time of need. Treatment free, when you need it, not when you can afford it. That’s an idea that must never be undermined.

People want to see Liberal Democrats in government protecting and improving the NHS, and this week we have shown that’s exactly what we are doing. The government is pausing – stopping the clock on its NHS reforms to listen, reflect and improve the legislation – in direct …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 27 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Facing the future – the Lib Dem policy approach

By Norman Lamb MP | Mon 23rd August 2010 - 10:45 am

Now is an exciting time for Liberal Democrats. We have the chance to implement ideas in Government – an opportunity denied our predecessors for many decades. For the next five years, instead of contributing ideas from the national sidelines with no real prospect of them ever being adopted, we have a real chance to realise key elements of our agenda. We have all come into politics to make a difference, to be effective. Liberal Democrat Ministers know that they carry the weight of the party’s principles and expectations as they work in coalition with Conservatives.

But even as we …

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Posted in Conference | Tagged | 17 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb: “A Queen’s Speech of which Liberal Democrats can be proud”

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 25th May 2010 - 8:40 pm

It is worth spending a moment reflecting on just how remarkable today’s Queen’s Speech is from a Liberal Democrat perspective.

We have become conditioned to believe that the policies we develop will never be implemented. A good intellectual exercise but nothing more. Yet here we have a programme for government of which we can be proud. It contains an extraordinary list of Liberal Democrat commitments on which we fought the general election.

Right from the start the speech grabs attention:

My Government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.

Who would have dreamt of those words introducing the Queen’s speech just a few weeks ago?

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Posted in News and Parliament | Tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 36 Comments
Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb on the NHS

By Norman Lamb MP | Fri 25th January 2008 - 4:07 pm

Fast approaching its 60th birthday, the NHS is at a crossroads.

We have seen 10 years of heavy investment under Labour – desperately needed after years of chronic Conservative neglect. However, the money came with a merry go round of reform, throwing the service into disarray as staff and patients struggled to cope with constant restructuring.

So, although spending on health has now hit the European average, cancer and stroke survival rates in the UK are still poor compared to much of Europe, while health inequalities have actually widened under Labour. The diagnosis is clear: the centralised state has poorly served the worst off, the very people who need help most of all.

The Tories solution is to reduce accountability even further by creating an unelected quango to control our health service, which would ultimately have the power to close local hospitals. And should we ever really trust the Conservatives to maintain funding for health and social care – particularly given that the priority they chose at their conference last October was a massive cut in inheritance tax for million pound estates?

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 5 Comments
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