As the General Election campaign gathers pace all parties are focusing on the future of our NHS and social care, but it is the Liberal Democrats who are setting the agenda.
The announcement of £8 billion of extra funding and thus the challenge to the two big parties to match it, has been met with stunned silence. Combine this with the proposal for a ‘Care Closer to Home Fund’ and you have a party leadership that is getting to grips with what needs to done in this important policy area.
Contrast this with Ed Miliband’s staggering ignorance evidenced by his promise to fund 5,000 extra care workers for the NHS.
Miliband clearly doesn’t realise that care workers are almost exclusively employed by private companies!
Probably quite a few of them on zero hours contracts.
If this isn’t bad enough, the refusal of Labour to do anything in 13 years of government to reform social care speaks volumes about their real intentions.
The Tories are no better.
Cameron’s talk of a seven day a week NHS and GP service shows he knows nothing of the current problems with out of hours provision.
In my area it is virtually impossible to get a Doctor to visit in the evening or at weekends. This puts unecessary pressure on already overstretched A&E departments. I am pretty sure my little corner of Berkshire isn’t unique.
There is still plenty to do to get the health services we need and that is going to become more urgent as demand increases. Some joined up working between the various agencies would be a start. Less bureacracy would help too.
However it is the Lib Dems who are focusing on how we really need to improve things. Without Ministers like Norman Lamb, we would not have the legislation that is now on the statute book.
Commitments to more funding, help for unpaid carers and now the idea for the ‘Care Close to Home Fund’, build on that and are positive steps on the road we need to travel.
* David is a member of Horsham and Crawley Liberal Democrats
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8 Comments
Mmm,
…£8billion extra funding?
… An outlier of a promise, that even though it would be a big vote winner the others are refusing to commit to?
Has “tuition fees” written all over it, don’t you think?
Depends on the voters JRC.
The MPs we have, the more influence we have to push our policies.
Their choice.
(As far as FPTP gives them such a choice…)
Daniel,
Well that will be the excuse again. But just like tuition fees it couldn’t depend less on the voters.
The point is that alone amongst the parties the Lib Dems are recognising what needs to be done and proposing solutions.
As the article states the Tories and Labour just don’t get it.
I suspect this pledge will turn out to be the “increase the income tax threshold” of this election: Lib Dems put it forward, other parties say it can’t be done- by 2020 it will be fully implemented and they will be claiming it was their idea all along!
Well “Generous” George Osborne has announced that HE’S found an extra £8Billion down the back of the sofa. Sadly, for them, neither Osborne nor Hunt can agree on which sofa it is)…
Over the last few days the Tory election campaign seems to have gone from ‘austerity’ to ‘giveaway’ mode without passing through reality….
@David Warren, @expats My take is that the Conservatives have now made a commitment to the £8bn on the assumption that it will be some sort of coalition government they get into, if they get in at all. Their only argument for how they will fund it is “track record so far.” Therefore they seem to be looking to the Lib Dems to work this out for them, assuming they will need/be able to get the requisite help from partnering with Lib Dems at least on this issue.
Well, at least it is the first step towards multi-party solution thinking I have seen in any of the campaigns so far………
Yes they are positive steps in the right direction.
As my article points out leading Lib Dems at least seem to understand what the issues are.
At the last General Election Norman Lamb was the best informed spokesperson by a long way.
Labour’s Burnham just wants to score political points, Lansley was hopeless or should I say hapless.
Jeremy Hunt is no better.