Tag Archives: norman lamb

Labour flip-flops on single-sex NHS wards

Labour manifesto, 1997: “work towards the elimination of mixed-sex wards”

Labour health minister Lord Darzi (a practising surgeon), yesterday: “The only way we’re going to have single-sex wards within the NHS is to build the whole of the NHS into single rooms. That is an aspiration that cannot be met.”

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Health, isn’t too impressed: “This is an astonishing admission of failure on an issue of crucial importance to patients. The Government has flip-flopped on this manifesto commitment for over 10 years. We now have a clinician blowing the gaff on a political commitment …

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Norman Lamb on the NHS

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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Vince Cable tops poll for best performing MP

Iain Dale, that paragon of impartial and erudite words of wisdom on UK politics (occasionally, when he’s not being an unthinking Tory loyalist obviously), has published the results of his poll on which MPs have performed best in the last month.

The poll was open to readers of his website who (as Iain acknowledges) are a rather Conservative leaning bunch overall. All of which makes Vince Cable’s result in topping the poll all the more impressive – beating David Cameron into second place.

Overall this is how the Liberal Democrat MPs performed (the scores are average marks):

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How the MPs are lining up (UPDATED)

By popular request, here’s the current list of which Lib Dem MPs have declared for which leadership candidate so far. (Originally compiled with the help of Jonathan Isaby of The Daily Telegraph.)

The list shows that Nick has attracted two MPs who supported Chris as leader in 2006: Greg Mulholland and Stephen Williams; and eight who supported Simon Hughes (all listed below). Chris has attracted one former Ming Campbell backer – Tom Brake – and three MPs who supported Simon Hughes last time.

Eight MPs have stated they will not declare for any candidate; four have yet – so far as I’m aware – to state their intentions.

As we continue to note, the number of MPs who declare for any one candidate is, in one sense, irrelevant: we are a one-member-one-vote party. Clearly, however, MPs’ endorsements will carry some influence with party members, especially among non-activists.

The full list appears below:

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How the MPs are lining up (UPDATED)

I’m grateful to Jonathan Isaby of The Daily Telegraph, who has compiled (and allowed me to reproduce here) his up-to-date list of which Lib Dem MPs have declared for which leadership candidate so far.

Jonathan comments: “Below are my most up-to-date lists, which suggest that Huhne now cannot possibly overtake Clegg in terms of MPs declaring. Brackets state where they went in the 2006 election.”

The list shows that Nick has attracted two MPs who supported Chris as leader in 2006: Greg Mulholland and Stephen Williams; and seven who supported Simon Hughes (all listed below). Chris has attracted one former Ming Campbell backer – Tom Brake – and two MPs who supported Simon Hughes last time.

Nine MPs have stated they will not declare for any candidate; 14 have yet to state their intentions.

As was pointed out in the comments on yesterday’s thread, the number of MPs who declare for any one candidate is, in one sense, irrelevant: we are a one-member-one-vote party. Clearly, however, MPs’ endorsements will carry some influence with party members, especially among non-activists.

It will also influence how the media perceives, and then reports, the strengths of the respective leadership campaigns. Though, of course, being seen as the favourite is not always the most comfortable of positions, as Ming Campbell discovered last time. Lib Dems do love an underdog.

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Lamb: “rat-arsed drunks” should pay A&E bills

You can’t accuse Norman Lamb, Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for health, of slipping out gently his policy proposal that patients needing emergency NHS treatment after becoming drunk or incapacitated by drugs should be charged:

“If you get rat-arsed on a Friday night and get taken to A&E where you are foul and abusive to staff, is it right for the taxpayers to fund your life-saving treatment?”

Though this is perhaps the most eye-catching proposal from Norman – gathering headlines in The Guardian, The Times and BBC.co.uk – it is by no means the only one.

His paper – not Lib Dem policy, but his contribution to the party’s health policy working group – proposes:

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Lamb: charge “rat-arsed drunks” for A&E treatment

Let’s not accuse Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Health, of gently slipping out his latest policy proposal – that patients needing emergency NHS treatment after becoming drunk or incapacitated by drugs would be charged:

“If you get rat-arsed on a Friday night and get taken to A&E where you are foul and abusive to staff, is it right for the taxpayers to fund your life-saving treatment?”

The Guardian reports that, “The proposals are understood to have strong support from Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem leader.”

Perhaps the more significant aspects of the proposals, though, are contained …

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‘Being Norman Lamb’ in the Staggers

The New Statesman blog devotes a column to the Norman Lamb Facebook saga:

In an unprecedented turn of events, the blogosphere was focused on East Anglia for much of this week. Recent reports of identity thieves finding a rich resource on Facebook were highlighted in the ongoing saga involving the profile on the social networking site of Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb. A brief history of which is covered at Lib Dem Voice.

The same IP address was shown to be responsible for tampering with Lamb’s Wikipedia entry and also uploading an anti-Lib Dem video on YouTube. Various

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Norman Lamb and Facebook: descent into farce

OK, this started off rather seriously – someone faking a Norman Lamb MP profile on Facebook.

It then got rather bizarre when the computer used to send emails out from the linked fake Hotmail address was also used to post comments from eight different aliases to this site trying to shift the blame to UKIP, Labour and the Liberal Democrats (but never the Conservatives).

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have … a new “Norman Lamb MP Fanclub” Facebook group from one of those twelve aliases!

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Who was the person who faked the Norman Lamb Facebook profile? (Updated)

Assemble the following pieces of evidence about the faking of a Norman Lamb group and profile on Facebook and draw your conclusions:

a. The fake Facebook profile gave as Norman’s email address [email protected]
This isn’t a genuine email address for Norman or any of this staff.

b. Emails have been sent from that email address to various people.

One of the emails stated:

I hope you are impressed about how I have damaged both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidate in one act in my constituency North Norfolk.  I’ve kept it a secret until now because I wasn’t sure if it would work and it has.  Our party should be very proud of me.

This implies either the faker was doing it on behalf of Labour or UKIP, or is trying to deliberately point the finger at them to cover their own tracks.

Another stated:

I setup the profile because I am a great fan of Norman Lamb and I wanted to give him a head start.

This is clearly inconsistent with the previous claim but leads to the same conclusion.

Both emails were sent from the same IP address.

c. The very same IP address was also used to repeatedly vandalised the Norman Lamb profile on Wikipedia and also to add positive references to his Conservative opponent as this record shows. (Click on the entries in the “diff” column to see the edits in question).

Amongst the Wikipedia edits is a plug for this anti-Liberal Democrat film which tries to pass itself off as an official pro-Liberal Democrat film (e.g. in the YouTube description: “Watch the video to find out why you should re-elect the Liberal Democrat run North Norfolk district council.” and the start of the film, which says it is “the Liberal Democrats broadcast for the local elections”).

The same username as that used on YouTube to upload the film – daisydukew – has also been used to make pro-Conservative comments elsewhere online: here and here.

d.The same IP address has also been used to make – deep breath – eleven different comments over four days on Liberal Democrat Voice claiming to be from seven different people (plus a couple of anonymous ones). .

It must be like Piccadilly Circus at that computer!

All of the names given are names that haven’t been used before to post on this site. One thing they all have in common is that where they try to place responsibility for the faking on anyone, it is always someone other than the Conservatives.

Here is the list of comments in all its glory, along with extracts from them:

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Norman Lamb’s fake Facebook profile: update

The Eastern Daily Press today has a fairly lengthy report of the story about the faking of a Norman Lamb profile on Facebook.

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Who has been impersonating Norman Lamb MP online?

Last week, someone set up on Facebook both a fake profile of Norman Lamb MP and a related fake group:

Norman Lamb Facebook profile screenshot

Fake Norman Lamb Facebook group screenshot

Whoever did it, clearly went to some effort, including setting …

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£1.7 million: the price of TB’s farewell

This from today’s Mirror:

TONY Blair entertained celebrity guests as part of his farewell world tour with a string of leaving parties and foreign jaunts that cost taxpayers £1.7million. The former PM racked up a bill of £235,285 on a visit to say goodbye to George Bush and California governor Arnie Schwarzenegger. Mr Blair’s overseas travel came to £1.66million between May 2006 and March 2007.

Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb is scathing:

“Many names on this list reveal the frivolity and celebrity-obsessed nature of the Blair administration.”

But, according to Mr Blair’s former adviser, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, it was all part of the

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Opinion: So just how strongly did the Lib Dems oppose the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill?

“This is unacceptable” said Ming Campbell in an email to party members and supporters on the eve of this bill being given its third reading in the Commons.

But having watched this bill progress through the Commons I’ve not been hugely impressed by the Lib Dem commitment to oppose it.

To take it in stages.  This bill received an unopposed second reading.  I’m not an expert on the minutiae of Parliamentary procedure but according to the committee stages of this bill, it could have been blocked if it had it received an objection from a single member.

The bill then passed to the committee stage.  You would expect that a bill which the party considered to be unacceptable would be strongly opposed at committee stage.

Yet not a single amendment was put.  Not a single vote was called for.

Indeed to read Nick Harvey’s comments there wasn’t even a Lib Dem MP on the committee.

“I agreed to serve on the Committee to provide some of the insight that I have gained through my work on the House of Commons Commission and the Members Estimate Committee. I am not here as a party spokesman; I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that this is a House matter on which Members must make their own judgments. I would not expect party Whips to seek to get involved in it.”

(Nick Harvey – Committee stage – 7th February 2007)

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>> Full details of Lib Dem mini-reshuffle

IN: Lynne Featherstone joins the Shadow Cabinet

Norman Lamb, formerly Chief of Staff to Menzies Campbell, takes on the role of Shadow Health Secretary.

Ed Davey becomes the Leader’s new Chief of Staff, which will be alongside his present role as Chair of Campaigns and Communications.

The DTI portfolio is taken on by Susan Kramer, who passes on the International Development portfolio to Lynne Featherstone, who joins the Shadow Cabinet for the first time.

Steve Webb was promoted to Chair of the Election manifesto team in October. He remains in the Shadow Cabinet.

The rest of the …

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Lib Dems up the pressure on Saudi deal

Liberal Democrat MPs are planning to up the pressure in Parliament over the Government’s controversial decision to drop corruption investigations around the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

(As an aside – perhaps action in Parliament will flush out rather more comment from the Conservatives on this issue, who overall have stayed very, very quiet…).

UPDATE: Simon Hughes has called for action following this case, whilst you can read the views of Norman Lamb (a long time campaigner on this case) here

UPDATE 2: The Liberal Democrat petition calling for an inquiry into the dropping of the Continue reading »

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Review: Britain After Blair – A Liberal Agenda

Britain After Blair“The Son of Orange Book” hasn’t had nearly as fiery a reception as its predecessor. One review described the original as ‘smelling faintly of brimstone’. No rumors of right-wing conspiracies have accompanied this volume. This autumn, the essays are more measured, and the potential future leadership candidates more cautious about what they say.

Stripped of its spin, the Orange Book was less than earth-shattering – and Britain After Blair is much the same. The two defining characteristics of the essays are that they are liberal, and intelligent.  At £10 for 14 essays and a detailed introduction, they are also decent value for money.

That said, some of the essays gave me a faint longing for something more, while a number of them are essentially arguments for existing party policy – cogent, but unadventurous.

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